People's Democracy

UTHAPURAM, TAMILNADU

Meeting Iron Hand with Iron Will

Ganesh

THOUGH a portion of the Untouchability Wall in Uthapuram village of Madurai district, Tamilnadu, was demolished, major demands of the dalits were not met. One of them was the denial of their entry into the Muthalamman Temple. Instead of rendering justice to the dalit community, the Tamilnadu government led by the DMK, which is also an important coalition partner in the UPA at the centre, has decided to take repressive measures.

It was therefore decided that the cadres of the CPI(M) and TNUEF (Tamilnadu Untouchability Eradication Front) would enter the temple along with the villagers on January 31.

Three days in advance, however, the district administration clamped Section 144 IPC in the area. A number of wild rumours were spread to instil fear in the minds of the dalit population. But the resolute dalits remained out of reach of these planted stories. By the night, TNUEF general secretary K Samuel Raj, CPI(M) MLA (Perambur) S K Mahendran, TNUEF leaders M Thangaraj and S K Ponnuthai were all in the midst of the people of Uthapuram village. Each and every leader now has an interesting story to tell about how they managed to reach the village, since thousands of policemen were deployed around the village.

In the morning, there were three places which were in the thick of action. The first one was the city of Madurai. CPI(M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan, AIDWA’s state general secretary U Vasuki and TNUEF president P Sampath were all getting ready to go to Uthapuram along with hundreds of people. The district administration had called these leaders to come for the talks and the leaders had agreed to go there despite the earlier bad experiences. As expected, nothing fruitful was offered by the district collector to solve the issue. 

The leaders were firm about proceeding to Uthapuram. Apart from the cadres of the CPI(M) and TNUEF, leaders and cadres from Athi Tamizhar Peravai, Thiyagi Immanuel Peravai, Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, Tamil Puligal and many other organisations accompanied them. When they saw that the police had been blocking their way, they decided to stage a demonstration on the spot. G Ramakrishnan tried to convince the police officials that the law and order situation was not going to be affected by the protesters. He also pointed out that there was no promulgation of Section 144 in Madurai City. Despite this, the police went ahead with its action and arrested hundreds of people including the leaders.

Speaking to the media on the occasion, G Ramakrishnan complemented the dalits for showing firmness in the struggle. He pointed out that this struggle was not a sudden decision. It was announced almost a month ago. The CPI(M) and TNUEF have demanded only implementation of the rule of law. The CPI(M) wrote the chief minister in this regard but no reply was received from him. Instead, the state government clamped Section 144 to prevent the dalits from entering the temple. The temple entry movement would be credited with success soon, he said.

CPI(M) Central Committee member U Vasuki pointed out that just a day after taking an oath in the name of Gandhi to eradicate untouchability, the chief minister and the deputy chief minister resorted to actions that would only save the practice of untouchability. P Sampath charged the government with becoming repressive whenever the dalits come forward to fight for their rights.

The second point of struggle was T Kallupatti, from where hundreds of people were raring to go to Uthapuram. Cadres of the CPI(M) and TNUEF from the adjacent district of Virudhunagar joined others at this place. AIAWU state president A Lazar took the lead in demanding to allow them to proceed. Hundreds of people were arrested here.

The third point was the actual battlefield, i.e. Uthapuram. In the morning, the police force deployed there came to have a rude shock. When they found the CPI(M) MLA S K Mahendran and TNUEF general secretary K Samuelraj there, they began to murmur that these people were not there just for fun. Hundreds of villagers were then moving towards the Muthalamman Temple to offer prayers. Many of the women were holding their babes in their laps. When they encountered the police, the leaders and the dalits told them that it was their right to offer prayer at the Muthalamman Temple or any other temple.

The police was vehement in obstructing the villagers’ onward march. Policemen took all the villagers in custody when they found that the latter were firm in their struggle.

Below are given some highlights of the struggle.

1) A total of 1,787 policemen were deployed in Uthapuram. These included one SP, 3 ASPs, 14 DSPs, 34 inspectors, 153 sub-inspectors and 311 Special Police Force people.

2) As many as 14 new check posts were created, as if some militant attack was going to take place.

3) The leaders sneaked into the village after undertaking an arduous journey through forest areas, paddy fields etc. It took three hours for them to cross a distance of three kilometres.

(With inputs from P Kavitha Kumar, S Nallendran and K Jayakumar)