Tamil Nadu Dishonour Killings Reek Of Political Patronage, Allege Activists

Chennai: Images of a Dalit man hacked to death in Tamil Nadu's Tirupur earlier this month in a suspected dishonour killing shook the country. The images caught on CCTV were rare but the killing was not. The state has seen 81 dishonour killings according to a study by Evidence, an NGO that works on atrocities against Dalits over the last three years.

Activists allege the governments have gone soft on the perpetrators of these alleged killings for political gains. In June last year, 21-year-old Gokulraj was kidnapped and his body later dumped in Namakkal. In July 2013 Ilavarasan was found dead on the rail tracks in Dharmapuri. Both young men were Dalits. Ilavarasan had married an upper caste woman and Gokulraj was reportedly in a relationship with a woman of another caste.

Similarly In March last year in a suspected case of honour killing, a man allegedly strangled his 19 year old daughter Megala to death and burnt her body after she eloped with a Dalit in the Siva Ganga district of Tamil Nadu; in April 2010 a young woman Dhanalakshmi, in Salem district was allegedly murdered by her own parents for marrying a Dalit youngster.

Activists add reports by 22 states including Tamil Nadu submitted to the Supreme Court say there have been no convictions in such cases. Most cases, according to this report were suicides. "Our studies have found 80 per cent victims of dishonour killings are upper caste women. Upper caste families kill daughters for marrying Dalits. Half among them belong to powerful land owning upper castes which are powerful votebanks as well, including Thevar, Vaniyar and Gounder communities," activist A Kathir of Evidence said.

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Dalits are politically divided and hence not a strong vote bank.
 For generations, Dalits depended on these communities for their livelihood. Now, they are unwilling to treat empowered Dalits marrying their daughters as equals. Ravi, an activist and former MLA from the VCK party says "It's not marriage alone. They don't want to treat them as citizens. Our parliamentary democracy is number based. It strengthens numerically big intermediate castes. Accumulation of political and economic power in their hands is the root cause for rising violence against Dalits".

PMK Chief Ramadoss who is the face of the powerful Vanniyar community even called these marriages between Dalits and upper caste women "staged" and ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he united upper castes to electorally fight it out. He had then said, "Dalit youngsters wear jeans, t-shirts and fancy sunglasses to lure girls from other communities"

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Investigators however say these are stray law and order problems and not an organised assault by dominant communities.

A senior police officer, who did not want to be named, said, "Caste is a sensitive issue. In most cases there are suicide notes. But whether they were driven to suicide by dominant communities is another issue, which in most cases don't get investigated as governments normally wouldn't want the caste dynamics disturbed."

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A Kathir said, "People from oppressive communities occupy key positions in party and the government and nothing can be done beyond them. These forces are stumbling blocks to eradicate dishonour killings."

The biggest parties in the state deny they patronised dishonour killings for political gains.

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C R Saraswathi, AIADMK spokesperson said, "Amma (Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa) doesn't look at castes, even if our own party cadre do wrong she takes strict action." Her DMK counterpart T K S Elangovan, claimed, "During DMK's regime this was very much under control. But the police have a responsibility to firmly deal with it and protect people."

With new alliances shaping ahead of assembly polls for the first time Vaiko led People's Welfare Front is making dishonour killings a poll issue. They are spearheading for a tough law to tackle dishonour killing.