Should Andhra people like Vakavaka Pakapaka hang their heads in shame?

Hyderabad: Dalits in Andhra Pradesh face more violence than in any other state in Southern India.AP is the fourth state after Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan that has the highest number of crimes committed against Dalits in India. A total of 4,415 cases were reported across the state in 2015, National Crime Records Bureau reveals. As per the NCRB data, 9.8 per cent of total cases reported in India occurred in AP.
A state with more than 84 lakh Dalits, AP has the second largest rate of violence against Scheduled Castes in the country after Rajasthan, as per the population ratio.


Telangana also saw an increase in crime against Dalits in the last year. As many as 1,678 cases in which Dalits were victims were reported in the state in 2015.

Human rights activists say that though organised violence against Dalits has decreased in the state, spontaneous attacks on lower castes have been on the rise.
The data shows that Dalit women face sexual harassment frequently in the state. More than 300 women faced various degrees of sexual assault. More than 100 women were raped, while others were molested. As many as 21 women were stripped by the perpetrators in various places in AP too last year.
According to Dalit Rights activists, the Right wing government is inactive when it comes to violence on Dalits. “Sangh Parivar’s own militant units target Dalits in the state, and the governments, in the Centre and state, are inactive because they are extreme Right wing in nature.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/030916/dalits-most-vulnerable-in-andhra-pradesh-than-any-other-state-in-southern-india.html

VIJAYAWADA


 Two Dalit brothers are in hospital in Andhra Pradesh after being stripped, tied to a tree and thrashed after they were seen skinning a dead cow on Monday night.

Police say the attackers, eight in all, who have now been arrested, were not members of a cow protection squad, but owned a group of cows who had gone missing.

"When they saw a dead cow being skinned in the graveyard on Monday night, they suspected it was a stolen cow and beat up the brothers," said senior police officer M Ravi Prakash.

The attack took place in Amalapuram town of East Godavari district in the southern state.

The victims, Mokati Elisa and his brother Lazar, have head and some body injuries.

http://www.ndtv.com/andhra-pradesh-news/2-dalit-men-thrashed-allegedly-by-gau-rakshaks-in-andhra-pradesh-1442356

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. 


http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/remembering-karamchedu-brutal-massacre-which-spurred-andhras-dalit-movement-46737