A dismembered arm, which was chopped off the body of a Telugu Christian Dalit man by a blood thirsty mob of Telugu OBC communities of Kappu & Reddys became a powerful symbol of TSUNDURU MASSACRE of 1991 in erstwhile state of ANDHRA PRADESH. Today is its 30th anniversary.
TSUNDURU MASSACRE of 8 Telugu Dalit Christian men from Telugu Dalit Mala and Madiga communities in one of the most brutal manner came on heels of yet another horrible Karmachedu massacre of Telugu Dalits by another powerful Telugu OBC community of Kammas.
TSUNDURU a fertile region of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh had made landed OBC castes like Kappu & Kammas &Sanskritized OBC castes like Reddys prosperous.
Landless Dalits from Mala & Madiga communities however toiled to educate their sons &send them to local Ambedkar degree college
Armed with college education, Ambedkerite ideology and teachings of Baba Sahab, Periyar & Phule many young college educated local Christian Dalit youngsters questioned exploitative practice of local Reddy landed gentry, which was less educated than Christian Dalits.
Newly rich local Reddys, who did not bother about formal education were envious of young crop of highly educated Dalit Christians, both for being Dalit & Christian & on top of that being "college" educated. Desire to put these Christian Dalits to their "place" was long simmering.
Using a flimsy excuse of a Dalit man touching a local Reddy Lady, the Reddy gentry in connivance with corrupt local policemen from Reddy & Kappu communities hatched a sinister plan to mislead Dalit men into fields, where Reddys were waiting to butcher them with sharp field tools.
Dalit men were surrounded and attacked with sickles, knives, ploughs and earth digging tools. Dalit men were brutally butchered, dismembered, cut into pieces and body parts stuffed into gunny bags and thrown in local canals. A lot of body parts remained scattered in fields.
Most of those who were killed were young Dalit Christian college graduates. Such was the brutality than elder brother of one of murdered Dalit man, seeing mutilated body of his brother died of heart attack.The police even forced relatives to collect body parts of these Dalit men.
The doctor, who carried out autopsy of dead bodies of these Dalit Christian men was also a Dalit Doctor, who was so traumatized upon seeing the pathetic condition of badly mutilated body parts, could not handle the trauma and killed himself by suicide.
Massive protest ensued.
DALIT MAHASABHA, which was formulated by Katti Padma Rao in aftermath of Karamchedu Massacre, led fight for justice armed with newly legislated SC/ST Prevention of Attrocity Act. They even went to Delhi & sat before Parliament to draw national attention.
Reddys & Kappus didn't show any remorse & instead brought together all OBC castes under one banner to oppose what they claimed was "misuse"of SC/ST Act to "oppress" "Forward Castes" of Andhra Pradesh bringing Brahmins, Kappus, Kammas, Reddys under one counter front against Dalits
The powerful Reddy dominated judiciary, police, administration and political class shamelessly manipulated investigation and trial of the case in most biased and unfair manner that eventually led to an extremely biased Reddy High Court Judge acquitting all Reddy murderers.
Tsunduru Massacre broke economic back of an already poor Mala & Madiga Dalit Christian community. They faced social and economic boycot. Family member of murdered college educated young Dalit men got government jobs of security men in local school on "compassionate" grounds.
Dalit assertion movement has been brutally crushed in Andhra Pradesh, where impact of Karamchedu & Tsunduru massacres suppressed Dalit assertion politically & socially for a long time. In 1990s many Telugu OBCs went to USA as "techies" making them even more powerful economically
Lastly,
Change is coming.
May be due to proximity to Maharashtra,Ambedkerite Buddhist ideology slowly but surely has empowered Telugu Dalit community in last 3 decades & younger generation of AmbedkeriteDalit Buddhists have emerged, who are proudly asserting their Ambedkarism
Ground is fertile for IPS Praveen Kumar to establish BSP as formidable Telugu Dalit centric party. Kanshi Ram & Mayawati (from Punjab &UP)remain highly popular among Dalit community of both Telugu Lands.If successful, this will indeed be a pan India Dalit political collaboration.
"Tsunduru massacre: 26 years after brutal killings in Andhra, justice eludes victims | The News Minute" thenewsminute.com/article/tsundu…
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