By Azeefa Fathima / The News Minute
On August 9, as the country was preparing for the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, Chinnadurai, a 17-year-old Dalit student with an exceptional academic record, was forced to take a life-altering decision at the Nanguneri railway station in Tamil Nadu. He could either quit school, leave his home, and make a run for safety by boarding the waiting train to Chennai. Or, he could listen to his cousin who was at the station to stop him from quitting. Going back to school would mean facing the wrath of his jealous Savarna schoolmates who were baying for his blood. Yet, the young boy decided to stay back. That very night, he had to face the consequences of that enormous decision.
Around 10 pm, Chinnadurai’s neighbour Duraipandian (42) heard screams from his house and rushed out to find the boy writhing on the street in a pool of blood. Duraipandian and another person hauled Chinnadurai onto a two-wheeler and rushed him to the Nanguneri Government Hospital (GH). Meanwhile, Chinnadurai’s relative Krishnan (53) became disoriented by the gory sight and retreated into his house in utter shock. A little while later, he died of a heart attack. He too was taken to the hospital on a two-wheeler, where the doctors declared him brought dead.
“Chinnadurai was whipped like a cow, but with a sickle,” is how Durai recalls the brutal attack on the Dalit student by his schoolmates from the Concordia Higher Secondary School in Nanguneri. The attackers belong to the electorally and socially powerful Maravar caste, a sub-group within the Thevar community that is classified as Backward Class in Tamil Nadu.
This story was originally published in thenewsminute.com. Read the full story here