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Tirupur verdict: Court has honoured murdered Dalit youth Sankar's memory

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TS Sudhir
TS SudhirDec 12, 2017 | 21:52

Tirupur verdict: Court has honoured murdered Dalit youth Sankar's memory

Judge Alamelu Natarajan of Tirupur court could not have sent out a stronger message against caste-based killings. Extremely important in a Tamil Nadu that according to Dalit activists, saw as many as 83 cases of honour killings between 2014 and 2016.

On Tuesday, the court awarded death sentence to six of the eleven accused in the murder of Sankar, a Dalit youth who had married Kausalya from the comparatively superior Thevar community. Among those who will now face the gallows, if the higher courts uphold this verdict, will be Chinnasamy, Kausalya's father.

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Ever since Kausalya walked out of home to marry Sankar, Chinnasamy could not accept the match, taking it as an affront to his stature in society. He tried to get Sankar out of his daughter's life by offering him Rs 10 lakh. When neither threat nor inducement worked, he ordered the hit on Sankar.

The deed was done in March 2016 in a busy marketplace in Udumalpet in west Tamil Nadu by a gang of hired killers. All of them will now hang till death along with the brain behind the killing. Kausalya's mother and uncle, who were among the accused, have been acquitted.

What does this judgement mean for Tamil Nadu? Will it change social attitudes given that the law has shown the force with which it can come down on anyone who sees hacking as a way to establish caste domination?

I met Muthusamy Gounder, who works as a watchman at the Mariamman temple in Coimbatore. "If my son married a Dalit girl, he will cease to be my son," Muthusamy declared. "How can I feel happy if my son is ruined? I will feel angry. I will say to hell with them and not allow them into my home."

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Chinnasamy who works as a financier, took this anger a step further. But he cannot be the only one to be blamed for it. That is the way the backward castes like the Thevars, Gounders and Vanniyars have thought and operated for years. Socially upwardly mobile and politically powerful, these communities are the backbone of the leading political parties in Tamil Nadu. The police machinery too is dominated by people from these caste formations - which makes it easier for them while facing the law. It is this mindset that perhaps gave Chinnasamy the confidence that he can get away with murder.

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The law has spoken and so has Kausalya. Her instrument of defiance is the 'parai', a drum-like instrument that she plays.

What he did not calculate was that his own daughter would revolt against him and stay steadfast in her rebellion. Kausalya, after Sankar's killing, stayed at her in-laws' home, under police protection.

She refused to interact with her parents, shunning them even when they came face to face inside court during trial. On Tuesday, she said she will appeal against her mother and uncle's acquittal in the high court.

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"I would appeal against their acquittal. I fear threat to my life and Sankar's family as they have been acquitted. I want police help," Kausalya said.

Even though Chinnasamy in court pleaded for minimum punishment, on the grounds that he has Kausalya's younger brother to take care of, there is no remorse in the family. There is talk of betrayal and emphasis on the fact that Sankar was a Dalit and therefore the question of association with him, by marriage, simply could not arise.

There is social and political backing for such a sentiment and more often than not, taking revenge on a Dalit and going to jail for that is considered a badge of honour. CK Nagaraj, founder of the Kongu Jana Nayaka Party, who is opposed to inter-caste marriages, says such matches are a "great insult" for the family.

"The parents cannot step out of home. If there is one more daughter, no one will want to marry her," says Nagaraj. He says parents have to constantly be careful about the modus operandi that Dalit youth adopt to ensnare girl from Thevar and Gounder families.

"Dalit boys are like Romeos who deliberately follow a girl from the intermediary caste, make her fall in love, ensure she elopes along with gold. If the parents are adamant, they will agree to pay a hefty amount to take the girl back," he claims.

The law has spoken and so has Kausalya. Her instrument of defiance is the "parai", a drum-like instrument that she plays. It is seen as an instrument of liberation and associated of late, with the Dalit struggle. Kausalya has moved on, living her life as a clerk in the defence ministry in Wellington, near Ooty and a much sought-after speaker at Dalit conferences. What did my father achieve by getting Sankar killed, is a question she constantly raises.

The Sankar murder was an affirmation of the fact that beneath the veneer of a progressive state, Tamil Nadu remains wedded to caste. The verdict makes a forceful attempt to divorce that equation.

Last updated: December 13, 2017 | 17:53
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