ABSTRACT
In June 2000, after a number of killings of people of Dalit origin, the journal Frontline reported about yet another caste-based act of violence with the article: ‘Victims of bias: The recent murder of three Dalits in Cuddalore district shows that caste oppression is a living reality in rural Tamil Nadu’. This articulated what was being widely discussed in the public and in the private sphere of Tamil Nadu: conflicts along the lines of caste are common and often brutally exercised. Reports about caste-based murder, violence and discrimination are not only part of everyday news, but also of everyday communication with low caste people, who told me countless stories about the potency of caste up until today.
