2012 Dharmapuri violence

On November 7, 2012, over 200 houses were torched in Natham, old and new Kondampatti and Annanagar Dalit colonies in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu. When a Vanniyar girl from Sellankottai village, and a Dalit boy, from the neighbouring Dalit colony of Natham, fled due to parental opposition to get married, a caste panchayat held on the morning of November 7 by leaders from both communities ruled that the girl be returned to her family. Distraught at her decision to stay with her husband, her father, who worked at a cooperative bank, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself. The discovery of his body later that day is said to have provoked a 1,500-strong mob to rampage through Natham and two smaller Dalit settlements, Kondampatti and Anna Nagar, where it set ablaze over 200 houses, damaged at least 50 others, and allegedly looted valuables and cash worth lakhs of rupees. The mob rampaged for four hours and was brought under control after arrest of 90 men and an additional deployment of 1000 policemen.

While Ramadoss, belonging to PMK party, had rubbished allegations that his party orchestrated the incident, many Dalits believe otherwise. Also, his party is said to have fomented tension between Vanniyars and Dalits by publicly condemning marriages between the two. However, there is no evidence that the PMK played any role in the attack.

Many of the victims had blamed the fecklessness of the police and the district administration as this was a planned incident where a caste mob had been mobilised from 22 neighbouring villages. Though around 300 policemen were present on the spot anticipating trouble, they failed to control the violent gathering as the mob was eight times higher than the number of deployed forces. The Sub-inspector of Police, belonging to same caste of boy, and the constables responsible for maintaining peace in the area have since been transferred or suspended.

Background

The population of Vanniyars, an intermediate caste inhabiting parts of northern Tamil Nadu, is estimated at 11-12 per cent, while the Parayars (Dalits) constitute about six per cent. With the collapse of Naxalism, the people, once monolithic in their opposition to untouchability and discrimination, were now lured by caste identities and the promise of power. Thus began a disquieting era where Dalits were made vulnerable by radicalised groups and Vanniyars turned sanctimonious about their perceived position in society. So, there were regularly clashes between the Vanniyars and Dalits. In April 2012, Pattali Makkal Katchi party MLA, Kaduvetti Guru incited caste fanaticism when he asked the members of community to kill men from other community who marry Vanniyar community women at a Vanniyar youth meeting held Mamallapuram.

Aftermath

As many as 268 dwellings of Dalits (of the Adi Dravida community) near Naikkankottai in Dharmapuri district were torched by the higher-caste group. The victims have alleged that ‘systematic destruction’ of their properties and livelihood resources has taken place. Around 1500 who were homeless after the incident were put up in a ground nearby and were provided food and clothing and also sanctioned Rs 50,000 as relief from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The affected people staged a fast demanding Chief Minister to visit the affected areas and to increase compensation.

Reactions

• Members of National Commission for Scheduled Castes after visiting the colonies blamed the attitude of the state police for failing to control the violence and stated that rise in status of Dalits are not tolerated by dominant caste Hindus which results in incidents of violence. They also alleged that the violence was a well-organized and planned attack on Dalits and not a spontaneous anguish over a single incident of suicide.
• Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, a Dalit-based political party demanded a CBI probe into the incident as it did not have faith in local police inquiry. VCK president Thol. Thirumavalavan compared the incidents to 1990s Kodiyankulam violence where the main reason for the violence was upward mobility of Dalits in economic, educational, political fronts.
• Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party constituted a fact finding committee came out with a report which stated

The attack was a planned one. Inter-caste love marriage was not the sole reason behind it. Rather, the attack was the result of a chain of events. The PMK functionaries are found to have instigated and carried out the attacks. While the police is yet to arrest all the culprits behind the attack, they have booked a few innocents who are not connected with the incident

It also blamed the state government for not taking enough steps to restore normalcy or implementing relief measures.

• Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLAs K. Balakrishnan, P. Dillibabu and K. Bheema Rao visited the affected people to console and provide relief materials. They told the attack which seem to be well planned could not be prevented because of Intelligence failure and failure to keep a check on Kangaroo courts and demanded police to take action against those responsible under SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act
• Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu said that the government has failed to check increasing incidents of breakdown of law and order and the police are not given full power to deal with it.
• PMK founder S. Ramadoss came out with 'staged love marriages' happening in the state where Dalit men lure Vanniyar women claiming to be in love and later duping them, ask for a ransom after marriage through Kangaroo courts. This was seen as a budding parallel to Love Jihad He also stated the mob that indulged in violence was cutting across castes / party lines unlike mentioned in sections of media / parties as mainly consisting of Vanniyar / PMK men. He also formed an alliance of caste Hindu organizations against Dalit assertion. asking for amendment to prevent the misuse of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and a ban on intercaste marriages which was opposed by VCK and rationalist groups like Dravidar Kazhagam.

Probe and court proceedings

The Tamil Nadu government transferred the probe from local police to Crime Branch CID. More than 90 persons were arrested and cases were filed against over 200 people. The Madras High Court has stated the incident as serious and instructed the state authorities to submit a status report and the counter affidavit on that date. A PIL was filed seeking the suspension of District collector and Superintendent of police for inaction. On 3 December 2012, The district collector told the court that adequate relief measures were provided to victims and steps have been taken to maintain law and order in the area. The Superintendent of Police said cases have been registered and 142 people have been arrested. High Court termed the relief insufficient and ordered the state to provide a relief of 7.32 crore. A fresh PIL was filed asking for effective monitoring of offenses under SC-ST act and transfer the probe to CBI. The petition was posted along with the other petitions in the case. Tamil Nadu govt then declared solatium to individuals were ready to the tune of 7.32 crore as per court order. On Feb 9 2013, 91 people including some of whom who were falsely arrested for passing by near the violence area were let off and asked to appear before the CBCID. On March 29, the high court gave bail to 28 accused in the case.