For more than a decade, the CPI(M) and other mass organisations in Tamil Nadu have been concentrating on movements against caste oppression and for eradication of untouchability. Efforts towards eradication of untouchability have intensified after the formation of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) in May 2007. District units of the TNUEF are present and active in all the 32 districts of Tamil Nadu today. In this interview, P. Sampath, the President of TNUEF, explains the challenge of caste in India, and how the CPI(M) has been trying to address the caste question in Tamil Nadu. [Read more]
Protest in Nagapattinam against Denial of Road Access to Dalit Family
A Dalit family in Seerkali Taluk, Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, was denied road access to take the body of its member to the cremation ground. The CPI(M), along with alliance partners Makkal Nalak Koottani (MNK) protested to remove this roadblock after which the police and revenue officials were forced to clear the road for the family […]
Struggle Committee for Annihilation of Caste holds Maharashtra State Convention
People’s Democracy, February 23, 2014 The first state convention of the Struggle Committee for the Annihilation of Caste (Jaati Anta Sangharsh Samiti) was held at Nagpur on January 25, 2014. The venue was named after Surekha Bhotmange and the hall after Priyanka Bhotmange, the mother and daughter duo who were raped and killed in the […]
Khairlanji verdict blind to dalit cause
Brinda Karat
Four years ago, Surekha Bhotmange, a dalit woman farmer living in the village of Khairlanji in Maharashtra was brutally killed along with her two sons, Roshan, the visually handicapped Sudhir and her 18-year-old daughter Priyanka. Her husband Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange escaped. The method of killing was brutal. Each was hunted down and beaten to death by a mob of men belonging to the dominant caste in the village. Recently, the Nagpur bench of the Mumbai High Court gave its judgment in the case. It held that caste had nothing to do with the killings. It agreed with the judgment of the sessions court on the non-applicability of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act) (POA). If Khairlanji was a shame and disgrace to our nation and our Constitution, the judgment adds another chapter to it. [Read more]
More Temple Entry Action in Offing
(People’s Democracy, November 15, 2009) Alleging that dalits were still facing discrimination in different parts of Tamilnadu and that this included denial of access to temples, the Theendamai Ozhippu Munnani (Untouchability Eradication Front) has announced that it would organise more temple entry protests in the state. The Theendamai Ozhippu Munnani is led by Tamil Nadu […]
Untouchability Eradication Struggles in Tamil Nadu: Massive Rally Gives the Campaign New Vigour
by P Sampath (People’s Democracy, November 15, 2009) The struggles waged by the Tamilnadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) in the recent past have undoubtedly proved to be a turning point in the struggle for the rights of the dalit and tribal people. A majority of those who participated in this movement are dalits. Several of […]
Khairlanji: Prevent Denial Of Justice
Barely had the nationwide shock and outrage against the brutal killings of four dalits in Khairlanji subsided, a systematic attempt is on to sabotage the case by intimidation of key witnesses. The active collusion of local administration, perpetrators of this heinous crime and political leadership continues unabated in an effort to prevent delivery of justice. The CPI(M) expressed its deep concern at these recent developments in the Khairlanji case and appealed to the central government to ensure speedy justice. Polit Bureau member and MP, Brinda Karat, met the union home minister Shivraj Patil along with key witness Sidharth Gajbhaye on January 16, 2007 in New Delhi and raised this issue. [Read more]
Dalits Enter Jagannath Temple In Keradagada, Orissa
(People’s Democracy, January 7, 2007) Keradagada in Kerdrapada district in Orissa is now in focus after some dalits entered a temple there, followed by predictable upper caste reaction. Keradagada was earlier in the princely state of Kanika and the Raja of Kanika had established one Jagannath Temple there. When all the princely states were abolished […]
The Khairlanji Massacre And After
Ashok Dhawale
On September 29, 2006 took place the horrific massacre of a dalit family at Khairlanji in Bhandara district near Nagpur. It is indeed a shocking irony that such a heinous incident, which recalls dark memories of the Kilvenmani dalit massacre in Tamil Nadu nearly four decades ago, should occur in a state that has had a long and rich tradition of great social reformers like Mahatma Jotirao Phule, Chhatrapati Shahu and Dr Ambedkar – that too in a year that marks the half century of Dr Ambedkar’s conversion and demise. [Read more]
Khairlanji Massacre: CPI(M) Demands Time-Bound CBI Probe
Kalindi Deshpande
This article by AIDWA Vice-President Kalindi Deshpande about the intervention of the CPI(M) following the Khairlanji massacre originally appeared in People’s Democracy, dated November 19, 2006. [Read more]