ABSTRACT

Palani Kumar is a local organiser of the Dalit Panther Iyyakkam (Movement) (DPI). He lives in the Melavassel housing estate in Madurai and is constantly visited by a stream of people seeking help, advice or news of the movement. In July 2002, he spoke of the Melavassel Riot:

In 1995 – shortly after I finished college – I was asked by some DPI lads to address a meeting / festival they were having. I was reluctant, but they wanted me to talk about college and encourage the youngsters and so I agreed . . . There was a moderate crowd but when it was my turn to speak there was a drunkard making a nuisance. I said to him, ‘Subramani, stop reeling about when we are trying to have a meeting, go inside and sleep it off.’ He refused and there was a bit of a row before some lads . . . knocked him about and told him to push off. Now this Subramani . . . went off, got a policeman and told him that he had been roughed up and they came back together. The thing was the policeman was off duty, he was in ‘mufti’ [plain clothes] and not in uniform. So he came up to us and said: ‘Who is Palani Kumar?’ and I stepped forward and with no explanation or anything he hit me across the face. The next minute could also be said to have sealed my fate [i.e. made him a movement activist], because the man who hit me was being thrashed by 40 or so people.