Dalit assertion after caste discrimination: Karnataka village that fined Dalit family simmers

South First visited Ullerahalli in Kolar, where upper-caste Hindus threatened a Dalit family with a ₹60,000 fine or banishment.

ByBellie Thomas

Published Sep 29, 2022 | 12:07 PMUpdatedSep 29, 2022 | 6:27 PM

A Dalit agitator tying the flag to the lion's tail on Bhoothamma temple top in Ullerahalli

Nestled between one too many hillocks of boulders, is the small hamlet of Ullerahalli in the Malur taluk of the Kolar district of Karnataka.

One has to pass through the dusty, pothole-ridden roads of the neighbouring Hunasi Kote village to even arrive at Ullerahalli, some 20 kilometres on the Tekal road from the Bengaluru-to-Tirupati/Chennai National Highway.

Every year, Dasara is a grand nine-day celebration at Ullerahalli. This is the time of the year the entire village is generally decked up, flowers and bulbs light up the temples, and feasts and animal sacrifice mark celebrations.

But this time around, both the temples — a Bhoothamma temple and an Anjaneya temple — in this hamlet are locked shut, with no celebrations, no festivals, and people not even willing to step out of their homes.

Even the odd individual, sitting by the heap of harvested ragi outside their homes and driving birds away, quickly runs inside the moment a new person or policeman walks into their lane.

When South First visited Ullerahalli on Wednesday, 28 September, the village looked like a pall of gloom had descended on it. The tension was palpable.

It is only when we spoke to the reluctant villagers that we realised it wasn’t just gloom over what had happened in this hamlet but a sense of impending doom that was keeping the villagers on the edge.

“We don’t know what will happen after all of them come out on bail. All the arrested people are well placed in the village, and they might be vengeful,” Gowramma, a resident of Ullerahalli, told South First.

She was referring to the eight people — prominent residents of the village — arrested for atrocities against a Dalit family.

Dalit assertion after caste discrimination

Earlier this month, a Dalit family was “punished” by the village elders, asked to pay ₹60,000 as a fine or leave the village, after their 15-year-old son held a pole attached to a deity during a procession for the goddess Bhoothamma.

DSS members various organisations gather near Bhoothamma temple on Sunday

DSS members various organisations gather near Bhoothamma temple on Sunday. (Supplied)

Ironically, Dalit families in the village had contributed funds for the construction of this very temple.

Shobha, the 15-year-old’s mother who works as domestic help, told South First that her pleas to the village elders fell on deaf ears. It was the intervention of Dalit rights groups that led to the eventual arrest of the eight people.

On Sunday, 25 September, Dalit rights organisations stormed the village in an act of assertion. Some 1,500 members of various Dalit outfits marched into the village with blue flags.

“They opened the temple and performed pujas, and some of them even climbed atop the Bhoothamma temple and put up the blue flags,” said a villager who lives near the temple.

The police, the villagers said, were outnumbered and had to wait until backup arrived. Within hours, the police removed the agitators from the temple premises and brought down all the blue flags.

The assertion of the Dalit groups came as a surprise to the villagers.

“Thousands of them arrived at the temple. There were speeches and sloganeering with enormous support for the discriminated Dalit family,” said villagers Gowramma and her husband Krishnappa.

“They (agitators) finally performed pujas in the temple and put up their flags on a water tank in front of the temple. They dispersed after the police deployed more personnel,” another upper-caste resident of the village told South First.

While Dalits in the village saw Sunday’s event as “massive support” for the oppressed Dalit family, upper-caste Hindus in the village deemed it “threatening and intimidating”.

The police locked the temples up after Sunday’s protest.

Round-the-clock police cover to Dalit family

Though the incident of discrimination took place on 8 September, it took the local police 12 days to register an FIR against the village panchayat members, who had meted out the “punishment”.

Following the arrest of the village elders, police cover has been provided to the Dalit family.

When South First visited Shobha’s humble home on Wednesday, a police van was stationed outside. Eight policemen have been deployed for round-the-clock security at Shobha’s house, which is a hillock away from the village temple.

“We have been deployed here on security duty since 24 September to ensure the safety of the family,” said an assistant sub-inspector.

Shobha’s house is a single-room, hollow-block structure situated in the foothill area, which falls under the buffer zone of a forested area (government land).

On Wednesday, Shobha and her husband Ramesh, escorted by two policemen, had gone to the court to visit the public prosecutor. She was summoned to record her statements over the incident. Their 15-year-old son was at his school. Shobha’s mother-in-law Ratnamma shared the ordeal of the family on 8 September with South First.

Dalit groups’ support overwhelms family

“It was overwhelming for our family to witness such a huge show of support after this incident. Around 1,500 sangha members from throughout the district came to our village to see us on Sunday,” said Ratnamma.

Police van stationed next to Shobha's house in Ullerahalli

Police van stationed next to Shobha’s house in Ullerahalli. (Bellie Thomas/South First)

“They, like others, also consoled us and requested us to ask for any help whatever we wanted,” she said, adding she did not know anyone’s names, including those of the politicians and officials who visited their house.

Over the past week, scores of politicians and bureaucrats visited Shobha’s house and spoke to the family. They also offered financial support.

“They (village heads) slapped and beat our boy, who was too shaken to even sleep that night. All he did was help those carrying the deity,” recalled Ratnamma.

Barely a year ago, Ratnamma’s son Ramesh — the 15-year-old’s father — who worked as a construction labourer had fallen down from an under-construction building’s terrace while carrying a cement bag and fractured his leg.

“From then on, he has been unemployed and we are dependent on Shobha, who is the only breadwinner of our family,” Ratnamma told South First.

The local police arrested eight people, including a member of the SC community, who have been booked for assault, rioting, and unlawful assembly, along with sections under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989.

The arrested have been identified as brothers Narayanaswamy and Ramesh, former panchayat president Narayanaswamy, Ullerahalli panchayat president Venkateshappa, Koteyappa, Chalapathy, priest Mohan Rao, and Chinnaiah, a member from an SC community who police allege was also instrumental in the flaring-up of the incident.

Festivities forgotten as tensions simmer

With less than 100 houses, Ullerahalli is a rather tiny hamlet, where everyone knows each other by name, caste, and profession. But ever since Sunday’s assertion of Dalit groups, villagers are reluctant to even talk to each other.

Of the two temples in the village, the Bhoothamma temple was funded and built by the residents themselves, including Dalits. The other is an Anjaneya temple, which was built by the Muzrai department. Everyone can go and pray and offer pujas there, a local villager said.

“There are 15 houses that belong to Dalits, 14 Brahmins families, 18 Gowda families, three Muslim families, and four families belonging to the Kuruba community. There are around eight houses that belong to the families of the ST community,” said Krishnappa, a senior village resident.

Even as their temples remain locked,  Ullerahalli villagers recalled happier times.

“Every Ugadi, we have a tradition of lighting a huge lamp (Ooru Deepa for Devaru Utsava) atop the hill at night. The lamp is on the highest peak of the hillocks, which can be seen even from the Tamil Nadu border,” said Nagaraj, a villager.

The locked Bhoothamma temple

The locked Bhoothamma temple. (Supplied)

“The Bhoothamma temple was built with the contributions from even the Dalit families in our village, and the lamp along with a huge bucket of oil would be carried by Dalits to the hilltop, and they would light it up there. The large lamp wick is made up of several new white dhotis,” Nagaraj said, recalling how people would swarm the village to witness the tradition every year.

“Everything went well this year too, until the 8 September incident. All hell broke loose after Dalits from the village put up a show of strength, protested, and got the backing of other Dalit outfits who paraded the incident to the district administration office and to the police station, ensuring that a complaint was filed and action was taken,” he added.

Delayed action first, damage control now

Soon after the agitations by the Dalit organisations in the village, the local social welfare officer rushed to the spot and made sure that Shobha and her family were allowed to attend pujas at the Bhoothamma temple.

“They performed a special ‘Mangala Aarathi’ for the deities in Shobha and her son’s presence. They were also felicitated and reassured in front of all the villagers,” said a villager who lives next to the temple.

The social welfare officer then visited Shobha’s house and offered her family ₹25,000 and some rations.

It was then that politicians and bureaucrats, including the Kolar constituency Member of Parliament S Muniswamy made a beeline to Shobha’s house and offered monetary support.

Among several leaders who visited the family was former Congress MLC Dharmasena, who is the party’s state president for SC/ST community.

Authorities handing over site documents to Shobha

Authorities handing over site documents to Shobha. (Supplied)

The district commissioner, assistant commissioner, and the superintendent of police came to the village and ensured that Shobha’s family was allocated a plot of land as their house is situated on government land, which belongs to the forest department.

The administration officials were also quick to identify a plot in the village and the “hakku patra” (title deed) in her name was handed over to her.

It did not stop with that. When the district administration officials asked Shobha if they could help her with something else, she requested a job as she had to travel all the way to Whitefield taking trains regularly to work as domestic help in apartments. Shobha was then immediately promised the job of a cook at a hostel 7 kilometres from Malur with a salary of ₹13,000 per month.

While all the support pouring in now, Shobha’s family is keeping their fingers crossed on what is to come next.

The family had removed the pictures of Hindu deities from their house, and put up photographs of Dr BR Ambedkar and Lord Buddha after the humiliating caste discrimination incident.