Remembering Karamchedu: The brutal massacre which spurred Andhra's Dalit movement
Image for representation
One way of marking history is by the anniversaries of events of injustice, of suppression, of pillage, and of loot. It is certainly more moral than marking history by the anniversaries of coronations; and more rational than marking it by the birth, death, revelation or flight of a prophet or a leader.
This year, July 17 marked the 31st anniversary of an event that has done much to shape political awareness in the history of Andhra Pradesh. The Karamchedu killings of 1985, when close relatives of the then Chief Minister’s son-in-law, Daggubati Venkateswara Rao, led a brutal assault on the Madigas of the village, killing six men and raping three girls. The assault is remarkable for its brutality that is not captured by the figures of casualties.
You can knife a man to death, or you can smash his skull with an axe, break his limbs, dig a spear into his groin. The two are equally effective ways of committing murder, but when the latter is preferred, the choice conveys a message independent of the fact of the killing.
Karamchedu was a large, prosperous village of Prakasam district in coastal Andhra. Like the other coastal villages of this district, it was a major cultivator of cotton and tobacco. The Madigas and Malas, the two major Dalit castes in Andhra Pradesh, of the village together comprising about 450 households, lived in conditions reminiscent of the cruel age of serfdom of ancient India. Most of the wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few Kamma landlord families, like Daggubati Chenchuramaiah, the father of NTR’s son-in-law and the then TDP’s youth wing leader, and Daggubati Venkateswara Rao, the husband of Daggubati Purandeswari, former Union Minister in the congress-led UPA government. Among the others were well known film producers in the film business. While not all the kammas in the village were rich, the fact that their community was about 6,000 strong in a village of 10,000 people had imbued the dominant sections of the community with tremendous power. And they have indeed put it to good use.
There were two drinking water tanks in the village, one for the Dalits and one for the caste-Hindus. On the evening of July 16, a Kamma youth named Srinivas Rao was feeding bran to his buffalo near the Dalits’s tank. Some of the bran dribbled down into the tank. A Madiga woman named Suvarta, who had come to fetch water, objected to it, and there ensued an altercation between the two. Srinivas Rao took out the thickly plaited rope used for beating buffaloes, and beat Suvarta with it. The girl grabbed at the rope and beat him in return. Some more people joined the issue on both sides but the quarrel was soon settled. That night, however, Kamma youth came to Suvarta’s house and dragged her out. But the neighbouring women interceded and sent the youth away. The Dalits thought the issue was closed, and, therefore, did not anticipate what would happen the next day.
That night, the Kamma youth gathered at a brandy shop in the village and took a decision to attack the Madigas. The other Dalit caste, the Malas, were deliberately spared. They mobilised their fellow caste-men from the neighbouring villages through openly communal and provocative slogans, such as ‘if you are born to a Kamma you come out, if you are born to a Madiga, then don’t’. A mob of about 2,000 Kammas then gathered in tractors and on motorcycles, and surrounded the Madiga houses from all sides.
The surprised Madigas ran for their lives. Some ran into houses, some hid under haystacks, while others ran into the fields. But their pursuers were unrelenting. They ransacked the houses and hacked at the doors and walls with axes. Duddu Vandanam and Duddu Ramesh were caught running out of their houses, and were attacked with axes. Vandanam died on the spot and Ramesh four days later in hospital. Vandanam's mother Duddu Alisamma who was an eyewitness to his death, was found dead under mysterious circumstances a year later. Those who ran into the fields including Tellu Yevasu, Moshe and Muthaiah were chased and murdered there.
The manner in which Moshe, a 70-year-old was killed is illustrative of the gruesome massacre that took place that day. He first begged with them to spare him, as he was an old man. When they started beating him, he ran into the fields. They caught up with him, hacked him with an axe, and as he fell down on his back, they dug a spear into his groin and twisted it. Mutaiah and Yevasu were also beaten with sticks, axed and speared to death in a similar manner. Duddu Yesu was another person who had been axed and died in a hospital five days later, taking the death toll to six. About twenty other were hospitalised with severe injuries to the heads and limbs.
The women were treated equally brutally. They were dragged out of the houses, stripped and molested. Three young girls, Mariamma (11), Victoria (13) and Sulochana were raped and after raping them, the molesters dug sticks into their private parts and twisted them. Sulochana, who was married and pregnant, had an abortion in hospital.
The killings gave birth to a strong organised Dalit movement in Andhra Pradesh. The Dalit Mahasabha was formed as a direct consequence of the Karamchedu killings, and was inaugurated formally at Chirala on September 1, 1985 with the leadership of Katti Padma Rao and Bojja Tarakam. Due to the Dalit Mahasabha’s relentless struggle, the guilty were punished twenty-three years after the incident by the Supreme Court. One person was sentenced to life and twenty-nine others to a term of three years’ imprisonment on December 19, 2008 providing justice, albeit incomplete.
In conclusion, looking back, the Karamchedu massacre shook the conscience of the entire nation. It raised unsettling questions about the ugliness of caste in our society 38 years after independence then and which continues to structurally hollow out our society even to this day.
Note: The views expressed here are the personal opinions of the author.
