If you don’t live in this southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu, it is very likely you haven’t heard about this heart-rending and at the same touching incident that took place in a village in Tamil Nadu.
This column, as you know, is called, ‘Candles in the Dark.’ There is darkness in this incident as well as a candle—a humble but shining candle.
Nearly two months ago, on 2 December 2019, in a village called Nadur near Mettupalayam in Tamil Nadu, a compound wall, 80 feet long and 20 feet high, fell on four houses, killing seventeen people. It was raining the whole night and the rain was heavy at times, but what led to the death of seventeen poor Dalits?
The wall had been built by a wealthy man behind his house. But have you heard of a wall 8o feet long and 20 feet high? Why would a man think of such a wall, higher than probably most prison walls? He belonged to what he thought was a high caste and, they say, he did not want Dalits anywhere near the area where he and those of his caste lived in the village.
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Fr M A Joe Antony SJ
