S, a Dalit youth, is in the final year of his law studies at the Ambedkar Law College in Chennai. He returned to his native Vasurampatti village, near Namakkal district due to corona lockdown. He was walking in his village with his friend SKl at around 6:45 AM on the 8th of May 2020 when a gang of three including Gopi (A) Gopinath, a member of the dominant caste, blockaded S on a two-wheeler.
”Are you the son of Cakkiliya Paya (Dalit) Thangavelu who opens the water of Vasurampatti village, the one studying in Chennai? You are arrogant enough to write about Periyar and Ambedkar ideologies in social media? Studying for law gave you the guts is it?” they said. S asked them to speak with him respectfully. To which they replied “We have no respect for people of your caste who eat the leftovers we give them, who are you to criticise dominant caste people like us?” and they started harshly beating him up with slippers. When S told them that he would file a case against them, they threatened to kill him and his family publicly. S who was badly injured because of the attack was admitted to the Namakkal government hospital and was treated for two days.
Case was filed under the Scheduled Castes Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Amendment Act 2015. Such a cruel attack carried out just for writing the thoughts of Ambedkar and Periyar on social media tells us where we are as a society. S is a human rights activist who has been active in human rights work. A similar incident has taken place in Villupuram district, Ulundurpet. Ambedkar’s picture on a school wall was insulted by some casteist violent gang with cow dung. Suresh, a television reporter from the Dalit community, filmed it. An angry mob of about 10 people carried out a murderous attack on Suresh on the 23rd of April 2020.
Artist: Rahee Punyashloka (@artedkar)
#LockdownCasteAtrocities is a campaign by DHRDNet to highlight the cases of atrocity against Dalits that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
