The wall is falling down, falling down...

This is a story of a wall. This is not a wall that you would see from the moon like The Great Wall of China. Actually, this is about a wall which you would not want to see on the earth. This is the wall in Uthapuram village in Madurai district.

Thanks to the protests by Communist Party of India (Marxist), a section of the wall that segregated Dalits from the rest of the residents at Uthapuram in Madurai district was demolished on May 6.

This 30-metre wall, variously described as ‘caste wall’, ‘wall of bias’, ‘wall of shame’, ‘wall of untouchability’ was raised by Caste Hindus (Pillais and Vellalas) in 1989 following “caste riots” in the village.

The demolition of a portion of this ‘caste wall’ at Uthapuram marks a milestone in the history of the Dalit liberation struggle. But, there are too many invisible walls present in the village. This could be seen from the fact that while the Dalits were delighted that the Government had, at least partly, conceded their demand, the predominant caste-Hindu residents (Pillais) left the village en masse, apparently not able to bear the sight of the demolition even before it started.