Sometime in the early ‘80s in Madurai, a thin young Dalit man held hundreds of people captive with a rousing speech. Dressed simply in a white full-sleeved shirt and khaki-coloured trousers, his words sharp and brimming with emotions, he spoke about a Dalit youth named Manikkapatti Kaatturaja who was murdered for consuming water from a facility used by dominant caste people. A few months later, he was heading yet another fiery protest as part of a Tamil Nadu-wide agitation against the then MGR government for mandating 90% compulsory attendance for Dalit and Adivasi students for the grant of scholarships. The order was publicly burnt by the protesting students and youngsters. Within months, the government rescinded its order. The youngster became a well-known face of peaceful protests, rallies, and public meetings in Tamil Nadu in the 1980s. Within a short span of five to six years, he grew to be one of the most influential Dalit leaders the state had witnessed in the 20th century. He was A Malaichamy, a lawyer by profession, whose 34th death anniversary falls on Thursday, September 14.
Until the 1980s, however, Malaichamy was one of the hundreds of thousand youngsters in Tamil Nadu who were drawn towards the ideologies of self-respect, Tamil nationalism, social justice, and communism. Born on March 11, 1954 in Madurai’s Avaniyapuram, Malaichamy completed his schooling and college in the city. Growing up in the southern belt, the hotbed of Dalit-Hindu communal violence, had a deep impact on his psyche. It was three years after he was born that freedom fighter and Dalit leader Immanuel Sekaran was murdered by a group of dominant [Thevar] caste members for demanding equal rights and political representation for Dalits. Immanuel, who fought against the Thevars for oppressing his community of Pallars (now a sub-sect of Devendra Kula Vellalar), was only 33. During the time, Tamil Nadu witnessed one of the most brutal riots in which nearly 40 persons were killed.
These massive clashes between the Thevars (classified as Other Backward Class (OBC)) and the Dalits arose due to the bitterness harboured by the former with the progress made by Dalits in society. The early 1900s, up until the murder of Immanuel, was marked by the educational, economic, and social progress of Dalits in the state, especially due to the influence of Christian missionaries. However, this was not the case with OBCs, who refused to keep up with the change and were angered that the socially imposed caste hierarchy was rapidly collapsing. It is to be borne in mind that the caste equation was skewed to such an extent in the Ramanathapuram belt that the dominant castes had imposed bans on Dalits from wearing jewellery and getting educated, in post-Independent India.
Periyar’s Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), which incorporated the Justice Party (formed in 1916) and the Self-Respect Movement (formed in 1925), was defined by its anti-Brahmin and self-respect ideologies. Deeply impacted by the atrocities against Dalits happening around him, Malaichamy vowed to regain the self-respect of his community. Propelled by the belief that education and economic independence was the first step towards breaking the shackles of caste, he graduated in BA Economics from the MSS Wakf Board College. He then joined the Government Law College Madurai in 1981 and eventually enrolled with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1984. However, he did not practise but decided to apply his legal knowledge to help with protests, which he would lead till his death. The next year, he got married to M Madhuravalli. It was a self-respect marriage initiated by DK leader K Veeramani.
While in law college, Malaichamy joined DK and became its Madurai district youth wing’s deputy chief in 1978. He conducted several protests, some novel for their time such as repeated petitioning till officials take action. It was during this critical period that he started understanding how non-partisan politics differed from electoral politics. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which split from DK [in 1949] to join electoral politics, as well as the All India Anna Dravida Kazhagam (AIADMK) that split from DMK [in 1972] were giving exceptional importance to the OBCs despite the fact that they continued to oppress and commit brazen atrocities against Dalits. Malaichamy realised that though this was against the core principles of DK – the parent organisation – the two parties continued to support OBCs for electoral purposes. This led him to decide that elections were not for him.
It was during this period that Malaichamy made two important contributions to the Dalit political discourse. The first was renaming Dalit settlements with more dignified terms. Until then, their settlements were called cheris (outcaste slums) – Paraicheri, Pacheri, Sakkiliyacheri, etc. He renamed Pacheris (Pallar settlements) to Immanuel Nagar and Periyar Nagar; Paracheris (Paraiyar settlements) to Dr Ambedkar Nagar; and Sakkiliyacheri to Viduthalai Nagar.
His second contribution was starting the SC/ST Students Organisation to fight for educational rights. In the 1980s, Tamil Eelam protests started intensifying in the state with scores of students participating in them. In an attempt to curb the protests, the then AIADMK government under MG Ramachandran ordered that 90% attendance was mandatory for SC/ST students to get their scholarship. Malaichamy initiated a protest in Madurai, which soon spread to other parts of the state. Copies of the order were burnt and the government had to eventually revoke the order.
During this time, there were multiple caste atrocities, including the well-known 1979 Unjanai murder, in which five persons were killed and many attacked by OBCs for participating in a temple festival. During the rule of Dravidian parties in post-Independent India, Tamil Nadu witnessed multiple such communal clashes between OBCs and Dalits. This also showed Malaichamy the skewed relationship between the government, the police, and the OBCs in the state. He was named as an accused in the communal clash that erupted in Avaniyapuram in 1980 during jallikattu. People from the Pallar community participated in the event alongside those from the Kallar community (Thevar sub-caste), which was not tolerated by the latter who launched an attack on the Pallar settlement. In the clash that followed, two Kallar community people were killed. When Malaichamy was released from jail after two months, he decided he wanted to study law, as the existing system was not protecting the oppressed.
As Malaichamy was growing intellectually, simultaneously a literary movement was taking root in Bombay that would go on to impact his life and chart the course of Tamil Nadu politics for several decades to come.
In the 20th century, Maharashtra’s Bombay witnessed several first generation Dalit youths completing their post graduation. Some of them began embracing literature as a way to express their frustrations of being discriminated against for centuries. In the 1960s, the works of several poets, authors, and artists – under the name ‘Little Magazine Movement’ – spoke vociferously against the government’s approach towards the caste system and the then state of Dalit politics.
On September 9, 1972, some Dalit writers from the Little Magazine Movement decided to move from literature to active political participation and founded the Dalit Panthers of India (DPI), at a public meeting in Bombay, influenced by the revolutionary African-American Black Panther Party. DPI was founded by JV Pawar, Namdeo Dhasal, and Raja Dhale, and other prominent leaders such as Ramdas Athawale (now Union Minister of Social Justice), Professor Arun Kamble, SM Pradhan, Pritamkumar Shegaonkar too joined the movement. However, within three years of its inception, the DPI split over ideological differences, a few leaders standing with Dhasal and others with Dhale. Athawale was one among those who stood with Dhale.
In 1977, after Dhale dismissed the DPI committee without holding any meeting with other members, Athawale and a few other leaders started the Bharatiya Dalit Panthers (BDP). Arun Kamble was selected as its leader, Gangadhar Gade as general secretary, and Athawale remained as the organiser. Later, Dr BR Ambedkar’s wife Savita Ambedkar joined the BDP, which became active in 17 states, including Tamil Nadu.
It was during the expansion of BDP to other Indian states that the leaders were looking for a suitable candidate to head the Tamil Nadu wing of the party. In 1982, some of Malaichamy’s friends who had travelled to Bombay for work got in touch with him and introduced him to Athawale.
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Parallelly, Dr K Krishnasamy [who later started the Puthiya Tamilagam (PT) party], who was running a clinic in Tiruppur district’s Poolavadi, was contemplating a separate Dalit front to fight for their rights. He proposed the idea to his friend Sengottaiyan, who was a student leader in his college. He also introduced Sengottaiyan to Malaichamy. Recalling this incident, Sengottaiyan said that the introduction happened at a wedding. “I was told by Krishnasamy that Malaichamy was in contact with Dalit leaders Athawale and Savita Ambedkar. So instead of starting a new front altogether, we decided to join him,” he told TNM.
In 1982, Malaichamy travelled to Bombay and took part in a public meeting held by the BDP, in which he was named the Tamil Nadu convener of BDP. The Tamil Nadu branch of the BDP was called Dalit Panther Iyakkam (meaning Dalit Panther Movement), and hence went by the DPI acronym, though on paper its name was Bharatiya Dalit Panthers. According to available documents, the inaugural DPI state conference was held in August 1983.
On the handbills that were distributed ahead of the meeting, Malaichamy said, “No political party in our land will struggle on our behalf. All political parties in our country are under the control of caste Hindus. We, ourselves, must be ready to struggle to claim our community’s rights. We must ameliorate our present condition in which we are broken and shattered into pieces.” This is noted by scholar Michael Collins in his paper titled Writing Dalit Assertion: Early Dalit Panther Politics and Legal Advocacy in 1980s Tamil Nadu.
The Dalit movement, thus, wanted to be a narrative based on the principles of equality and anti-caste, posing questions and demands to the Dravidian parties. It can be seen as a movement that wanted to claim its rightful space in a state dominated by parties running with caste-based vote banks. The movement was headed by Malaichamy, with advocate D David as its president, and Sengottaiyan and Dr Krishnasamy as secretaries. Eventually, Dr Krishnasamy quit the movement and joined electoral politics, as the DPI decided to function as a non-partisan party. He went on to establish PT in 1997.
Stalin Rajangam, a Dalit scholar and writer, said that DPI was a major movement that brought under it all major Dalit caste groups. “Its organiser Malaichamy belonged to the Devendra Kula Vellalar community, president D David belonged to the Adi Dravidar (earlier called Paraiyar) community, and secretary Sengottaiyan to the Arundhathiyar community – the three major Dalit groups. They largely functioned as a non-partisan group submitting written appeals and petitions to the government demanding that officials fulfil their duty,” he said.
Sengottaiyan said that Malaichamy did not want to be identified as a Pallar leader. “There has always been this habit of having a leader for each individual caste group. Malaichamy was careful in that he wanted all Dalits to unite and demand their rights,” he said, adding that they travelled far and wide in Tamil Nadu, especially in the south, for the cause of Dalits. “When any violence took place, any murder or rape is committed, any communal clash, Malaichamy and I would travel in our two-wheeler and put up posters calling for a protest against the attacks,” he recalled.
Eventually, understanding the impact the Dalit electorate could create, Malaichamy decided to support political parties given that they fulfilled the DPI’s demands. One of the primary demands put forth to the government was to implement the 18% reservation for Dalits and Adivasis. With the Dravidian parties failing to do so, Malaichamy called for all Dalits to boycott the 1989 Assembly election.
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During the late 1980s, when Malaichamy was actively building the DPI movement, a young Government Forensic Officer arrived in Madurai with a letter given to him by a friend. He was asked to meet Malaichamy, who would provide the necessary help for his stay and other needs. The officer was attracted by the politics of Malaichamy and his associates, and joined the movement. A powerful orator, he started addressing meetings where he was able to hold the crowd together. Soon, the youngster – Thol Thirumavalavan – became a close associate of Malaichamy.
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On September 14, 1989, Malaichamy returned home after delivering a speech at a meeting. He was a well-established leader by then. Apart from heading the DPI movement in the state, his political activities had expanded into other areas as well. He was part of several other organisations, such as the Federation of All India SC/ST Employees, Ambedkar Makkal Iyakkam, Dr Ambedkar Educational Society, and others. That fateful night, he took ill and was taken to the hospital, where he passed away. He was only 35. A little over the age when Immanuel Sekaran was killed and Malaichamy died three days after Immanuel’s 32nd death anniversary. What connects both, apart from geographical proximity, is how their education propelled them to agitate and mobilise Dalits for their collective upliftment.
Malaichamy’s son Vinoth Malaichamy, who runs the Dalit Panther Document Centre to collect, preserve, and disseminate the history and documents of the movement, said that his father’s main aim was to create a third Dalit-led front in the state. “They wanted to establish a third Dalit front, opposing the DMK and AIADMK, but after the sudden demise of my father in 1989, the movement lost track,” he told TNM.
“Malaichamy was not a vociferous orator. But his speeches were filled with emotion and he had excellent leadership skills, which made him a prominent leader within a short span of time. After one such meeting, he returned home and fell sick. He was taken to the hospital, where he passed away. I was not present with him during his last moments, but I reached Avaniyapuram as soon as I heard about his death,” said Sengottaiyan. A video of Malaichamy’s funeral shows hundreds of people gathered for the procession, a testament to what an important people’s leader he had been.
Stalin Rajangam said that Thirumavalavan’s oratory skills made him the natural choice to take over as DPI’s leader after Malaichamy’s death. After Thirumavalavan took over the reins of DPI, things started to change. “In 1990, the Madurai-based political movement was transformed into a political party and rechristened Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK). That was the period of ethnic violence in Sri Lanka; Tamil identity as well as Viduthalai Puligal (LTTE) were gaining popularity. Impacted by this, the party was named after the panther,” Stalin said. Several DPI pamphlets mentioned the name Odukkapatta Chiruthaigal (meaning Oppressed Panthers) in parenthesis, which also prompted the name VCK.
Sengottaiyan said that the decision to change the name came after the dismantling of the BDP. “Savita Ambedkar and Athawale disbanded the BDP and joined the Republican Party of India, which was a coalition of several Dalit leaders. After this, we decided to rename the Tamil Nadu movement,” he said. But Sengottaiyan quit the party soon after due to differences of opinion.
Professor Karthikeyan Damodaran from the National Law School of India University said that the Dalit movement was largely nascent during Malaichamy’s time, despite Tamil Nadu having a rich Dalit assertion in the past. “Malaichamy was able to establish some sort of presence. After Thirumavalavan, who came from a different background, took up the mantle, there were significant political interventions in the state. Street politics became widespread and political lobbying started taking place. The 1990s was a crucial period in Dalit politics. John Pandian’s Tamil Nadu Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, Dr Krishnasamy’s PT, and Thirumavalavan’s VCK emerged as key parties among the different Dalit groups,” he told TNM, adding that they were significant in how they changed the dynamics of electoral politics. The Dravidian parties could no longer ignore the Dalit parties.
“The way in which electoral politics functions in the state does not give space for Dalit parties to function independently. Dravidian parties who kept calling them ‘casteist parties’ couldn’t ignore them for a very long time, given that they were able to mobilise the masses. So the Dravidian parties decided to co-opt the Dalit parties, which in a way was also to kill any autonomy that the latter had. When VCK and PT were in their earlier stages, they were able to hit back and make critical comments against the ruling Dravidian parties. But now they are not able to do so, which indicates that somewhere something went wrong,” Prof Karthikeyan added.
Economic clout and political influence among the masses are two indeniable factors when it comes to elections. And this is what leads to Dalit parties joining hands with either of the Dravidian parties, as they do not have the necessary financial resources and are able to make only limited inroads with non-Dalit groups. For instance, the VCK has been trying to project itself as a pan-Tamil party for all Tamil people. Though it has been talking about and fighting for various causes, it is still seen as a comrade of the Dravidian and Communist parties.
“Though the atrocities against Dalits have reduced due to the intervention of these parties, they have also lost whatever they built upon – questions of Dalit mobilisation, representing the Dalit cause, highlighting Dalit issues, fighting for Dalit rights, etc – because of various reasons, including the political machinations in the state. Further, both VCK and PT have aspirations to be part of mainstream politics, so they started moving towards larger issues and identities. PT has moved towards a Hindutva-based identity while VCK wants to assimilate into Dravidian and Tamil identities. This is inevitable when it comes to electoral politics,” Prof Karthikeyan pointed out.
Stalin said that though the movement became successful after Malaichamy, it could have reached far and brought all Dalits under its umbrella, but failed to do so. “The three major groups – Pallar, Paraiyar, and Arunthathiyar – are not in a position to function together for two reasons: intra-rivalry and electoral politics,” he said.
“Why did the Dalit sub-sects turn against each other despite being from the same socioeconomic status? They see each other as enemies, so there is no one to talk against the common enemy. This also helps the current political parties, because if Dalits are consolidated it will impact them. Non-Dalits or dominant political parties led by caste Hindus deliberately encourage such sub-caste division by not adhering to the rule of law. For example, not fulfilling SC reservation, whereby a small difference exaggerated the enmity among them,” said C Lakshmanan, who heads Dalit Intellectual Collective.
Prof Karthikeyan added that there was no intra-rivalry during Malaichamy’s period. “All the three different major Dalit castes – Paraiyar (the largest, numerically), Pallar (the second largest), and Arunthathiyar (third largest) – functioned together. Despite geographical differences, there was no intra-rivalry,” he said. The geographical differences mentioned by Karthikeyan refers to the concentration of people belonging to these caste groups in different parts of Tamil Nadu. People of the Paraiyar caste reside majorly in the northern and central parts; Pallars and other sub-castes (now called Devendra Kula Vellalar) reside in the southern and coastal areas; and Arundhathiyars, who are smaller in number, are scattered.
Stating that Dalit politics has faced a major setback and stagnation in the state, Lakshmanan said that there should be a united front to fight back. “The movement and the party was started because of the need for an independent voice. When it comes to electoral politics, some compromise is inevitable. But now it has reached a point where there are little to no benefits and an attitude where the Dalits are treated like slaves. The pain of Dalits is used as brokerage in the political market. If they [dominant caste group] can mix human waste in drinking water [Vengavayal caste crime] and enter our homes, attack and escape without any resistance [Nanguneri caste crime], what is the state of Dalit politics here?” he asked.
Quoting Ambedkar who said “Democracy is not merely a form of government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellowmen,” Lakshmanan said that Malaichamy lived according to this principle.
While Prof Karthikeyan said that we cannot definitively say if the attacks and atrocities against Dalits have increased or if reports on them have increased, he said that either was due to the failure of Dravidian politics in the state. “Writers, intellectuals, and people at large should see this not as a failure of Dalit politics but as a failure of Dravidian politics. Because, despite ideologically speaking about social justice, inclusive politics, etc for several years, Dravidian parties have not been able to make any changes or make any of these things a reality. The onus of taking responsibility for or preventing these instances should not always be placed on Dalit parties,” he stated.
Semmalar Selvi, who is a Social Work professor in a college in Chennai, said, “The current environment in the state is not conducive for Dalits to even survive. The DMK keeps talking about social justice, Periyar land, Dravidian politics, etc, but there are concentrated attacks on Dalits. Like the Hindutva hate politics in the north, it is caste-based hate politics in Tamil Nadu against Dalits. The DMK government has been utterly disappointing in terms of protecting the cause of Dalits and I am sure this is going to be the pattern. This is evident from looking into the response of this government on the growing brutal atrocities against Dalits which has rampantly increased after the DMK came to power. I don’t have any belief that this government will take an open stand with Dalits,” she said, adding that the government is not standing with the Dalits for fear of losing the support of OBC caste outfits and their votes.
September 14, 2023 marks Malaichamy’s 34th death anniversary.