A collection of research papers under the title ‘Interrogating Enquiry Commission Reports on Caste Violence’, featured in the recently published journal Review of Development & Change, has provided a detailed analysis of five Commissions of Inquiry into incidents of caste violence, including four in Tamil Nadu and one in Andhra Pradesh.
In their overview of these papers, assistant professor C. Lakshmanan of the Madras Institute of Development Studies and professor K. Srinivasulu of the Department of Political Science at Osmania University observed that the papers sought to provide an understanding of caste violence from the perspectives of social justice and democracy.
“The reports of these commissions are almost never critically examined, and hardly any attempt is made to use them as vital source material for research and critical analysis. It is imperative to engage with these statutory resources and deliberate on their findings, observations and recommendations,” the academics contended.
Assistant professor C. Jerome Samraj of Pondicherry University, who analysed the Justice B. Baskaran Enquiry Commission on the caste violence between Adi Dravidars and Caste Hindus in Bodi in 1989, noted that the judge had “overlooked all the instances pointing to the practice of untouchability in the region.”
Vested interest
The report of the Justice S. Mohan High Level Committee that probed caste violence in southern Tamil Nadu hinted that political parties and leaders had a vested interest in keeping the pot of caste hatred and conflict simmering in the State, observed professor M.N. Panini of MYRA School of Business, Mysuru.
Professor K.A. Manikumar of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in Tirunelveli observed that Justice Gomathinayagam, who led the Inquiry Commission that went into the Kodiyankulam violence in Thoothukudi district, “perceived the State as a coercive power and not as an institution to uphold and protect the freedom and rights of individuals.”
“The Justice Sampath Commission [which looked into the Paramakudi police firing in September 2011], by absolving the police of any wrong-doing, endorsed the public execution of the Dalits,” contended assistant professor R. Thirunavukkarasu of the University of Hyderabad.
Professor K. Srinivasulu of Osmania University noted that the report of the Justice K. Punnaiah Commission (on the practice of untouchability against SCs and STs) was “unrealistic” in hoping that untouchability would be wiped out within a short span of a few months or years.