Two decades after the infamous untouchability wall came up in Uthapuram near Madurai,a influential backward community and Dalits signed an agreement last week that may pave the way for a new beginning in this village. The Dalits will now get access to the Muthalamman temple in Uthapuram,where they were not allowed so far,and the holy tree in its vicinity. In keeping with another demand of theirs,land would soon be identified and construction taken up of a bus shelter on the main road. In the severely casteist rural heartland of Tamil Nadu,the Dalits of Uthapuram were not permitted to stand on the road to wait for a bus. Instead,they had to wait in the inner streets and run to the main road when they heard an approaching bus. After the existence of the wall was brought to public and media attention by the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front three years ago,the then DMK government had reopened a road from the main road to the Dalit hamlet,which the wall had blocked. A portion of the wall was demolished on May 6,2008,after the intervention of CPM and human rights organisations. However,fearing reprisals from the influential Pillaimars,the Dalits never used the road connected them to the main road after the police left. The agreement signed on Thursday at the district police office was made possible by the intervention of the district authorities,especially the rural police headed by Superintendent Asra Garg,who held a series of meetings with the elders of the two communities over the past few weeks. We involved their leaders not just from the Uthapuram village but from the neighbouring region as well. We impressed upon them the need to resolve outstanding issues, Garg told The Indian Express. Following the agreement,the cases against members of both the communities related to clashes between them would be withdrawn. While there had been major clashes between the Dalits and Pillaimars in 1948 and 1964 as well,the caste wall came up after one such conflict in 1989. Five people died in the 1989 clash,following which elders from 18 neighbouring villages met and decided that a wall be constructed to physically separate the two communities. The wall came up right in the middle of the Dalit hamlet,blocking their access to the main road. Only a small pathway was left leading up to the Dalit area inside the village.
