Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T06:06:31.282Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Conflicting Opinions of the Colonial Bureaucracy over the Paraiyans Right over ‘Waste’ in late 19th Century Tamil Nadu

from PART 3 - SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND IDENTITIES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2012

Get access

Summary

In the recent past, non-government agencies in several parts of south India have been active in raising issues related to the landlessness of the Dalit communities. (In the early 1970s, a group of radical intellectuals for the first time employed the term ‘Dalit’ to convey the militancy on the part of certain social categories, who had been regarded as ‘untouchables’ and had been the victims of upper caste domination.) These organizations with the support of civil rights activists have placed demands for the release of bonded labourers, implementation of minimum and equal wages and for the basic rights of Dalit groups. In Tamil Nadu, the nongovernment agencies have emphasized the importance of investigating into the local land records, publicizing the ownership details and exposing the loopholes present in the land ceiling laws. However, such activities have failed to protect the Dalit communities from verbal insults and physical abuses. In course of little more than a decade, the upper caste groups in several districts of Tamil Nadu have been involved in reasserting their claims over the Panchama lands (lands which had been kept reserved for the ex ‘untouchable’ communities, who for several centuries had been denied the privileges of land ownership) which for centuries had been utilized by the ‘untouchable’ agricultural labouring groups for residential purposes. In most cases, with the active connivance of the police officials, they unleashed a reign of terror on the indigent Dalit communities.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Changing Identity of Rural India
A Sociohistoric Analysis
, pp. 287 - 312
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×