MURDER IN MUDUKULATHUR: CASTE AND ELECTORAL POLITICS IN TAMIL NADU

KA Manikumar

In 1957, during the run-up to state assembly by-elections in Tamil Nadu, violence broke out in Mudukulathur—a southeastern town in the state—between the Thevars, the regionally dominant caste, and the Devendrakula Vellalars, a Dalit community. The Mudukulathur Riots have since been deployed by various parties in their political mobilisation. In this book, the historian KA Manikumar traces the divergent narratives of the dominant-caste and Dalit communities regarding the pivotal event and sketches a political history of caste in contemporary Tamil Nadu.

Leftword Books, 175 pages, Rs 275