People's Democracy

KANDADEVI TEMPLE CAR FESTIVAL 

Dalits Allowed Only Token Participation Despite Court Order

A A Nainar

CASTE oppression is practised in many ways in Tamilnadu, in its worst forms, against which the CPI(M) has been conducting serious campaigns. The oppression finds manifestation, among other things, in the form of two-glass system in rural teashops. In urban settings, too, the Dalits find it difficult to rent a house in caste Hindu areas. In Pappapatti, Keerippatti, Nattamangalam and Kottakkachiyedal villages, the caste oppression has reached its peak and the administration is unable to conduct civic elections for these reserved constituencies for the last many years. Dalits were barred entry to the temples for centuries together, and the curse continues even today, the Kandadevi Temple festival being the latest in the case.

For the seventh year in succession, despite the High Court order in favour of Dalits, the administration has curbed their efforts to reassert their traditional rights to take part in the Kandadevi car festival. Kandadevi is a small town of caste Hindus, surrounded by 200 Dalit hamlets, in Sivaganga district of Tamilnadu. The Dalits and caste Hindus participated in the temple festival without any discrimination till 1979, when a Dalit of Chinna Unjani village was murdered during the festival. Thereafter the Dalits did not participate in the festival for quite some time. In 1997, Krishnansamy, president of the Puthiya Thamizhagam, a Dalit political party, went to the court for Dalits’ right to participate in the car festival.

Since then, there is trouble in Kandadevi every year during Aani, the third month of the Tamil calendar. (It falls in June-July.) The administration is found on the side of the caste Hindus while progressive sections side with the Dalits. Last year, after protracted discussions, the administration and the nattars of the temple permitted 10 Dalits to take part in the festival. This year the level of representation was increased to 26. Earlier, a Madras High Court bench, headed by the Chief Justice, passed an order on a writ petition filed by N Varadarajan, secretary of the Tamilnadu state committee of the CPI(M), that all Dalits should be permitted to participate in the festival and that the failure to implement the order would make the district collector personally responsible for the lapse. However, the order was implemented more in its breach. Any meaningful action is yet to be taken.

Despite the High Court order, the administration colluded with the Kandavevi panchayat president and AIADMK activist Keshavamani, and handpicked 26 Dalits for token participation in the festival. The state administration deployed 25 companies of police and prohibited all Dalit families from entering Kandadevi on the June 21. Raids were conducted in Dalit colonies the previous night to arrest all men. Most of the families who ventured to the temple on June 21 were taken to the nearby Karaikudi town and put behind bars, without food and water, for a day in a Kalyana Mahal. They were let off in the evening after the car festival was over.

“Casteism is a curse,” remarked the Chief Justice of Madras high Court while passing the order. The curse seemed to have plagued the administration to the extent that it has the guts to violate the order of the High Court.

The CPI(M) district leaders had conducted a public enquiry into the police atrocities and the lapses of the district administration. The High Court has been appraised by filing contempt affidavits. The campaign would continue till all Dalits gain their rightful participation in the festival.