Karamchedu and the Dalit subject in Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

The modern history of the Dalit movement in Andhra Pradesh involves significant experiences relevant to the sociology of caste and Dalit studies than is often reflected in existing scholarship. At the centre of this history is the massacre of six Dalits in Karamchedu village, coastal Andhra, in 1985. The article focuses on the Karamchedu massacre and how this event was decisive for the emergence of an independent Dalit movement, fully engaged in a struggle against untouchability, violence and caste-based discrimination. The Dalit Mahasabha was created, representing a collective, emancipatory project in opposition to the dominant Naxalite movement. The initial struggle started from a camp that was established to support the victims who had fled the attack in Karamchedu. Ambedkar, moreover, became the summarising symbol for the new Dalit movement, providing the basis for a Dalit approach and relations to other movements. Overall, the history of Karamchedu involves significant theoretical lessons concerning caste and class, Dalit discourse and ontology. The article concludes by sketching a hypothesis of how caste may be intensified in its social and political situation in India's modernity.

Recasting Land: Agrarian Urbanism in Amaravati

“…Thus, Dalits' resentment about such humiliations, underwritten by the regional history of mobilisation against caste oppression and violence (Berg, 2014), played a major role in the resistance by assigned landholders. In the next section, I explore how they mobilised around this issue by foregrounding their exclusion not only by Kammas but also by the state.…”

Dalit Counterpublic and Social Space on Indian Campuses

“…This shift reflected the broader changes in the SC members' political orientation in the area since the mid-1980s. After the Karamchedu and Tsundur Dalit massacres, in which Dalit families suffered from the dominant castes, the SCs began disassociating from the Communist and Naxalite movements, asserting an 'autonomous' Dalit political identity, instead of class taking caste as a main point of ideological positioning (Berg, 2014;Gudavarthy, 2005Gudavarthy, , 2013Kota, 2019;Satyanarayana, 2014;Srinivasulu, 2002). At the time of the fieldwork, the 'autonomous' Dalit political movement discourse which had questioned Dalit involvement in Left politics, was already present in the Osmania campus and the existence of the aforementioned Dalit organizations proves this point.…”

Caste Dominance and Territory in South India: Understanding Kammas’ socio-spatial mobility

“…Karamchedu united Dalits over a large territory and therefore became a turning point in the history of caste-based mobilization in Andhra Pradesh-a state where the Naxalite movement had been fighting an agrarian struggle along class lines. 87 In a Maoist pamphlet circulated after the massacre, the killings were described as a 'landlords' attack against labourers', without mentioning the caste identity of the victims and perpetrators. The Ambedkarite leaders of the Dalit Mahasabha subsequently distanced themselves from the revolutionary Left and from the dominant Marxist class analysis.…”