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| The Chagliars of Govindapuram |
Reji Joseph
For the atrocious crime of drinking water from his landlord’s well,Perumal, a Chaglian, lost his legs. On hearing that an untouchable hadpolluted his well, Gounder flew into a rage and punishment wasinstantaneous. He cut off Perumal’s legs and his goons threw thedismembered legs into the Meenkara river.It was the extremity of thirst that made Perumal draw water from hislandlord’s well. Chaglians are still treated as an untouchable caste .The hard-dying social prejudices have always kept them at the bottomrung. As he was an untouchable, Perumal should have drawn his waterfrom the water hole where the cattle came to drink. He was a slave andslaves did not deserve better treatment. From the point of view of thelandlord, an untouchable defiling his well was an unpardonable crime.
Chaglians enjoy no more civil rights than yoked oxen. They are not tohold their head high; they are not allowed to draw water from thewells belonging to the upper castes; A Chaglian’s tongue may getparched at the root; while working in the scorching sun, he mightcollapse in the paddy field and die. But fate has decreed that heshould not slake his thirst if it means drawing water from thelandlord’s well.Perumal was 19 when Gounder cut off his legs and ejected him into thestreets, where he was to eke out a precarious living. He earned hiskeep by working as a cobbler. For years he could be seen crawling onthe haunches along the streets of the Kollamkode town.Sivaraj and Muthukesh of Govindapuram Colony are the descendants ofthe Perumal and like Perumal they too should reel under the yoke ofcaste based discrimination. Resentment is smouldering in their minds.
This is how they reacted to questions on their condition.: “Thingshave not changed since Perumal’s days. Let alone drinking water, evenfor our clothing we are at the mercy of other people.” It may soundincredible that untouchability still persists in various forms evennow in Kerala.Members of the Chaglia caste, now living in Govindapuram, M. Puthurand Meenkara, have been all these years little better than slaves, forall practical purposes. In the little villages that lie close topollachi in Tamilnadu there live hundreds of Chaglians who are victimsof untouchability and social ostracism.
They are excluded from socialcontacts with others and are discriminated against in various ways. Atteashops Gounders are honoured guests and they are served tea ingleaming steel tumblers. Chaglians are not welcome inside the teashop. He should crouch in the courtyard and drink his tea from glasstumblers. He should get lost the moment he finishes his drink. What ifa Chaglian wants to have his hair cut? They are unwelcome inbarbershops, for contact with a Chaglian’s body will pollute the comband the scissors. Tailors keep the Chaglians outside their shops andstitch their clothes to approximate sizes. Chaglians buy used clothesat wayside markets in Pollachi. At ration shops they do not get thefull quantity of the rice and kerosene they are entitle to. Mostly itis short weight.Chaglians are not free to raise their voice against the injustice theyare subjected to.
A word of protest and he will lose his job. Loss ofjob means loss of the means of subsistence. The only way out in such asituation is to leave the place. Chaglians came to Palghat fromTamilnadu as bonded labourers in the 1950s having been brought thereby the upper caste landlords.The new generation may claim that untouchability is no longerpractised in the country but the landlords’ premises are out-of-boundsfor the poor Chaglians. They might draw water from the Palmyra troughsthat store water for the animals. They must work from seven in themorning till late in the night. A male Chaglian gets Rs 50 by way ofwages; a woman gets Rs 30 .Ayyappan, a 13 year old boy, sipped a cup of tea sitting with his legscrossed at the tea shop near the Govindapuram bus stand.
The Gounderbeat him up for this ‘temerity’. Murukesan, too, was beaten up. Hisoffence?He collected water from the landlord’s tap instead of getting it fromthe waterhole for the cattle. Besides being beaten up, Murukesan wasthreatened that he would be done away with if ever the Gounders happento see him again.Even Gounder’s cattle enjoy precedence over the Chaglians. A bull maycome charging against him but a Chaglian is not supposed to beat itoff; if he can, he might dodge the animal. The work he has to carryout includes watering the coconut palms, ploughing up the ground, andcollecting cow-dung.While at work the Changlians are supervised by the landlord’s goonswith the assistance of dogs. Bonded labour begins at the age of tenand ends only with the slave’s death. If a Chaglian worker dies, theChanglian landlord would not even the pay the courtesy of a visit.
Adead Changlian is not entitled even to a proper grave. Rains wash awaythe dead bodies from their shallow graves, which are scarcely morethan one foot in depth. Occasionally, the river carries a dead body tothe Meenkara reservoir. Here there is the danger of real pollutionsince the water supply schemes of Meenkara, Muthalamala and Kollenkodedraw water from this reservoir. Gounder’s dogs and poultry are betterfed than the poor Changlian children. Would that the Gounders bepleased to spare for the Changlian children a part of the food theylavish on their animals.There are more than a thousand Chaglians in the Ambetkar Colony atGovindapuram. If they are to depend on the government water supply,they will go without water for twenty eight days a month. So naturallythey have to depend on the water tank for the animal’s in theGounder’s premises.
The water supply scheme in Ambelkar Colony tellsmany a story of corruption. The pump there is not powerful enough tolift water to the hill top tank. And there is nobody to bring theerring officials to book.The black soil of Govindapuram is soaked in the Chaglians’ blood andsweat. The landlords raise corn, groundnut, pulses and paddy in therich fields there. The coconut palms provide surprisingly high yield.But Gounder would allow anyone to take so much as a windfall. He oncethrashed Meenachi after tying her to a tree for taking a coconut. Herchild once broke a ear of corn from the field. As the child was toosmall to be punished, Gounder contented himself by awarding thepunishment to Meenachi.Having been maltreated like street dogs, the Chaglians are migratingto Tamilnadu and other places for their survival. For example,Poomathi, wife of Kathirvel, of M. Puthur has left for Bangalore towork as a domestic servant. She simply could not put up with thesegregation on the basis of caste. Poomathi once went to the Badrakalitemple at Meenkara to fulfil a certain vow .
The priest stopped her atthe threshold. He asked her to leave the offerings at the doorstep andleave the place lest she should pollute the whole temple. Poomathiburst into tears and cried out to the gods. With tears in her eyes sheasked the priest: “How come that neither my offering nor my moneypollutes you here. But my presence does. Right?” She never went tothat temple again.For the atrocious crime of drinking water from hislandlord’s well, Perumal, a Chaglian, lost his legs. On hearing thatan untouchable had polluted his well, Gounder flew into a rage andpunishment was instantaneous. He cut off Perumal’s legs and his goonsthrew the dismembered legs into the Meenkara river.
It was the extremity of thirst that made Perumal draw water from hislandlord’s well. Chaglians are still treated as an untouchable caste .The hard-dying social prejudices have always kept them at the bottomrung. As he was an untouchable, Perumal should have drawn his waterfrom the water hole where the cattle came to drink. He was a slave andslaves did not deserve better treatment. From the point of view of thelandlord, an untouchable defiling his well was an unpardonable crime.
Chaglians enjoy no more civil rights than yoked oxen. They are not tohold their head high; they are not allowed to draw water from thewells belonging to the upper castes; A Chaglian’s tongue may getparched at the root; while working in the scorching sun, he mightcollapse in the paddy field and die. But fate has decreed that heshould not slake his thirst if it means drawing water from thelandlord’s well.Perumal was 19 when Gounder cut off his legs and ejected him into thestreets, where he was to eke out a precarious living. He earned hiskeep by working as a cobbler.
For years he could be seen crawling onthe haunches along the streets of the Kollamkode town.Sivaraj and They are excluded from socialcontacts with others and are discriminated against in various ways.At teashops Gounders are honoured guests and they are served tea ingleaming steel tumblers. Chaglians are not welcome inside the teashop. He should crouch in the courtyard and drink his tea from glasstumblers. He should get lost the moment he finishes his drink. What ifa Chaglian wants to have his hair cut? They are unwelcome inbarbershops, for contact with a Chaglian’s body will pollute the comband the scissors. Tailors keep the Chaglians outside their shops andstitch their clothes to approximate sizes. Chaglians buy used clothesat wayside markets in Pollachi. At ration shops they do not get thefull quantity of the rice and kerosene they are entitle to. Mostly itis short weight.Chaglians are not free to raise their voice against the injustice theyare subjected to. A word of protest and he will lose his job. Loss ofjob means loss of the means of subsistence.
The only way out in such asituation is to leave the place.Chaglians came to Palghat from Tamilnadu as bonded labourers in the1950s having been brought there by the upper caste landlords. They aretoiling it out in the fields of these wealthy classes. We have had asuccession of governments but salvation continues to elude theChaglians and Govindapuram.The new generation may claim that untouchability is no longerpractised in the country but the landlords’ premises are out-of-boundsfor the poor Chaglians. They might draw water from the Palmyra troughsthat store water for the animals. They must work from seven in themorning till late in the night. A male Chaglian gets Rs 50 by way ofwages; a woman gets Rs 30 . A little quantity of rice water served inan earthen pot with the brim missing—Gounder’s generosity does notextend beyond that.
Chaglians and the other tribal communities likeErawater and Manaser are educationally backward. Most of them drop outat the fourth standard.Ayyappan, a 13 year old boy, sipped a cup of tea sitting with his legscrossed at the tea shop near the Govindapuram bus stand. The Gounderbeat him up for this ‘temerity’. Murukesan, too, was beaten up. Hisoffence? He collected water from the landlord’s tap instead of gettingit from the waterhole for the cattle. Besides being beaten up,Murukesan was threatened that he would be done away with if ever theGounders happen to see him again. Even Gounder’s cattle enjoyprecedence over the Chaglians. A bull may come charging against himbut a Chaglian is not supposed to beat it off; if he can, he mightdodge the animal. The work he has to carry out includes watering thecoconut palms, ploughing up the ground, and collecting cow-dung.While at work the Changlians are supervised by the landlord’s goonswith the assistance of dogs.
Bonded labour begins at the age of tenand ends only with the slave’s death. If a Chaglian worker dies, theChanglian landlord would not even the pay the courtesy of a visit. Adead Changlian is not entitled even to a proper grave. Rains wash awaythe dead bodies from their shallow graves, which are scarcely morethan one foot in depth. Occasionally, the river carries a dead body tothe Meenkara reservoir. Here there is the danger of real pollutionsince the water supply schemes of Meenkara, Muthalamala and Kollenkodedraw water from this reservoir.There are more than a thousand Chaglians in the Ambetkar Colony atGovindapuram. If they are to depend on the government water supply,they will go without water for twenty eight days a month. So naturallythey have to depend on the water tank for the animal’s in theGounder’s premises. The water supply scheme in Ambelkar Colony tellsmany a story of corruption.
The pump there is not powerful enough tolift water to the hill top tank. And there is nobody to bring theerring officials to book.The black soil of Govindapuram is soaked in the Chaglians’ blood andsweat. The landlords raise corn, groundnut, pulses and paddy in therich fields there. The coconut palms provide surprisingly high yield.But Gounder would allow anyone to take so much as a windfall. He oncethrashed Meenachi after tying her to a tree for taking a coconut. Herchild once broke a ear of corn from the field. As the child was toosmall to be punished, Gounder contented himself by awarding thepunishment to Meenachi.
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