70th Independence Day: Freedom to love

Chennai: Free India doesn't celebrate love - especially if it's between people from different castes. Most men and women who decide to love beyond the caste barriers are ostracised by their families. Some are even killed.  

The highway to love in Free India, like our actual roadways, is filled with potholes and bumps. As India observes its 70th Independence day on Tuesday, it is worthwhile to take a leaf out of S Patti, a non descript village in Tamil Nadu which has been celebrating the kind of love that is not usually favoured in this part of the world.

S Patti, a quaint village in Dharmapuri district has earned a reputation for being a haven for inter-caste love. This, in a district that is notorious for being caste-polarised after riots at Dalit settlements in 2012 after a Dalit man married a caste Hindu woman.

The largest village in the Kongavembu panchayat in Harur taluk, S Patti with over 3,000 votes has more than 50 inter-caste couples, according to the village elders. The commonly used anecdote here is 'one inter caste couple for every family.'

So, how did a village in Northern Tamil Nadu come to be so receptive of love when most of the real estate around it is finding it difficult to come to terms with the idea? According to village elders, the village has been a haven for inter-caste weddings since Independence.

Village elders fondly recall a schoolteacher, Appadurai, who served here in during the 1940's to have a revolutionised the way of living there. Appadurai, also a member of the Communist party of India, is said to have instilled ideologies of Marx and Periyar among the villagers.

That should also answer the first thing any outsider who lands in S Patti notices - kids as young as five addressing each other as ‘Thozhar’ (comrade). So do the elders. “We have been progressive even before Independence and the tradition has continued till now,” R Sugadev, 70, a former member of the Communist Party (M-L) said.

All four of Sugadev's heirs had inter-caste marriage. “For my daughter's wedding, a widow read the vows. The villagers were shocked, naturally,” Sugadev recalled.

The original name of the village is Sakkilipatti, but villagers got the name changed, as it is derogatory. "In 1990, we rallied to change the name to Stalinpuram, but there was not enough support. Hence, S Patti prevailed," said S P Maran, a village elder.

The attention to the village over its progressiveness has its drawbacks too. After a local vernacular daily featured the oldest inter-caste couple in their publication, the lady's relatives cut off relations with the family.

Riots, police excesses, couples backing out at the last minute - the villagers have witnessed them all. But, they are not willing to give up the ingrained ideology of supporting love between two consenting adults. The rationality to celebrate love between two adults despite caste differences has become a part of their DNA, a hyper local culture like the word ‘Thozhar’.