THE place is Kothattai village in Cuddalore district. We have to travel a bit to reach the village from the main road and further walk over an uneven area to arrive at the Irula tribe's hutment. About 20 families are settled there. During the first wave of Covid, some relief work was done in their area and surroundings by the CPI(M) Parangipettai taluk committee. Soon after that, taluk committee secretary Ramesh Babu received a call from Ranjita belonging to the tribe. She said, "Anna (brother), can you come to our village?" When the comrades went there, the people, mostly women, cried their hearts out about not having any ID card including Aadhaar, caste certificate etc. Every rain has brought innumerable grief to them and the threat from the administration that they may be displaced anytime on account of their alleged 'encroachment' was hanging thickly in the air like the sword of Damocles. They wanted a place of their own. Though the administration gave an order allotting pattas to them, even after 20 years, it did not materialise. The land was possessed and controlled by a few families of dominant caste. The tribal people were threatened and intimidated, so, the house sites remained only on paper. The Party decided to take up all their issues.

The Party organised them and other Irulas residing nearby and demanded caste certificates. Without certificates, education and employment opportunities were hard to come by.  At that time, a young IAS officer took charge as sub collector and visited the area at our insistence and understood the situation. With his intervention, the Party was able to get caste certificates for 115 persons of the tribe. This was their first victory in the last 20 years.

It was noticed that the men from the area were very hesitant to join the struggle due to fear of police harassment. But once when they saw the Party activists facing the police nonchalantly, they got the courage to stand up. It was a palpable change.

Next the issue of retrieval of their land was taken up. Due to our agitations, the land was measured and retrieved. During the process, a branch of AIDWA and DYFI was formed. People had heard of the fight of the red flag on an industrial pollution issue in a nearby area. So their trust on the Party grew. Finally the day came when the sub collector issued pattas for 3 cent land each to 11 families who were accompanied by our comrades. They were ushered into the AC room and asked to sit on the sofa. All their lives, they had to bow and prostrate and this new experience gave them more confidence. The minute their hands came into contact with the actual patta, they became highly emotional. Seeing that, the sub collector was very much moved and our comrades too were in tears. Visibly emotional Ranjita, who was pregnant at that time, tried to touch the feet of the Party secretary and she was rightly stopped  and told that it is not  anybody's mercy,  it was their own struggle for dignity as a matter of  right which brought them to this step. 

We have further demanded the administration to help construct the houses. Their 20 year dream is coming alive and they want to name the area as 'sengodi nagar' (red flag area) and requested the Party to inaugurate once the houses are built.

One of the women from the dominant community was upset over the retrieval of land from their control and hurled indecent words on our comrades, "you people are dressed decently but why do you want to help these ......?" What does decency have to do with fighting for one's basic rights? The typical mindset created by oppressive caste ideology bared itself.

Now words like sir and anna disappeared and everyone is calling us 'comrade'. Nobody forced them to do it but the whole process of struggle taught them to change the parlance.

After this, in other areas of the district, the fight is being expanded. In Vridhachalam taluk, Party laid seige to tehsildar office demanding caste certificates and house sites for the people of Irula tribe. Scores of people participated. In Kattumannargudi taluk, dominant caste forces attacked Malai Kurava tribe for daring to demand house sites. The Party stood with the affected people and has vowed to take up their cause.

(With inputs from Ramesh Babu of Parangipettai, Asokan of Vridhachalam and Thenmozhi of Kattumannargudi)