The 1995 caste reprisals that scarred southern T.N. also touched Communist leader Nallakannu’s life
The recent passing of Communist Party of India (CPI) veteran R. Nallakannu has revived memories of a dark chapter in Tamil Nadu’s history and of
The recent passing of Communist Party of India (CPI) veteran R. Nallakannu has revived memories of a dark chapter in Tamil Nadu’s history and of a profound personal tragedy he endured. On December 3, 1995, Nallakannu’s 84-year-old father-in-law, A.K. Annasamy, was murdered by a gang while he was asleep at his house in Marudanvalvu village, then part of Chidambaranar district (now Thoothukudi district). The killing unfolded at a time when southern Tamil Nadu was in the grip of sustained caste violence. Annasamy’s murder was not an isolated incident. Through the 1990s, large parts of southern Tamil Nadu were rocked by repeated caste clashes, leading to heavy loss of life and property and instilling fear among residents. The worst-affected areas were Tirunelveli Kattabomman and Chidambaranar districts, where tensions between Maravars, a caste Hindu land-holding community, and Pallars, now classified within the Devendra Kula Vellalars, a Scheduled Caste group, frequently erupted into violence. Perusal of archival reports in The Hindu and its sister publication, Frontline, which extensively covered the clashes, reveals that hundreds of lives were lost to these caste-related violences in the last decade of the 20th century. Escalation of conflict The sporadic unrest that began in the early 1990s resurfaced sharply in 1995 after a relative lull. On July 26, 1995, a quarrel between a bus driver and a group of schoolboys escalated.
It reached a flashpoint following a kabaddi match at a government school, triggering a fresh cycle of confrontation. By the end of August, close to 600 police personnel descended on Kodiyankulam, an all-Scheduled Caste village in Chidambaranar district. The village was subjected to ransacking and widespread destruction of property. After this incident, there was a brief hiatus of nearly two months. However, the calm did not last long. A Scheduled Caste cowherd was brutally killed in Kodiyankulam on November 28. A couple of days later, on December 1, another member of the community working in a quarry in Tirunelveli Kattabomman district was killed by a group of Maravars. The following day, two passengers from the Maravar community were killed on a bus. In retaliation, four Scheduled Caste members were killed. The clashes soon spread to neighbouring Chidambaranar district. On December 3, within a span of three hours, four Maravars, including a father-son duo and a Village Administrative Officer, were killed at different locations in Maniyachi taluk. Annasamy was among those killed. By December 1995, the violence had spiralled into a brutal chain of reprisals, claiming close to 38 lives within six months, according to a report published in Frontline in December 1995. “The disfigurement of a statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar at Nannagaram, near the residence of the then Union Minister of State for Industries M.
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