‘EN’COUNTER THE HIGH SWAY OF CASTEIST MURDERERS!

While the tale of violence and oppression against Dalits is historical, and as students across the country are fighting to provide justice to Rohit Vemula and against the violence perpetrated by burning their huts in Nawada in Bihar, another incident of violence against Dalit boy is in front of us. We strongly condemn the public hacking of V.Sankar and the gruesome attack on his wife S.Kausalya, on 13th March 2016, by the Thevar (a Shudra caste) gang at Udumalpet near Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu, as it happened in broad daylight and in front of the criminally “silent public”. It is the marriage between Sankar and Kausalya few months back that led to this heinous attack by the self-proclaimed protectors of the caste system. Here, the boy happened to be a dalit and the girl is from a Shudra caste group. It is not an isolated incident in Tamilnadu, but in line with the murders of Illavarasan, Gokulraj, institutional murder of a dalit engineering student Ajit and many other cases which were not reported. Slaughtering of dalits who choose their partners outside their caste, mainly from the Shudra and upper caste groups, had become the important agenda of the brahminical fascists throughout the country. Intermarriage remains the socially forbidden in this environment of caste oppression and these murders are again indication of “honour killing‟ nothing but caste arrogant killing, to maintain the status quo of the caste system.

Whether it is the concept of 'bahujan' or the 'non-brahmin', it has very limited validity for their extended applicability in the historical time and that too with many constraints and restrictions. For example, the term 'non-brahmin' in itself does not go into the inner contradictions that existed within the social grouping. Situations have changed since Periyar’s time and the inner contradictions were not like today. Now, with the lopsided capitalist development few in the Shudra caste groups differentiated themselves from the rest of their caste-group and the entire society, and became the employers of their own caste group labourers and dalits. For the former any unity within the later working class groups will be a real danger. So, they use every possible means from the old social order, i.e., the caste system, to stop the workers from the Shudra caste groups from realising their chains. To achieve the later and thereby to keep the power relations intact the people from working class in the dominant castes were also forced to perpetuate acts like murders on their fellow dalit proletariats in the veiled names like 'honour', 'valour'. Instead of fighting against the brahminical caste system with a class unity and the caste system as a whole, the Tamil nationalists and the others who make their career out of identity politics are only shedding crocodile tears. While the state machinery acts with impunity when it suppresses the dissent, it chooses to remain silent and thereby complicit in the crime when it comes to the ruling castes who take the 'law' into their hands. The Indian state, time and again, has showed in the past that its 'laws' are not equally applicable to Dalits and lower castes. The perpetrators of this crime should not be spared and punished soon.

Tiruppur city was also in news for another reason which is for having the highest proportion of workers belonging to main worker category (44%) according to Census India in the country. Tiruppur, a global knitwear nod, is a highly industrialised district in the country in terms of its demography and economic output. But it is not without it being part of the imperialist global production networks which exploit the workers in the developing countries through their cheap sweat-shop based production process and thereby earn huge profits to the multinational corporations located in the developed part of the world. It also benefits the local shop owners who mostly belong to the Shudra caste groups of the region, who on the one hand act as a prop to the recolonisation process and on the other exploit all possible means from the pre-capitalist old society for blocking any real social change to happen towards new democracy. It is in this context the murders and various other atrocities against dalits have to be looked at.

As we know, the majority of Dalits in this country are landless labourers and workers in rural and urban areas, working and living in informal sectors and slums. Therefore, it is the historical necessity to build class unity of workers who can fight against the onslaught of hindutva comprador capitalism in the Modi regime. The government is crushing every movement, be it students movement emerged from University of Hyderabad against the institutional murder of Rohit or targeting the students of FTII, or the movement of Honda workers in Gurgaon or JNU movement by students and faculties. This government is hell-bent on slaughtering democracy from all these places. Without understanding the brahmanical communal rage and dominant caste rage - politically and organizing ground level movement - there is no use of crying about the land of Periyar! When begging for reservation the dominant caste claims that they are oppressed but while doing these murders they claim Kshatriyas! Shame! Cancel reservation for the caste which propagates and encourages such murders! Ban all the dominant caste based Political parties and organisations! Punish the culprits in lynching of Sankar ! Annihilate Caste!