The recent passing of Communist Party of India (CPI) veteran R. Nallakannu has revived memories of a dark chapter in Tamil Nadu’s history and the deep personal tragedy he endured.
On 3 December 1995, Nallakannu’s 84-year-old father-in-law, AK Annasamy, was murdered by a gang while he was sleeping in his house in Marudanvalvu village, then part of Chidambaranar district (now Thoothukudi district). The killings took place at a time when southern Tamil Nadu was in the grip of persistent caste violence.
Annasamy’s murder was not an isolated incident. During the 1990s, large parts of southern Tamil Nadu were rocked by repeated caste clashes that resulted in heavy loss of life and property and created fear among residents. The worst affected areas were the districts of Tirunelveli Kattabomman and Chidambaranar, where tensions between the Maravars, a caste Hindu landed community, and the Pallars, now included in the Devendra Kula Vellalars, a Scheduled Caste group, often erupted into violence.
A perusal of archival reports in The Hindu and its sister publication Frontline, which covered the clashes extensively, reveals that hundreds of lives were lost to these caste-based violence in the last decade of the 20th century.
Conflict escalation
Sporadic unrest that began in the early 1990s resurfaced violently in 1995 after a relative lull. On July 26, 1995, an argument escalated between a bus driver and a group of schoolchildren. It reached a flashpoint after a kabaddi match at a government school, triggering a new cycle of confrontation.
By the end of August, nearly 600 policemen had descended on Kodiyankulam, a fully scheduled caste village in Chidambaranar district. The village was subjected to looting and extensive destruction of property. This incident was followed by a short break of almost two months.
However, the calm did not last long. On November 28, a Scheduled Caste cowherd was brutally killed in Kodiyankulam. A few days later, on December 1, another member of the community working in a quarry in Tirunelveli Kattabomman district was killed by a group of Maravars. The following day, two passengers from the Maravar community were killed in the bus. Four Scheduled Caste members were killed in retaliation.
Clashes soon spread to neighboring Chidambaranar district. On December 3, within three hours, four Maravars, including a father-son duo and a village administrative official, were killed at different places in Maniyachi taluk. Annasamy was among those killed. By December 1995, the violence had escalated into a brutal chain of retaliation that claimed nearly 38 lives in six months, according to a report published in Frontline in December 1995.
“The defacement of a statue of Dr BR Ambedkar at Nannagaram, near the residence of the then Minister of State for Industries M Arunachalam in his home constituency of Tenkasi, 50 km from Tirunelveli, triggered violence in the area in which some houses and shops were burnt,” the report said.
Complaints about police excesses
The report also said that an attack on an AIADMK MP’s car, allegedly by members of the Scheduled Caste, turned the wrath of the police against some of their settlements in the vicinity. Scheduled Caste residents of Nannagaram and Vallam villages complained of police excesses.
Residents of Nannagaram said they were hurt, the Union Minister did not visit the village despite standing by him. Neither the District Collector nor any other senior official called them. In Vallam, residents of Maravar confirmed allegations of police excesses against their Scheduled Caste neighbors with whom they said they had lived in harmony for decades, a Frontline report said.
Govt. action
The Jayalalitha-led government faced severe criticism for not taking adequate measures to curb violence and promote harmony in society. K. Krishnasamy, president of the Devendrakula Vellalar Association Federation (now leader of Puthiya Tamilagam), claimed that the violence could have occurred “only with the blessing of highly politically connected persons”. He said the scheduled castes had lost faith in the state administration and the police and demanded the deployment of central security forces.
Chief Minister Jayalalitha (as her name was spelled then) broke her silence and warned of tough action against those inciting violence. In a statement, she said that peace was initially restored in the districts due to the impartiality of the government and alleged that the fresh unrest was caused by individuals who were not satisfied with the restoration. She also announced a solitaire for the families of those killed.
Firm in his stance
In a recent obituary of the CPI veteran in Frontline, senior journalist Ilangovan Rajasekaran recalled that Nallakanna, who was then the party’s state secretary, harbored no anger despite his personal loss. Mr. Rajasekaran, who was The Hindu’s South Tamil Nadu correspondent at the time, spoke of how Nallakannu politely declined to comment on the tragedy when approached. Instead, he rushed to Thoothukudi to attend a peace march in the riot-hit villages instead of attending his father-in-law’s funeral.
A report in The Hindu subsequently noted that Annasamy’s widow, Santhosi, had announced that a trust would be created using the ₹50,000 solatium offered by the government to support the education of poor children in Chidambaranar district. On 13 January 1996, the CID Crime Branch police arrested 19-year-old Murugesan of Naraikinar in connection with the Annasamy murder.
Published – 4 March 2026 06:00 IST
