Kilvenmani got worldwide attention on Christmas Day in 1968 when 44 Dalit agricultural workers and their family members, including women, children and old men, were brutally murdered in the village in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu.  The victims were locked up in a small hut and burned alive by upper caste landlords of the area. This was not merely a case of social prejudice, but to wreak vengeance upon the Dalit workers for demanding higher wages for their labour in the farms of the landlords. During the time of this tragedy, Kilvenmani, a village in erstwhile Thanjavur district, had a considerable population of landless agricultural labourers. Most of the land in the region belonged to temples and absentee landlords. As a result of the old feudal system, there had been constant struggles between the landowners and the landless workers, even before the tragic incident.

The tragedy followed a demand from the workers for an increase in their wages. The workers were becoming increasingly assertive as members of the farm workers` union led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The workers` demand was to increase the wages (harvest share) to 6 padis per kalam (i.e, one-ninth of the crop), from the existing rate of 5 padis per kalam. The demand was rejected by the landlords. G.Naidu, a landlord from Irinjur (a nearby village) was the President of Paddy Producers Association of East Thanjavur and took the lead role in suppressing a workers` strike under the aegis of CPI (M)) during the Kuruvai harvest season. The region had witnessed continued tensions and clashes between the dalit workers and the hit men of the landlord. On the particular day, a hit man of G. Naidu was killed in a fight. This led to an immediate retaliation from the landlords. In the same night, several houses of the Dalit workers were burned down and 44 dalits were forcibly kept in a small house, which was set on fire. The victims of Kilvenmani included 28 paraiyars and 16 pallars (all from scheduled castes). Sixteen of the dead were women, five men and 23 children. Eye-witnesses recall how a dalit woman threw her little son outside the fire to save him but the landlord`s hit men instead of showing mercy towards the baby threw him back into the fire. Noted anthropologist Kathleen Gough quotes a 17-year-old eyewitness of the incident:

“First a car arrived carrying G. Naidu and other landlords with knives and guns. Then two or three tractors came, with trailers behind them, one of them Naidu`s and one his younger brother`s from Nagapattinam, and one local Vellalar`s. There were about 300 men. They surrounded our settlement and began to shoot and cut people. Palani`s leg was cut off- he was operated on later in Nagapattinam. My father received 56 pellets of birdshot. Many people ran away into the paddy fields and lay down and hid. The rest were driven out, and their huts burnt down. Altogether 26 houses were burnt. All our remaining people crowded into one hut, about 8 ft. by 6 ft. The rowdies surrounded it and Naidu set fire to it. One woman threw out her son, aged 2, but a gunman caught him on the rifle butt and threw him back in. Everyone died. My mother, grandmother, elder sister, and younger brother were killed, also my mother`s brother`s wife who was visiting. My friend was away visiting relatives: when he got home, his whole family was dead.”

No Justice 

After the incident the local police arrested 23 landlords. The district court acquitted 15 of the accused and sentenced the rest to various terms of liberal imprisonment ranging from one to ten years. But on appeal, the Madras High Court released all the accused. In its judgment, the court said: "The rich landlords could not be expected to commit such violent crimes and would normally hire others to do while keeping themselves in the background." Several dalit workers also had to face cases and jail terms. Gough reports: “Twenty-two harijans from in or near Venmani were jailed for 2 months without trial on suspicion of violence. Eight Harijans from Venmani, all of whom lost close relatives in the fire, received jail sentences for the alleged murder of P. Padaiyacchi, one being sentenced to life imprisonment and actually imprisoned for 7 years. One of the remaining Harijan`s received 5 years` rigorous imprisonment, three of them 2 years, and three, 1 year.”

According to some commentators, the aftermath of the Kilvenmani incident highlights how the state machinery safeguards the interests of the caste bourgeoisie or fails to safeguard the interests of the oppressed workers and untouchable castes. The post-script of the story continued even after the court proceedings. In 1980, G. Naidu, who was imprisoned for a few years following a court verdict, was apparently executed by a small group of survivors of the Kilvenmani incident - again in December!

The Kilvenmani incident stunned the entire nation. Some Tamil writers of the period recorded their anguish in stories and poems. Based on the incident, writer and cultural historian Indira Parthasarathy wrote Kuruthippunal, which was serialised first in Kanaiyazhi, a literary magazine based in Delhi at that time, and later published as a novel. The novel went on to win the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1977. Local labourers composed many folk songs about the massacre, which they still sing at worker rallies or while working in paddy fields.

Martyrs` Memorial

In 1970, the CPI (M) erected a stupa on the site of the Kilvenmani massacre, engraved with the names of the victims and of other CPI (M) supporters murdered in Nagapattinam region since 1948. Mementos like the bangles of women killed in the fire adorned the pinnacle of the stupa. Every year, all-India CPI (M) leaders and agricultural workers from Nagapattinam and neighbouring districts assemble at Venmani village on 25 December to pay homage to the dead at the Martyrs` Memorial. The programme begins with a flag hoisting ceremony in the morning and concludes with a public meeting late in the night.

It has been documented that the Kilvenmani incident was an eye opener to the atrocities against the landless working poor and paved the way to the successful struggles of agricultural workers demanding dignity, decent wages and land reforms in the Thanjavur region. These struggles were combined struggles  both against the social oppression and on economic demands for wages and land. From early 1970s, the wage rates of agricultural workers in the region are documented to be the highest, vis-à-vis other parts of Tamil Nadu. However, it needs to be noted that Kilvenmani was not the end violent oppression of the working class. The catalogue of crimes against the Dalits and poor working people continues in various parts of India even today. Events like the Kilvenmani massacre continue to occur and have multiplied in many parts of India in the subsequent decades. To quote Gough again: “Many more can be expected before India`s agrarian exploitation is overcome.”