Tamil Nadu: How Scheduled Castes in Tirunelveli empowered themselves by establishing schools

In 1924, at a Gurukulam established by V.V.S. Iyer at Cheranmahadevi, Tirunelveli, Brahmin and non-Brahmin students were made to dine separately. This caste discrimination at a Gurukulam played a pivotal role in Tamil Nadu’s politics, with Periyar E.V. Ramasamy leaving the Congress and forming the Dravidar Kazhagam. At a time when this incident shook civil society, the Soosaiappar Primary School on Arasadi Street at Cheranmahadevi, which had completed 50 years, stood out as a shining example of empowerment of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) through education. Students from other castes studied at the school too. The school was founded in 1874 by a prominent Catholic elder from the community without any assistance from Christian missionaries. It now functions as a government-aided primary school.

The efforts of the SCs in establishing schools were not confined to Tirunelveli district. To empower the community, the community leaders launched similar schools across the State. These institutions were identified as Adi Dravida, long before the term ‘Dalit’ gained currency. Now, there are 28 schools established by the SCs that are functioning as government-aided primary schools in Tirunelveli. A half-a-century ago, there were over 50 such schools.

J. Balasubramaniam, Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism, Madurai Kamaraj University, has studied these schools in Tirunelveli. “It is widely believed that efforts to empower the Dalits through education were led mainly by the British, Christian missionaries, and reform organisations,” he said. Though there is a prevailing notion that the SCs lacked the resources to build institutions, these schools stood testimony to the role of the community in promoting education and social uplift, he said.