Fifty Third Memorial Day in Kilvenmani , Tamil Nadu
53 years ago on December 25 th 1968 , 44 Dalit agricultural labourers were hurled in to a hut and burnt alive by Gopalakishnan Naidu and others .
In 1967-68 , agricultural labour ’ unions were formed throughout the Tanjore district and engaged in wage struggle . Agricultural labourers staged protests across the district demanding higher wages . The labourers hoisted Red flags in their villages . This angered the landlords and loose their temper . They decided to crush the people , but it was not possible to them . Then district collector intervened .
At a tripartite meeting chaired by the district collector , Labourers demands were accepted . Yet the landlords did not come forward to implement this and prepared for attacks on labourers . The exploiting classes were mobilized under the leadership of the feudal classes and utilised the unemployed mercenary youth to crush the movement .
The government arrested some labourers who avoided the arrest and organising the struggle but after few days the government arrested some of them .
The then Marxist Party and its farmers ’ union leadership petitioned the district administration and the state administration to intervene and looking for legal avenues to solved the problems .
What happend on 25 December 1968 , at around 10 pm was the landlords and their 200 henchmen came in lorries and surrounded the hutments , cutting off all routes of escape . The attackers shot at the labourers , fatally wounding two of them . Labourers and their families could only throw stones to protect themselves or flee from the spot . Many of the women and children , and some old men , took refuge in a hut that was 8 ft x 9 ft . But the attackers surrounded it and set fire to it , burning them to death . The fire was systematically stoke up with hay and dry wood . Two children thrown out from the burning hut in the hope that they would survive were thrown back into the flames by
January - 2022 the attackers . Of six people who managed to come out of the burning hut , two of whom were caught , hacked to death and thrown back into the flames . Post this heinous crime , attackers went straight to the police station , demanded protection against reprisals and even got it . The massacre resulted in death of 44 , including 5 old aged men , 16 women and 23 children .
In the subsequent trial , the landlords were convicted of involvement in the crime . Ten of them were sentenced to 10 years in jail . However , an appeal court , overturned the conviction . Gopalakrishnan Naidu , leader of the Paddy Producers Association , was accused of being behind the massacre . The Madras High Court acquitted him in 1975 , quashing the Nagapattinam district court judgment awarding him 10 years of imprisonment in 1970 . He was murdered in a revenge attack in 1980 .
As usual , the ruling classes were protected by the police , the regime and the judiciary .
Let us pay homage to the comrades who fight against feudal oppression and suppression !
Let ’ s rally against exploiting class and caste to end this exploiting system ! CPI ( M-L ), Tamil Nadu State Committee
Untouchability
The problem of untouchability is inter-related with the problem of rural land relations . The extent and magnitude of the problem of untouchability is the reflection mainly of the economic lot of the scheduled castes , and a reflection of an economic society with feudal social and economic relations which are still strong . The economic relations in the countryside are such that they are entirely dependent on the high caste landlords .
Due to the “ increasing power of , what is called in India the ‘ rural elite ’, “ the caste system is probably stronger today than it was at the time when India became independent . Caste is so deeply entrenched in , India ’ s traditions that it cannot be eradicated except by drastic surgery ”. (“ Asian Drama ”, Page 279 )
The problem of untouchability can be solved only by a hundred per cent democratic revolution capable of smashing to smithereens the feudal landlord hold in the rural areas , under the impact of mass uprisings , by total elimination of landlordism .
Tension has been growing between landlords and agricultural labourers in various pockets in our country . Writing in the Economic Times ( July 9 , 1970 ) about the tensions in Kilvenmani village , Thanjavur district , in relation to the intensive agricultural district programme , the paper ’ s special correspondent noted that “ the disturbing aspect is the running feud between the landlord class and the agricultural labour in half a dozen taluks constituting the eastern wing of the district ” culminating in a “ ghastly incident in which 42 persons , mostly women and children , were burnt alive ”. Struggle for fair wages unleashes the fury in un-imaginable magnitude , among the landlords on the down-trodden agricultural labour .
( From “ India Mortgaged ” ( Chapter-Agricultural Labour ))
from page 26 NATO .... Council as soon as possible in the new year ,” Mr . Stoltenberg told a news conference in Brussels .
Mr . Stoltenberg , however , made it clear that it was solely up to NATO and Ukraine to decide about a future membership of Kyiv .
Meanwhile , President Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday that Russia was prepared to take “ military-technical measures ” in response to “ unfriendly ” Western actions over the Ukraine conflict .
Mr . Putin told defence ministry officials that if the West continued its “ obviously aggressive stance ”, Russia would take “ appropriate retaliatory military-technical measures ”.
“ If this infrastructure moves further — if U . S . and NATO missile systems appear in Ukraine — then their approach time to Moscow will be reduced to seven or 10 minutes ,” he said . Despite hinting at conflict , Mr . Putin said that Russia wants to avoid “ bloodshed ”.
- Reuters , 22-12-2021 j 25