On 9th August (2023) night, a class 12 Schedule Caste student Chinnadurai, and his 13-year-old sister Chandraselvi were attacked with sickles inside their home at Nanguneri, Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district by three of Chhinnadurai’s schoolmates, hours after complaining to the headmaster against them. The victims are students of a government-aided school in Valliyoor. Chinnadurai was subjected to casteist harassment at school by the other students of class 11 and 12. He was asked to buy cigarettes and snacks by them and was also regularly bullied. Chinnadurai complained of harassment to his parents and had refused to attend school for a week before he was attacked. His mother Ambikapathi took him to school and informed his teacher about what had happened.
The teacher then called the harassers and warned them saying that action would be taken against them if they continued this behaviour. After the class hours on 9th August, the angered harassers confronted Chinnadurai on his way back home and warned him of dire consequences for complaining to the headmaster. Around 10.30 pm on the same day, the three dominant caste students barged into the victim’s home and started attacking him with sickles. Hearing the mayhem, Chandraselvi who went to protect her brother, too, was hacked by them. When some neighbours rushed to their house on hearing their cry for help, the attackers fled the spot. The siblings were rushed to the Nanguneri government hospital with bleeding injuries and later to the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital.
Not an isolated event. Incidents such as this not only make us raise our eyebrows but it also spurs us to question our education system. In the first page of every Tamil Nadu school text book, the following dictum is printed: “Untouchability is a Sin; Untouchability is a Crime; Untouchability is Inhuman.” Although we learned this maxim by heart over the years, we have failed to understand the meaning of it let alone practising it. Since we have got used to this axiom for several years, it has become a cliché – a part of our mind yet failed to touch our hearts. The Nanguneri issue is one tangible sign – albeit not an isolated one – of our failure to imbibe this great truth.
Fr Arnald Mahesh SDB
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