Uthapuram is a village in

Madurai district Madurai District is one of the 38 districts of the state of Tamil Nadu in southeastern India., United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The city of Madurai serves as the district headquarters. It houses the famous Sri Meenakshi ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, India. It is known for a wall which segregated

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

s from the village for two decades.

Geography and Demographics

Uthapuram is located in

Peraiyur taluk Peraiyur taluk is a taluk of Madurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The headquarters of the taluk is the town of Peraiyur. It's included villages like Sedapatti, chinnakatlai, kuppalnatham Kuppalnatham (குப்பல்நத் ...

of Madurai district. It is 41 kilometers away from the district capital

Madurai Madurai ( , , ), formerly known as Madura, is a major city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District, which is ...

. As of census 2011, it has population of 5149 of which scheduled caste consists 2172. It comes under the Usilampatti assembly constituency and Theni parliamentary constituency.

Uthapuram wall

The village have two major communities, one is dominant caste Hindu vellala Pillaimar another one is scheduled caste

Pallar The Pallar, who prefer to be called Mallar, are an agricultural community from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. The Pallars traditionally inhabited the fertile wetland area referred to as ''Marutham'' in the literary ...

community. The caste violence occurred occasionally between these communities. The violence happened in 1948, 1964 and 1989. After 1989 violence caste Hindus constructed a 30 meter long wall to segregate Dalits from the village. The wall later described as "wall of

untouchability Untouchability is a form of social institution that legitimises and enforces practices that are discriminatory, humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative against people belonging to certain social groups. Although comparable forms of discrimin ...

". The Dalits were not allowed to enter the streets of caste Hindus. Following this,

Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) is one of the organisations of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). It works to eradicate the untouchability and other forms of caste oppression. It was the key organisation which worked in ...

(TNUEF) of

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

and Dalit organizations protested against the construction of the wall. The caste Hindus argued that the wall was built on the private land. In May 2008, Madurai district administration demolished the wall and allowed the Dalits into the village. After demolition, violence occurred between the communities. The caste Hindus threatened that they would leave the village. To control the situation police opened fire in that one person died. The cases were filed against the incident. In 2012,

Madras High Court The High Court of Judicature at Madras is a High Courts of India, High Court located in Chennai, India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It is one of ...

ordered compensation to the people who suffered during the violence. The district administration initiated the peace agreement between the communities. Therefore, the Dalits were allowed to enter local Muthalamman-Mariamman temple who prevented since 1989.

References

{{Madurai district Villages in Madurai district Separation barriers Racial segregation Caste Caste-related violence in India

Geography and Demographics

Uthapuram wall

See also

References