Ilavarasan weds Divya – A Slap across the Face of Tamil Nadu

One of the worst and shameful incidents has unfolded in Tamil Nadu in the past 8 months starting November 2012. It all started when a boy from a LOWER caste married a girl from a HIGHER caste. The location where this happened was Dharmapuri, one of Tamil Nadu’s northern states known well for caste based violence. By violence, I mean ripping out intestines, poking out eyes, roasting flesh and what not. And all this are done to a fellow human and not to some animal. Yes, violence that can tear apart a human body and with it, a family.

  The boy and the girl loved each other. It was most probably an honest love that grew between those 2 hearts. The brave girl, decided that the love was more important than the caste that separated them. In places like Dharmapuri and few other ‘illiterate’ ‘uncivilized’ districts in Tamil Nadu, even to speak to a member of the LOWER caste was a crime and the person involved is subjected to severe and gruesome punishment. Despite knowing all this, the couple decided to end up marrying and got married. That is all they did. Nothing sinful, but just marry each other.


The father of the girl as soon as he heard that his daughter had married a boy from the gutters of the society, killed himself out of shame. The death of a person from a HIGHER caste because of a person from a LOWER caste, unleashed a hell. The entire town where the LOWER caste boy lived burned. Because they were LOWER in society, mostly the place was filled with huts made of dried palm leaves. The fire destroyed most of the town including houses and shops. Those who perpetrated this crime rejoiced at the death of each life. Apparently, the HIGHER caste animals had a political representation for them in the form of a failed political party. The party that is named after the name of the HIGHER caste provoked and instigated the violence further by giving blood enraging speech about how important caste is and how it is a crime to love another person from another caste. The mad leader and the equally idiotic followers did the mad act and allowed for the town to burn.
 
What followed next was a series of cinematic events that cascaded to the death of the boy ‘Ilavarasan’ today (04.07.2013). He killed himself by falling before a speeding train in Dharmapuri.

A case was filed in the Madras High Court demanding the nullification of the marriage because it was not legal and also sighting the fact that the boy mesmerized the girl unlawfully and married her for monetary gains. Though the couple argued that they were married for love and they loved each other, the case proceeded blindly. During the second hearing, the girl Divya said she is not going to leave her husband. During the third hearing, knowing not what changed her mind, she said she was going with her mum leaving Ilavarasan. In a press interview, she said she was ready to get back to Ilavarasan if her mother accepted him and the marriage. And finally in another hearing, Divya declared that she was never going to live with Ilavarasan again because she was hurt her father died because of her and also she was hurt that a violence broke out because of the marriage.
Ilavarasan who loved her truly was not able to bear her departure and made up his mind and fell in front of a train.

So…. Loss of 2 lives and several properties. All this happened because two people loved each other. Dreamed of a beautiful life together. All they got was nothing but tragedy that will haunt them for their lives. Who knows? Will this suicide rampage stop with the 2 men?

What has this caste brought the people? If you can think, there is not one good thing. But still blind ignorant people stick on to their castes valuing it more than their lives and are mentally so scared that they are ready to destroy other’s lives.

In a secular democracy like India, it is surprising we do not have a legislation to prohibit the formation of political parties based on religion and caste. When parties are allowed to form based on caste and religion, the whole concept of secularism is thrown into the trash.

The anger in me can never be said in words. My anger towards those who provoked and allowed the violence to take place. My anger towards those who didn’t do anything to prevent the violence. My anger on those people in Dharmapuri who are such fools. My anger on the girl Divya for bending down finally to the social evil which resulted in the death of her dad and Ilavarasan. My anger on Ilavarasan for killing himself. 

This incident is nothing but a hard slap across the face of Tamil Nadu which is considered as one of the most peaceful states in India. Though the government did some arrests here and there, there was no repaying of the lives of those 2 men.
 
It is the responsibility of the parents to teach their children… Sorry, to prevent their children from knowing anything about caste. I still don’t understand why we need community certificates and reservations. Those are completely a vote bank based schemes. Though it serves good for a few people, ultimately it is a parasite that sucks out efficiency and productivity from any country’s economy that follows reservation and caste based politics. Slowly and very slowly as education spreads and enlightens the minds of several oblivious citizens, such incidents will have to be tolerated with a heavy heart. No matter what kind of government comes and goes, unless people are the change, change can never happen.

For those of you who haven’t seen the movie “Vetham Puthithu” by Barathiraja, kindly watch it whenever time permits. It clearly shows how crude and painful caste and its atrocities can be. As said in that movie, the youth of India must come out of the caste & religion chains that binds them and evolve to be free thinkers and ultimately a civilized citizen.







PS: update in June 2018 - my views on reservation has radically changed in the past few years and I now believe that reservation based on caste was an attempt to overcome the prevailing inequality that was created because of caste in the first place. Having said that, it is very important that populations eliminate the idea of caste from their thought process and avoid attaching it with their identities. Why association of caste to a personal identity will inevitably result in detrimental effects on societal well being. 

Comments

  1. Good article but people will forget this in few days. Maradhi, oru desiya vyadhi.

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  2. I apprciate the blogger for this article,if he s from upper caste.

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  3. Actually, since I had forgotten what caste I am, I cannot categorically say whether am from the UPPER side or LOWER side. Is that okay..??

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  4. Divya and Ilavarasan
    Ilavarasan, whose marriage to the upper caste girl triggered anti-Dalit violence in three villages of the district dharmapuri.

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  5. AGAIN PROVED THAT TRUE LUV ENDS IN DEATH ..............

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  6. jathikalai kathalipavarkala mudinthal..........
    kathalukum katru kodungal
    managalai maranthu jathikalai parthu kathalika

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  7. Part I:
    Excellent write up by the Blogger Sambath Kumar. No matter which caste you belong, you made your effort to be honest and diligent in your story telling, you deserve to be appreciated the least, so bravo.
    However, there were few areas that has flawed or erroneous information that must be clarified both to the writer and to the readers. The First Problem is a perception problem or a poor understanding that all "true love" marriages end of in Death, whether the author said that or some individual commenter made that point, that is not true. There are hundreds of Dalits married to brahmins and other castes living in big metros and other cities harmoniously and positively, this is throughout nationwide. Though that number of such survived marriage is limited compared to failed, divorced or disabled marriages, overall the reality is not what people think that love marriages end in death. Infact, I do not care or believe in castes, but for arguments and discussion, I had to mention the castes and there is no other way to explain. The examples of intercaste marriage I quoted above are mostly upper castes, the real upper castes like brahmins marrying dalits. Infact, vanniyars are not an upper caste, but according hindu pathology of castes, vanniyars are shudras, the lower castes. And, dalits are altogether "outcastes", they do not belong to hindu varnshrama or caste division at all, it is the RSS thugs and other hindu outfits keep mixing up them with lower castes (this is a huge topic to discuss, so let me not get in to details of it, this is FYI). So, please be mindful that not all love marriages end of in death and that is not true. But, what is true is in villages, most love marriages or intercaste marriages end up into dangerous dispute, clashes, violence and at times death. More than death, I believe honor killing, the so called caste hindus killing their own daughter or sons is common.

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  8. Part II
    Secondly, the calling death of Illavarsan as suicide is simply perplexing to me, a good and honest writer like yourself must think, is it a suicide?, who said? and what proof anybody has to say this is suicide. The Police clowns and thugs been on this case manipulating and destroying from the very beginning, and how can you expect a honest and truthful investigation, it is the police and state completely covered up a murder case, do we have enough evidence to prove murder, well not really, but it is not suicide, so one must be careful to call it, as there is so much politicking and muscle flexing is going on. The same police that is going on arresting dalits and dalit leaders and lawyers for no legitimate reason have never properly investigated, interrogated and punished the killers and criminals, how is that for a reality?. Thirdly, Divya and her behavior became so erratic because of vanniyar politicians, members and lawyers brainstormed and perplexed her with fear and scare mongering. In a layman's term "brainwashed" her, so that she goes back to her mom than legally and love fully wedded husband.That was the beginning of even more disaster than what was already going on in Dharmapuri, the alleged murderous death of Illavarsan.

    Fourth, Not a single person is convicted till today, not a single person, especially the vanniyar party PMK has been given a free ride throughout this rampage and after, what can be said of this lawlessness in Tamil Nadu, no one is considerate enough to talk about police atrocity, the fear they have been creating among the dalit victims, just week ago, they arrested 6 dalits, and whoever goes to the police station to inquire and plea for the release of the arrested are being arrested too and kept in police station, that is the level of freedom and democracy we have in Tamil Nadu. Fifth, the most important flaw I saw in your quite nicely written article is this, the last couple of paragraph where you talk about "Reservation", this is probably one of the most misunderstood or poorly understood by many Indians, I cannot blame you for what you thought about it, but my message can give some insights to you and others, so that you all can think bit deeply about it. Our great Dr.B.R.Ambedkar, the Father of Modern India and Constitution, realized, how to resolve this poverty, illiteracy and inequality, so huge a problem that has no solution and none in the foreseeable future, realized that, there is only way one can bring up the Oppressed, exploited and abused group in a country, by making a mandatory and legal representation of opportunities (in America, they call this as "Affirmitive Action). What that means, when a society is deprived and abused, segregated certain groups as untouchables and totally kept them out of any and every opportunity, a equal opportunity measure can help heal this disease, and then came the reservation. If you look at the changes and developments happening in India, you cannot understand the growth of India without looking at how much developments the dalits have attained, the reservation uplifted millions of dalits and their families, and continued to help balancing India's unequal society....it is long way to go. Reservation is the greatest policy ever created in India or any other country for that matter. What is going on is a constant effort to sabotage this reservation policy. And, that is my friend will not be good for India, when the society become equal in every sense, then one can dismantle this policy, until then no on can touch this great policy. Now, one can ask about misuse, abuse and issues, yes, the implementation of reservation has some cracks and holes, no political party ever showed interest to fix them, similarly there are some so called upper castes abuse, for example,

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  9. Part III
    , for example, the very Ramadoss the caste party leader who's party is been the center of this caste violence alleged to got a sc/st certificate to get medical degree....what better example you want about abuse of a great policy, regardless of all these minor issues, the reservation policy has been of great help to India's construction of a equal society.

    I am not here to find fault in anybody's writings, but a right perception and balanced view will go long way educating more people in the right direction, I hope you will accept this long comment, sorry I could not make it any shorter than this one.
    Thank you for educating people and making our India a better place, India needs many good youngsters like you.

    Because the Blogger does not allow more than 4000 characters, I had to split my comments into three parts...Hope the author and reader put up with it patiently and just read what is important.

    Thanks
    ~~Saint, the Upliftthem Blogger who exposed PMKs Atrocity

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  10. Dear Mr. Saint

    I sincerely thank you for the heart warming appreciations you have bestowed on my post.

    I agree to your first 2 facts and just to let you know that the same is what I believe.

    I am certain that all Love marriages does not end up in death. A standing proof for that are my parents who married for love and are from 2 different castes. And yes, it seems as though I must agree that Illavarasan did not kill himself. Yes, it strikes me now that it could not have been a suicide. And it makes me evens sad that they are happy now and not punished. I am not someone who believes they will face eternal suffering and hence, I believe in justice served here on earth.

    And about RESERVATION. It is something that has been plaguing India. Don't get me wrong. I totally agree to the fact that equality is a factor that is prime to a society. Having lived here in Canada for over an year, it is clear as to what equality can do. But at what cost are we endorsing equality? Yes, Indian society has been improving constantly and striving towards equality. Reservation, according to me has to be mandatory in education. Everyone must be given an equal opportunity to study and EVERYONE must be imparted basic knowledge and probably even technical education. But NO, I cannot ever accept RESERVATION in employment. It is an infestation that corrupts and kills our economy. I am sure an intelligent person as you must agree that unskilled people ending up in crucial sectors of our economy causes serious inefficiencies.

    Thanks for your time. Hope you proceed with the conversation.

    Sambath

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