On Nov. 27 1991, I visited Kamavaram village bordering AP. One or two pastors working in the Bellary area of the CSI (Karnataka Northern Diocese) had been asking me to visit Kamavaram as it was facing an explosive situation.
Kamavaram, Adoni Taluk, Kurnool dt ., Andhra Pradesh, is 20 km from Adoni and 5 kms from Kuvutalam housing the mandal panchayat office, police station etc. It has about 200 to 300 families of which Dalit Christians (Madigas) are 60 families. The others are Reddys, Lingayats, few Brahmins, Muslims, few Backward Castes like Bedas, Begaru (also SCs) and the rest are Madigas (Dalits)
The local pastor is stationed at Kuvutalam. I met 20 Dalits Christians of Kamavaram in the church and they narrated their long-standing dispute with the Hindus. Their huts were recently torched. A Christian marriage procession was attacked. They filed a case. Still a Dalit Christian leader, Karunappa, was fatally assauled when he was asleep. The last serious incident was during the Muharram when 12 Dalits Christians who went to join the festival were brutally attacked.
Soon the village people clamped a social boycott. Shops were closed. Even Begaru (like Malas) and Madigas and Muslims joined the Hindus. The police filed cases against 11 and this added fuel to the fire. The police camped in the village for a few days but mostly guarding the upper castes and enjoying their hospitality.
Chundur news: Things came back to normalcy but Dalit Christians cannot work freely. The upper castes use the most vulgar and abusive language against them.
When the news of Chunder mass murder came, there was a big excitement in the village (among upper castes) saying that the Dalit Christians in their village will also be butchered in the same way.
The Dalit Christians in Kamavaram are living under terror day and night. As they live in thatched huts they fear that any time they may be burnt alive. The Church, they said, never bothered about them. The local pastor also is under the wrath of the upper castes.
Dalit Christians feel that the jealousy against them is because they have a well-built church and that some of them became literate and that they wear clean dresses and have wrist watches. They possess some land of 2 to 10 acres – mostly dry, and are not totally dependent on Hindus.
