Caste violence a modern reality

The ugly face of caste violence, portrayed so starkly in the video footage of men with sickles chasing a couple in Udumalpet last week, is testament to
the fact that some things have not changed yet in modern India. It was embarrassing to field phone calls from friends and colleagues in the profession from around the country enquiring if things were still like this in Tamil Nadu.

However much we would like to believe that the changing demographics and the awakening brought about by universal education have led to significant progress, the recurrence of atavistic instincts pulls us back to an older  reality.

Those inclined to keeping tabs of such sordid events tell us there have been 81 instances of such dishonourable killings in the last three years in the state. The number is far too high for a people with some claim to cultural sophistication and ancient roots in literature and the arts. The caste system was, however, embedded in our society in an even earlier era and there appears to be no way out of this beastly system imposed on us since Vedic times. The modern avatars of such discrimination are probably as evil as the centuries of ancient discrimination, maybe even worse.

Living in the city, we have no clue as to how deep the discrimination runs. The urban milieu is very different, so too its compulsions that leave little time for anyone to indulge in hate processes that hurt both parties. But, out there in rural TN, huge pockets remain where discrimination is part of everyday life. However much social reformers may have tried and legislators attempted to stop some demeaning practices like the two-tumbler system and dividing walls, such practices tend to go on. Policing them becomes too big a task for forces that have so much else to do.

It is when discrimination descends to barbarism, as it did in the infamous Kizhavenmani village massacre in 1968 when over 40 Dalits were burnt alive in their houses by their landlords that the issue burst into the open. Such horror tales may have trickled down from UP or Bihar in those days, but Tamil Nadu was supposed to be the progressive state in terms of social reforms. Since then, stories of discrimination and caste violence have become commonplace in the hinterland and people living in the capital and ruling the state probably have no clue as to the depth of the problem and how to deal with it.

The history of inter-caste marriages go back a long way in the state. Young couples used to invariably bear the brunt of family tensions and tales of escapades as eloping couples got married in temples used to reach the student community in the city in the ’60s and ’70s. But, it is only in most recent times that hit squads have been sent to set upon such couples with the intent to kill. The Ilavarasan case of four years ago, when the members of a dominant caste set upon Dalits in Dharmapuri district, stabbed the collective conscience like never before. The one instance may have emboldened many to seek such barbarism to separate young people falling in love.

Caste politics has only made it considerably worse. When crazed gangs are willing to murder for paltry sums, there is little the society can do except to hunt them down and lock them up forever. Reformation, which may ultimately allow rural communities to live in peace regardless of caste, is a utopian concept. When politicians willingly stoke caste feelings for vote bank politics, there is little the government can do. Progressive TN will continue to live with its discriminatory practices as well as the backlash reverse discrimination against history. This is not so much a modern conundrum as distinct modern reality.