In Tamil Nadu, peace hangs by a ‘caste thread’

The death of a student in a village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu has heightened fears of caste conflict. Udhav Naig reports on the incident and explains why, across the region, the issue of caste identifiers has school authorities and the administration on the edge

A month after a Thevar boy was allegedly killed by a Scheduled Caste boy in a Government Higher Secondary School, fear was still palpable in Adaichani, a quiet village in the picturesque Ambasamudram Taluk of Tirunelveli district. The houses in the Dalit neighbourhood of the village in Tamil Nadu, which are lined with tiled roofs, are basic. Most of the residents are labourers with modest means. They hope that the younger generation will get a shot at a better life. They equally dread the possibility of an explosion of caste violence.

The incident occurred on April 25. M. Selva Suriya, a Thevar boy studying in Class 12, was allegedly attacked by a teenager belonging to the Arundhathiyar community along with two Muslim boys of Class 11. While the Thevars are a socially and politically dominant Other Backward Classes community, the Arundhathiyars are among the most disadvantaged within the SCs spread across western and southern Tamil Nadu. Selva Suriya, who had suffered a serious injury on his head, was treated in a hospital for five days for internal haemorrhage. He died after failing to respond to the treatment. While the two Muslim boys are out on bail, the Arundhathiyar boy is in a juvenile home.

In filmmaker Vetrimaaran’s 2019 hit, Asuran, adapted from the book Vekkai by Poomani, Sivasamy, played by Dhanush, flees his village with his son to save the child from a retaliatory attack by a landlord from a dominant caste. In a similar vein, some parents of Arundhathiyar boys in Adaichani village have sent their children away to other villages. Others who continue to send their children to school said they live with the constant fear that they may have to pay the price for the Thevar boy’s death. The history of caste violence in southern Tamil Nadu shows that the apprehension of an eye-for-an-eye payback prevails in these areas. “They will definitely seek revenge,” an activist feared.

“Sending the boys away is not an overreaction,” said a relative of the accused in this case. “We hear all kinds of rumours. Recently, we heard that they (the Thevars) are going to attack our village after the Rekla race (a century-old bull-cart race). Students are receiving threats on WhatsApp. We cannot ignore them as just rumours.”

The provocation for the latest fight, many suggested, was a ‘caste thread’. Selva Suriya, who had allegedly always been heckling the Arundhathiyar boy, had apparently objected to him wearing a caste thread on his wrist. The caste thread is worn by several dominant OBC and SC communities on their wrists to signify their sociopolitical identities. Over the years, many other SC groups have also started wearing these caste threads.

The animosity between Selva Suriya, who many described as boisterous, and the Arundhathiyar boy had apparently been growing over time. But Selva Suriya's grieving mother, Uchimahali, denied these accounts. She held that her son would never have caused any kind of hostility between students of different caste groups in school.

The school authorities and management refused to speak about the case. However, one staff member said that there had been an altercation between Selva Suriya and the other group a few days before the fateful incident. “It probably happened on a Saturday somewhere outside the school premises. None of the students told us about it. We could have done something had we known,” he said.