->Citation bot: Alter: url. URLs might have been anonymized. Add: jstor, authors 1-1. Removed parameters. Some additions/deletions were parameter name changes. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by AManWithNoPlan | #UCB_webform 1023/2103

2021-12-13T23:45:08Z

Alter: url. URLs might have been anonymized. Add: jstor, authors 1-1. Removed parameters. Some additions/deletions were parameter name changes. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by AManWithNoPlan | #UCB_webform 1023/2103

New page

{{Use Indian English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}

The '''Tsundur Massacre''' refers to the killing of several [[Dalit]] people in the village of [[Tsundur]], [[Guntur district]], [[Andhra Pradesh]], India, on 6 August 1991.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Berg|first=Dag-Erik|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=roLoDwAAQBAJ|title=Dynamics of Caste and Law: Dalits, Oppression and Constitutional Democracy in India|date=2020-02-27|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-48987-4|pages=103|language=en}}</ref> 21-22 Dalits were massacred by [[Reddy]] men with the alleged help of the police.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chakravarti|first=Uma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CURvDwAAQBAJ&dq=dalits+tsunduru&pg=PA141|title=Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens|date=2018-09-17|publisher=SAGE Publishing India|isbn=978-93-81345-46-7|pages=141|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Kannabiran|first1=Vasanth|last2=Kannabiran|first2=Kalpana|date=1991|title=Caste and Gender: Understanding Dynamics of Power and Violence|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41626993|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=26|issue=37|pages=2130–2133|jstor=41626993|issn=0012-9976}}</ref> When a young graduate Dalit youth was beaten because his feet unintentionally touched a Reddy woman near a cinema hall, the Dalits of the village supported him. As a result, Dalits were socially boycotted by the Reddy landowners of the village. Many Dalits have lost their livelihood as they depend on the daily wages by working in the paddy fields of the Reddys. The significance of this atrocity was Dalits collectively fought to gain legal justice by invoking SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989.

== Background ==
The village of Tsundur was dominated by the [[Reddy|Reddy's]]. On 7 July 1991, Ravi, a Dalit boy, had accidentally touched a Reddy boy sitting in front of him in a cinema hall with his foot.<ref name=":0" /> Ravi apologized immediately, but some Reddy youth roughed him up.<ref name=":0" /> Later, Ravi was tracked down, beat up, and forced to drink [[brandy]] by some Reddy youth, and the Reddy youth brought Ravi to a police station and demanded that he be arrested for allegedly misbehaving with women while drunk.<ref name=":0" /> A parallel incident occurred with another Dalit boy named Rajababu, who was knifed in Tsundur by a certain Krishna Reddy for allegedly grazing his body against two Reddy girls outside a cinema hall, a claim which the Dalit side contests.<ref name=":0" /> Following these two incidents, there were a social boycott of Dalits that lasted a month, which forced them to travel to [[Tenali]] to buy basic provisions or [[Ongole]] for work.<ref name=":0" /> The attacks on the Dalits of Tsundur were carried out to 'teach them a lesson', primarily to try to make them submissive to the [[Reddy|Reddy's]], and comply with their position as 'untouchables'.{{Sfn|Berg|2020|p=128}} This position was challenged by the Dalit families in the village.

== Massacre ==
On 6 August 1991 at around 11 AM, police forces suddenly entered the homes of [[Mala (caste)|Mala]] Dalit families, causing the Mala men to flee into the fields at the request of their women who were worried about their safety.<ref name=":0" /> In those fields, armed Reddy men were waiting and hacked the Dalit men into pieces.<ref name=":0" /> Some of the Dalit men were thrown into nearby fields while others were thrown in the river.<ref name=":0" /> The police did nothing to stop this massacre,<ref>{{Cite book|last1=John|first1=Mary E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BVzaAAAAMAAJ|title=Background Report on Gender Issues in India: Long Report|last2=Lalita|first2=Ke|date=1995|publisher=Institute of Development Studies|isbn=978-1-85864-166-9|pages=47|language=en}}</ref> and it was kept hidden for over 24 hours until a Dalit women escaped the village and walked around 40 miles to report it to the district collector in Guntur.<ref name=":0" /> After this massacre, the surviving Dalits fled to [[Tenali]], where they were offered refuge by the Salvation Army Church.<ref name=":0" />

==Prosecution==
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2021}}
212 people were charged in a total of 12 separate cases regarding the incident. 33 defendants subsequently died and the [[Supreme Court of India]] then dismissed the charges citing lack of evidence. A Division Bench comprising Justices L. Narasimha Reddy and M.S. Jaiswal turned down the verdict of trial court saying the prosecution had failed to prove the exact time of death, place of occurrence and the identity of attackers.

[[Bojja Tharakam]] was senior public prosecutor Tsundur massacre case in the [[Andhra Pradesh High Court]].

==References==
{{reflist}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.deccanherald.com/content/401162/andhra-hc-strikes-down-all.html|title=Andhra HC strikes down all sentences in Dalit massacre case|work=Deccan Herald|accessdate=11 April 2015}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/andhra-hc-strikes-down-all-sentences-in-dalit-massacre-case-114042200757_1.html|title=Andhra HC strikes down all sentences in Dalit massacre case|author=IANS|date=22 April 2014|work=business-standard.com|accessdate=11 April 2015}}

==Further reading==
* [http://hrw.org/reports/pdfs/i/india/india929.pdf Police Killings and Rural Violence in Andhra Pradesh]
* [http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/lsdeb/ls10/ses1/0409089101.htm Brutal Killings of Harijans in Tsundur Village of Guntur District]
* [http://odi.org.uk/publications/working_papers/wp179.pdf Caste, Class and Social Articulation in Andhra Pradesh]
* {{cite web|title=Post-Chundur_and_Other_Chundurs.pdf|url=http://balagopal.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Post-Chundur_and_Other_Chundurs.pdf|website=balagopal.org|access-date=1 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811221230/http://balagopal.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Post-Chundur_and_Other_Chundurs.pdf|archive-date=11 August 2014|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite web|title=THE TSUNDURU CARNAGE-APCLC REPORT|url=http://balagopal.org/wp-content//uploads/2014/04/Tsunduru/THE%20TSUNDURU%20CARNAGE-APCLC%20REPORT-PUBLISHED%20IN%20AUGUST%201991.pdf|website=balagopal.org|access-date=1 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811221226/http://balagopal.org/wp-content//uploads/2014/04/Tsunduru/THE%20TSUNDURU%20CARNAGE-APCLC%20REPORT-PUBLISHED%20IN%20AUGUST%201991.pdf|archive-date=11 August 2014|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite web|title=Read Caste, Class and Social Articulation in Andhra Pradesh, India: Mapping Differential Regional Trajectories - ODI Working Papers 179|url=http://www.readbag.com/odi-uk-resources-docs-2692|website=www.readbag.com}}

{{coord missing|Andhra Pradesh}}

[[Category:Caste-related violence in India]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 1991]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1991]]
[[Category:Massacres in the 1990s]]
[[Category:1990s in Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:Massacres in India]]
[[Category:1991 in India]]
[[Category:Crime in Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:Dalit history]]

Tsundur massacre - Revision history

->Citation bot: Alter: url. URLs might have been anonymized. Add: jstor, authors 1-1. Removed parameters. Some additions/deletions were parameter name changes. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by AManWithNoPlan | #UCB_webform 1023/2103