MURDER, RAPE, HUMILIATION

Atrocities against Dalits are taking place regularly across India. Here's a snapshot

- Thallapelli Praveen

December 25, 1968

The Keezhvenmani Massacre 

It originally began as a labour dispute between upper caste landowning communities and Dalit agricultural labourers in Keezhvenmani village in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu who were demanding higher wages. Soon, the upper caste people got annoyed by the belligerent change in the attitude of the Dalits, who were now supported by the Communists. On December 25, 1968, 44 Dalits, including 16 women, 23 children and five men, were burnt to death by their landlords. But it was more than a caste clash. “Politics, caste and class issues are so inextricably intertwined that it is impossible to know where one ends and another begins. But at its core, it is a gruesome reminder of the treatment that is meted out to the oppressed when they start demanding what is rightfully theirs,” says Nithila Kanagasabai in her paper titled The Din of Silence: Reconstructing the Keezhvenmani Dalit Massacre.

July 17, 1985

The Karamchedu Killings