The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Ending a pre-Independence era practice, 60 members of the Dalit community in Tamil Nadu on Sunday (December 24) defied an unwritten ban imposed on them by upper castes in the area.
The community members walked the ‘Kambala Naicken Street’ in Rajavur village of Madathukulam taluk of Tiruppur district donning footwear for the first time in living memory, the New Indian Express reported.
By doing so, they broke the unsaid rule of the upper castes that barred Dalits from walking on the street with slippers. Scheduled Caste (SC) members were not even allowed to ride cycles on the street, according to the report.
All the 60 residents of the 300-metre-long street are Naickers, a backward caste community. Of the nearly 900 households in the village, 800 belong to dominant castes such as Gounders and Naickers, the paper reported.
A Muruganandam (51), a resident of the street, told the New Indian Express, “Arunthathiyar community members were barred from walking with slippers on the street. SC members were given death threats and were also assaulted. Even upper-caste women issued threats, saying that a local deity would bring death to SC members if they walked with slippers on the street. We were avoiding the street and living under oppression for decades. A few weeks ago, we brought the issue to the notice of Dalit outfits.”
Another SC community member was quoted by the paper as saying, “When untouchability was banned after Independence, members of the dominant caste conjured up a story to perpetuate the practice, saying that a voodoo doll has been buried under the street and if SC people walked on the street with slippers, they will die within three months.Some SC members believed those stories and started walking without slippers, and the practice continued to this day.”
Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (Tiruppur) secretary CK Kanagaraj visited the village last week and found that several Dalit women were not even allowed to enter that particular street.
The outfit wanted to launch a protest but the police refused permission and asked them to postpone it. Subsequently, members of the front along with functionaries of political parties like Communist Party of India (Marxist), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, and Dalit rights organisation Aathi Thamizhar Peravai decided to walk the street.
The 60-member group then entered Rajakaliamman temple in the village which has remained out of bounds for Dalits, the New Indian Express reported.