A Caste Wall In ‘Progressive’ Kerala

caste wall vadaympadi

Progressive Kerala ruled by a communist government is witnessing a protest by dalits against a caste wall built by upper caste Hindus, in Vadaympadi near Kochi. On sunday the police unleashed its brutal force on the protesters and destroyed their protest tent injuring many protesters.

ananthu

Two journalists covering the police atrocities were arrested branding them as Maoists. Abhilash Padacherry, Editor of Newsport.in who was live streaming the incident, and Ananthu Rajagopal, an intern with a daily – continue to be in remand. Sasidharan, a resident of a Dalit settlement in the vicinity and taluk secretary of the Dalit outfit Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha (KPMS) also was arrested.

joy pavel

Yesterday V.K Joy (Joy Pavel) who is the Dalit Bhoo Avakasha Samara Munnani ( Dalit land rights struggle movement) convener was arrested by the police. He was returning after holding a press conference in Kochi. He is on a hunger strike in jail.

The dalits of the area were on a year-long struggle a ‘caste wall’ built around what has been a community space in their neighbourhood.

Right behind where the tent stood has been erected a permanent arch with a flight of stairs to the elevated ground from the road below. Dalits in three colonies, housing some 180 families had been using the 95-cent ground as a community space since 1967.

MP Ayyappan Kutty, general convenor of the Dalit Bhoo Avakasha Samara Munnani, the organisation leading the agitation for unfettered right of way over the land told the Hindu news paper:

“We used to draw water from a well across the ground, had it for a playground and as a pathway to a PDS outlet on the other side and for holding family events. Not long ago, our forefathers used to worship in the pathi (small shrine, which the Nair Service Society calls Keezhkkovil meaning the temple below) located in the ground close to the road. Trouble began when we thought of holding a Deshavilakku festival in 2016. The NSS, which claims to represent the uppar caste Nair community, resisted it and took steps to erect a 1.7 metre high wall encircling the ground thereby trying to appropriate it,” he explained.

Dalits in the colonies petitioned the panchayat, revenue authorities and moved court against the plan unsuccessfully. The NSS unit had shown sprung a surprise by producing a conditional patta (title deed) for the ground issued by the Tehsildar of Kunnathunad in July 1981. A wall thus constructed was pulled down by the protesters on April 14, 2017, on Ambedkar Jayanti. Meanwhile, an RTI inquiry revealed that the Taluk office of Kunnathunad could not trace any records of the patta. This prompted the protestors to petition the Chief Minister to intervene and reclaim the ground as a public space accessible to all. After the wall was razed, the district collector convened a conciliatory meeting in June, 2017, where status quo anti was advised till cases pending in courts relating to the issue got decided upon. “But the NSS used the forthcoming temple festival as a ruse to pull down our pandal,” says Mr. Kutty.

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