Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee document on the mass murder of Untouchables in Chundur village, Guntur district of AP on Aug. 6, 1991. The document clearly blames “the upper caste intolerance of Dalit self-assertion” for Chundur mass murder. It also holds the Reddies, the fourth grade shudra jati in the four-fold Hindu religion, responsible for the murder. The Chief Minister of AP is a Reddy. The Chundur Hindus hated the Dalits getting educated. They did not like many among the village Dalits becoming graduates. It is this hatred that sparked off the tragedy. Of the 2,400 acres of cultivable land the Reddys alone owned 50%. Dalits had just 90 acres. The mere 25 Brahmins in the village owned over 100 acres. Despite all their deprivation, Dalits were well educated and politically strong. The village Mandal chief was a Dalit and belonged to the ruling Congress Party. Both the killer Reddies and the Dalit victims voted for the Congress in the last election.
This proves that political parties in India cannot bring about social, cultural changes. Chundur also proves that political unity will not bring socio-cultural unity. Hence the need for the social, cultural, religious and political separation of Dalits from Hindus.
The Aug.6 carnage was the result of full Hindu police collaboration with the Hindu killers. This finding of M. Gopinath (DV, Sept. 16) is fully supported by the APCLC document which says: The upper castes could not carry out such a brutal attack on the Dalits without the active connivance of the police force. By chasing the Dalits away from the village, the police made them easy targets for the upper castes. Though the killing spree went on for nearly three to four hours, none of the policemen made any effort to prevent the massacre. On the other hand, the Dalits alleged that some policemen accompanied the marauding upper caste man in the tractors. Though the incident took place in broad day light, the police did their best to hush up the killings till the next day and made no effort to apprehend the culprits. The police also did not make any effort to search for the bodies. The Dalits themselves traced the bodies and handed them over to the police for conducting the inquest. In all the incidents that took place during the month that preceded the killings, the police never tried to take action against the upper castes. Even when the Dalits were attacked by the upper castes, cases were registered against the Dalits. The document also details the previous 27 cases of Hindu war and violence on Untouchables in AP.
