The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Dalits at receiving end as officials keep off brigand's land

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 20, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Dalits at receiving end as officials keep off brigand's land

By R. Ilangovan

KOLATHUR (SALEM DIST), SEPT. 19. In the land of the forest brigand, Veerappan, the practice of the two-tumbler system continues unhindered.

Absence of an effective enforcement mechanism in the region has emboldened powerful caste Hindus to transform the cluster of remote hamlets and villages of the Kolathur union into a "fertile ground" to practise this form of untouchability. Top officials rarely venture into the area for fear of Veerappan. The presence of the Special Task Force (STF) for decades has effectively prevented Dalit action groups from gaining a foothold here. Isolated groups, however, concentrate on issues of STF victims.

A team of Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadres from the Kolathur union (Marxist) exposed the prevalence of the two-tumbler system in teashops in this area. It carried out a month-long study of the practice in 93 teashops in 54 hamlets and villages falling under 13 village panchayats and a panchayat union. The list of shops has been prepared. "Despite hostile environment, we were able to penetrate the rigid and close-knit social set-up of this highly caste-centred society that has successfully kept untouchability alive for decades," says Mevvai Shanmugaraja, secretary of the Kolathur union of the CPI (M).

He says the social task of fighting untouchability became more arduous, as this pocket for the last three or four decades has been associated with the tag of "Veerappan land," as his village, Gopinatham, is close-by. The media has focussed on Veerappan, the STF and its victims. In the melee, the fight against social oppression, which Dalits in these villages have been undergoing, has long been forgotten.

"It is our fate. We accept the discrimination. They at least give us tea in their shops," says Kannappan, a Dalit. At a time when Dalit political outfits have failed to reach them out, the CPI (M)'s pro-active role has found spontaneous supporters, particularly among the Dalits. The party views this exercise a part of its continuous struggle against oppression.

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