[Reader-list] [Announcements] An appeal to help Dalit Social Revolutionaries

[Shivam]

Dear all, 
Please read this appeal and donate generously. And do pass this on to others.
Thanks
Shivam




AN APPEAL TO HELP DALIT SOCIAL REVOLUTIONARIES 

Ayanreddiyapatti village in Virudhanagar district is a typical
southern Tamil Nadu village. Here, for a long time Dalits (mostly of
the Parayar sub-caste) could not wear footwear, could not wear pants,
could not take water from common wells. Ayanreddiyapatti has 100 Dalit
families, 1000 families of Naickers, and 500 Reddiars families. While
the Reddiars did not bother the Dalits much, the Naickers' sole
purpose in life seemed to be feudally lord over the Dalits. It was not
as if the Dalits were extremely impoverished. Several dalits owned
cultivable land, many held government jobs, some were into business,
and their education level was generally higher than that of the caste
Hindus in the village.

Since the 1990s, the Naickers started taunting and harassing the
dalits even more, seeing that the educated dalits were resisting their
oppression and several untouchability practices. The Naickers would
steal the domestic animals and poultry belonging to Dalits, ravage
their fields just ahead of harvest time, steal their crops, and
generally make life miserable for Dalits. Unlike the Dalits who were
moving into modernity, the Naickers only had feudal power and little
education. Their main source of power was landholding and caste pride.

Since 1990, a group of educated dalit youth — Manoharan (M.Com),
Jayasundar (BA), Anthony, Selvaraj (BA), Dharmaraj, Paandi, Jeyaraj
(M.A) and a few others — were working to create awareness among the
Dalits of Ayanreddiyapatti. Some of them became members of Vidudhalai
Chiruththaigal (literally Liberation Panthers), known in the
English-language press as Dalit Panthers of India (DPI). Since 1995,
the DPI even held meetings in Ayanreddiyapatti much to the
consternation of the Naickers. When Dalits erected a party flag, this
was uprooted; Ambedkar posters were plastered with dung; DPI wall
writings were defaced. The Naickers were most upset when during a
panchayat election in 1997 a Dalit contested for the post of a ward
member.

On 16 January 1997, Vidudhalai Chiruththaigal held a meeting in
Ayanreddiyapatti under the leadership of Thirumavalavan. The DPI then
was not yet a political party and was a social movement led by
Thirumavalavan. DPI had been holding meetings in Ayanreddiyapatti for
three successive years. In the meeting held on 16 January 1997, the
Naickers were told to behave in a humane way towards Dalits, and the
Dalits made it clear to the Naickers that they would not sit back and
suffer humiliation and attacks on their self-respect any longer. 'When
attacked, we'll hit back to defend ourselves' was the message of the
meeting.

On the morning of 18 January, by 7 a.m., the Naickers ganged up to
attack the Dalit settlement to 'teach them a lesson'. The alert Dalits
resisted this advance and prevented the Naickers from entering. In the
ensuing clash, one Naicker oppressor, Pandiarajan (30), was killed. He
was the president of Veerapandia Kattabomman Youth Forum, a Naicker
outfit that ran amok among the Dalits, and was the source of all their
troubles.

26 dalits were accused of the single murder and served 3 months in the
Madurai Central Jail before trial began. Of these, 13 were released
and the remaining 13 were slapped with life sentence in 1999 by the
Srivalliputtur Sessions Court. These 13 Dalit revolutionaries served
another 21 months in the Madurai Central Jail. After an appeal at High
Court, bail was granted only in December 2000 and the 13 Dalits were
released on conditional bail. Currently, the case is being heard in
the Madras High Court and the 13 dalits are being defended by Mr
Suthanthiram, a leading criminal lawyer. The lawyer's fee is Rs 1.5
lakh for defending all the thirteen accused.

The 13 (in the order of accused) are: 

A1. M. Rathinasamy (55); A2. R. Jeyaraj (32); A3. R. Jayasundar (28);
A4. K. Samuel (55); A5. S. Manoharan (28); A6. S. Dharmaraj (38); A7.
S. Ulaganathan (42); A8. Selvaraj (32); A9. Paandi (40); A10. K.
Varadaraj (50); A11. M. Paularaj (52); A12. Anthony (35); A13. V. Raj
(38)

Of these, the first accused M Rathinasamy, a mill worker at the time
of the incident, was a CPI(M) union secretary, who was trying to raise
the Dalit issue within CPI(M). The second and third accused (R.
Jeyaraj and R. Jayasundar) are his sons who were active in Vidudhalai
Chiruththaigal (DPI).

R. Jeyaraj, the second accused, a man out on bail whose life today
hangs in the balance, has continued to be an activist of the Dalit
movement. Before his arrest in the case, he had been a journalist with
several publications and TV channels such as Nakkheeran,
Swadesimitran, Tamizhan Express, Vijay TV and Nila TV. After being
released on bail, he used this experience to help the DPI found its
monthly journal Thaimann in 2001. Today, he is the Editor-in-Charge of
Thaimann, one of the few full-fledged Dalit publications from Tamil
Nadu.

The DPI has formed a three-member committee, headed by N. Elansezhian,
to help raise money for the 13 accused to fight their legal battle.
This is an appeal to all those concerned to contribute to this just
cause for social justice. Those whom the court terms as accused are
social revolutionaries who fought an unjust social order and merely
asserted their right to equality. It is our duty to help them.

Please send your remittance in the form of cheque / Demand Draft in
favour of "N. Elansezhian" who heads the legal committee looking into
the case. N.Elansezhian is also a member of the DPI's central
committee. He can be contacted at (91-44-) 94440-19110. For further
clarifications, contact S. Anand, Chennai at 094440-61256;
navayana at ambedkar.org.

Cheques/ DDs may be sent to: 

"N. ELANSEZHIAN" 
6A/ 4, BRINDAVAN STREET EXTENSION 
WEST MAMBALAM 
CHENNAI 
TAMIL NADU—600033 

Sd/
Ravikumar and S. Anand 
Navayana Publishing 
www.navayana.org 

List of those who have contributed to the corpus till now: 

Fr Raja, Mata Church, Kadapakkam village, Kanchipuram district—Rs 15,000 
V.K.T. Balan, Director, Madura Travels—Rs 5,000 
N. Elansezhian, DPI member—Rs 5,000 
R. Sivapriya, Editor, Orient Longman—Rs. 1,000 
S. Anand, Special Correspondent, Outlook, Chennai; Navayana
Publishing—Rs. 1,000
Ravikumar, Navayana Publishing, Pondicherry—Rs 2,000
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