Friday, August 24, 2007 detour Tsundur
my friend nagesh s article If one ever happens to visit Tsundur one would come across the tombs at the centre of the village. It is unusual for any village to have a burial ground in the middle of the village. One may wonder why? The question takes one to the incident that happened way back during the monsoon of the year 1991. On 6th August 1991 the upper caste villagers, from Reddy and Kapu communities, including women stormed the Dalit colony with the help of police and killed nine Dalits. In all nine Dalits died in the attack. Their bodies were cut into pieces, put in gunny bags and thrown into the Tungbhadra drainage as well as adjacent paddy fields and canals. The bloated bodies were fished out after three days. It is here that the bodies of the massacred were laid down to rest. These tombs are the result of such an incident that could only happen in our great country of unity in diversity. Tsundur has one similarity with the national capital. Even the national capital has many tombs at its heart, of the freedom fighters, with various titles to convey the sacrifices, committed by our "great' leaders. But here, in Tsundur this place is named 'Rakta Kshetram', the land of blood. It was here that the Dalit blood was shed. Unlike our national capital, where a tomb reminds us of the great things done by the leaders, here it conveys the peculiarity that India has, that is Untouchability. Walk a little ahead you will find the cinema theatre. But it is Dr B R Ambedkar Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential School for Boys. One could easily have mistaken it for a cinema hall had it not been for the board saying it is a school. It is actually a cinema theatre, where it all started. A dalit graduate, Govatota Ravi purchased a chair class ticket, against the unwritten norm that dalits are not allowed to enter in to chair class. As he entered in to the chair class the upper caste Reddys started beating him for he crossed his limits. But he retaliated with the help of his friends. This is how it all began at this school. A Special court under The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prvention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 which was a primary school earlier, will follow the cinema theatre as one passes by. This is the first-ever Special Court in the country, set up at the venue of atrocity, where the case had been running for nearly 16 years. With a population of over 10,000, Tsundur is a village and Mandal head quarter, nearly 50 km from Vijayawada, in Guntur district of Coastal Andhra Pradesh. The Dalit localities are clearly demarkated and separated by roads from those of the upper castes. Among the Dalits, the Malas and the Madigas are the two Scheduled castes that comprise the Dalitwada called Ambedkarnagar. A visit to Tsundur reveals many things about the consequences of the incident. Every house has a story. The stories of mothers who lost their sons, the story of a girl who lost her two brothers, the story of an old man who lost his only son. One can meet the families of the massacred dalits from here to get some insight in to the incident and its consequences. If one gets into the details of the movement, Tsundur incident is only one of the innumerable killings of Dalits, the recent massacre of four members of the same family at Khairlanji, in Maharashtra is one example of such an incident, but the movement that was led was entirely in contrast to all other movements. It took nearly one month for Khairlanji massacre to make it to the news papers. But tsundur attracted the whole nation's attention in no time. "The reason is Malas and Madigas of this region of Guntur and Krishna districts are better educated, assertive and identity-conscious than those elsewhere." Writes K Balagopal. First and fore most it gave rise to the national wide agitations against untouchability and discrimination, some thing which had occurred never before in its scale and scope. The movement was led by K Padma Rao, the founder of Dalit Mahasabha. An academic and author of many books, he took chrage of the struggle for justice for the Dalits of Tsundur. There are many issues that the Tsundur movement brought in to the fore. First and foremost is the recognition of the problem of caste issue in the political agendas of all the parties. The left parties had to introduce caste issue in their political agenda. Even the then Peoples War Group was divided on the issue of caste. At the governmental level the "movement led the union government to make Mr. K R Narayan, the vice president of India" says Katti Padma Rao, who led the movement. He says "Tsundur movement made the issue of caste and untouchability to the international forums". The Dalits of Tsundur refused for the trial elsewhere. They demanded that a special court be constituted in Tsundur itself. They also demanded the appointment of public prosecutors of their choice to argue their case in the special court. Finally, the government had to set up a special court in Tsundur with a judge belonging to the Dalit community. The struggle by Dalits could only bring the Special Court to their village but not the justice. They have waited for more than a decade and half. Although the massacre took place in 1991, it took 13 years for the trial to begin. The trial began in December 2004 at a court specially constituted in the same village. It is no wonder that in India the judiciary some times takes more than the average life expectancy of an Indian. Many a thing has changed in Tsundur during all these 16 years, in terms of the structure of the village. If one visits the village one gets a feeling, and it appears, that it has developed during all these 16 years for the measures taken by the government in effect to the movement. But appearances are deceptive. The concrete box-like structures (houses built by government) appear in the place of the mud- walled houses, all concrete roads in the place of gravel roads, electricity in every household, electric lights in the place of kerosene lamps, and the electric lights around the photo frames of their loved ones, massacred in their houses. "After all these are the photographs we are left with" a woman who lost her two brothers, says. Every family lives in the memory of their sons. There is one more place that deserves the attention of any visitor to this (in)famous village, the Memorial for Kommerla Anil Kumar, a graduation student, who was killed by police while protesting against the massacre. The village has become a place of landmarks. Rakta kshetram symbolising the brutal massacre, the special court, symbolising the long await for justice, and Anil Kumar memorial, symbolising the Dalit Assertion. The village itself is a mark on the Indian land. There are many things that occurred in the village after the incident in the village. Tsundur was divided in to three Panchayats as Dalits did not want to be ruled by upper castes. Now they have their own panchayat, Ambedkar nagar, constituting 'MALA' and 'MADIGA' communities. A residential school was sanctioned and started in the cinema theatre. 15 academic years have passed; the school has not been allotted any land for constructing the new building. No where in the country had we seen a school, being conducted in a cinema theatre. This is also unique to Tsundur. "The upper castes are not permitting the government to buy their land to construct the new building for the school" says Srinivasa Rao, an engineering student who studied in the school. The school stands as the testimony for the state's inaction. Tsundur is again in the news after so long for the judgment in the massacre case is scheduled on 31st of this month, it's been nearly sixteen years and august 6th is the 16th anniversary of the massacre. As the news of the final judgment appeared in the news papers I went to the village to speak to the families. But no one is ready to speak about it; after all they are tired of waiting for 16 years and giving sound bytes to cameras and quotes to the news papers. "What can we do? We lost our only son and this is the only thing we have now" says, Mukkanti, whose only son was killed in the massacre. at 11:43 PM Posted by Nageshwar Rao 3 comments --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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