Caste Hindus begin razing ‘untouchability wall’ in Karur after revenue officials, police intervene

Hindus belonging to Thottia Naicker community, an intermediate caste, who had built an “untouchability wall” allegedly to prevent access to people belonging to Arunthathiyar community, a Scheduled Caste, at Muthuladampatti in Karur in Tamil Nadu began removing the structure on Saturday amid tight security.

The wall, measuring about 200 feet in length and 10 feet in height, was raised about three weeks ago on a piece of government poramboke land despite strong objections raised immediately by residents from the SC community who alleged that it was a “wall of untouchability”.

Since the erection of the wall, it became a bone of contention between the caste Hindus and the SC community members. While the SC population claimed that the wall was meant to deny them access to areas where the caste Hindus lived, the caste Hindus denied the charge and claimed they had built the wall to prevent anti-social activities by ‘outsiders’ under the influence of alcohol.

Members of the same intermediate caste had reportedly blocked attempts by the Arunthathiyars to build a stage for organising programmes during the annual Sri Muthumariamman Temple festival, and a public toilet on poramboke land.

The Revenue department had served a notice a few days ago on the “Kothukarar”, leader of the intermediate caste group, to remove the wall within 15 days, citing that the land on which the wall had been raised was a government poramboke land. Moreover, no permission had been obtained to construct the wall. However, the community representatives contented that the wall was not meant to deny access to the SC people but to prevent the anti-social activities of ‘outsiders’. They refused to tear down the wall.

Potential to stoke caste clash

Since the issue had the potential to cause caste clashes in the area, the Revenue department served one more notice on Friday night directing the caste Hindus to remove the wall by 11 a.m. on Saturday (August 9, 2025). Strongly opposing the action, a large number of them staged a sit-in protest at the Collector Office on Friday night. They returned to their settlement after revenue officials made it clear that the wall would be demolished on Saturday.

As the revenue and police personnel, led by Karur Superintendent of Police K. Josh Thangaiah, began to assemble at the controversial site on Saturday morning, the leaders of the intermediate caste group came forward to destroy the wall on their own. They began to dismantle the wall in the afternoon. No press and media persons were allowed to take pictures of the operation.

M. Mohamed Bysal, Revenue Divisional Officer, Karur, told The Hindu that the wall had been completely brought down and its foundation would be removed by Sunday afternoon. The members of both the caste groups had been asked to extend cooperation for the smooth completion of the task.