Marakkanam is at once a rude reminder and a charming data
point of small town northern Tamil Nadu. The smallness and the complete un-remarkability
of it is a pointer to this state’s high degree of urbanization and the ugly
sprawl that it entails. Marakkanam, as it happens across much of Tamil Nadu,
has a visible government presence – a school, a primary health center and an
administrative office – in terms of buildings. There is haphazard construction,
poor traffic management and a general decay of civic sense on display as well. The Police Station, owing to recent
disturbances, was filled with bored policemen doing nothing.
Just to serve as a writing cliché for those who know nothing
about the town and yet decide to write on it anyway, there is an ancient Chola
temple at its entrance. The temple looks to pre-date the grandeur of later
Chola marvels of the 11th and 12th Centuries that have a grand gopuram and a two way entrance; the
untrained eye will hence date this temple between 9th and 10th
Centuries. Internet fails to add insight lending this assumption greater credence
than it deserves. The temple, stunningly, has a statue of Brahma inside; given
how rare that is, it is a mystery as to why it isn’t more storied.
Maybe be it is and a random city slicker and non-practicing Hindu is no one to
judge. But the stench of bat-poop inside the temple lends some weight to that
conclusion.
The state highway, the East Coast Road, that hugs the Bay of
Bengal along much of the way, typically divides most nondescript towns and
villages it passes through into two sections. As a rule, the strip of land that
exists between the ocean and the highway is a Dalit Colony or a fisherman’s
village – while the other side of the highway is the “actual” town. The
nonchalance of this division is possibly far more tragic than any other impact
it may have.
The PMK, largely looked at as the party of Vanniyars in Tamil
Nadu, recently held its conclave nearby. Vanniyars typically include a lot of
sub-castes and are essentially what the government classifies as ‘Most Backward
Classes.’ That there is tension between the Vanniyars, who’ve had historically
poor levels of education, literacy and per capita income, and Dalits is a fact
in large swathes of northern Tamil Nadu. The caste conclave which is
essentially a gathering of a lot of drunk men, and almost exclusively men, saw
a large number of “cadre” who came in to attend and were, according to several
eye witnesses, being a general nuisance to public order. A minor scuffle that
broke out between Dalits and these visiting drunks resulted in burnt buses,
houses and general violence.
The PMK leaders have in the past, and at the conclave,
raised the issue of Dalit men marrying Vanniyar women. Yes, this is an “issue”.
An issue serious enough that the PMK’s President, in that conclave, exhorted
Vanniyar men to take up arms against Dalits if they attempted to woo “their”
women[1]. Outside of this funny admission of a general inability to
win women over, the party’s political platform is often indistinguishable from
most other Social Democrat/ Populist parties in Tamil Nadu[2].
That the PMK cadre pelted stones at public transport and set
a few government buses on fire, serious as they are, appear to be an
administrative problem that can be handled effectively by a strong willed
Police force. What is a far more serious issue is whether such a party should
be allowed to contest elections. The blatant casteism of the PMK, with an
implicit threat of violence against Dalits, is almost reminiscent of the KKK
from Hollywood movies.
A factor in much of the indignation amongst Vanniyars and
many other castes is that Dalits are now being instigated to ask for too much
and are “looking for a fight.” If the status of their life in 2013 is still one
of a colony separated by a highway and them being told whom they can or cannot
woo, looking for a fight is hardly a proportional response. If I were Dalit,
I’d look for far more than a mere fight. And there is the tragedy – in looking
at them as the “other” that sort of have to prove their goodness is a trap that
is casteist by design. One that the KKK used: putting the onus of proving that
the oppressed are after all human on the oppressed themselves. That they
forget individual men and women will always be that – individual men and
individual women. With warts and moles and ingrown nails. That they are people
is non-negotiable and that the PMK seeks to negotiate that is what is deeply
troubling. That one’d think is grounds enough to ban the party from the next
election.
[1] - Why "their" is not used when they refer to men or how Vanniyar men marrying Dalit women is not an issue worth raising is a topic for a young feminist at Madras University writing a thesis on Patriarchy.
[2] - Possible exception may be an insistence on prohibition. An amusing piece of principle given alcohol appears to be a necessary condition for its cadre mobilisation.
[2] - Possible exception may be an insistence on prohibition. An amusing piece of principle given alcohol appears to be a necessary condition for its cadre mobilisation.