Murder in Mudukulathur by K.A. Manikumar

Author:K.A. Manikumar [Manikumar, K.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: leftword
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

IV

On 28 September 1957 the government took everybody by surprise by arresting Muthuramalinga Thevar. Thevar was returning home in his car along with T. G. Krishnamurthy, MLC, after inaugurating the preliminary convention of the Indian National Democratic Congress. He was arrested near Vaigai Bridge at 10.45 p.m. and taken to Vellore. He had been arrested under the Preventive Detention Act (Central Act 4 of 1950). The collector issued the detention order on 28 September in his capacity as additional magistrate of Ramanathapuram district.

The police had made 66 arrests in the Mudukulathur– Paramakudi area soon after the enquiry commission completed its enquiry.71 The police had arrested about 450 persons and kept them in jail before imprisoning Thevar. Sasivarna Thevar’s house was raided by the Madurai police on 29 September, following the arrest of Muthuramalinga Thevar.72

Muthuramalinga Thevar’s arrest, surprisingly, caused no major law and order problem in Ramanathapuram district, but some incidents did take place in Madurai that perturbed the authorities. The police dispersed a crowd on the morning of 30 September in Karimedu (a working-class area in Madurai). The crowd demanded that shopkeepers close their shops. A hartal was observed on 6 October in Madurai city in response to the call of the all-party Committee to express public protest against the arrest of Thevar. Most of the restaurants and betel-nut shops in Madurai remained closed and two out of seven textile mills were declared closed due to the abstention of workers.73

At a joint public meeting held on 22 October, 10,000 Thevars and Pallars from 32 villages in Tirumangalam assembly constituency deplored the ‘disruption of age-long unity between the two communities’ and urged the government to release Thevar and hold a judicial enquiry.74 A bail application for Thevar was moved by two Pallars. Because of the nature of the Act under which he was arrested, the Advisory Board recommended against the granting of bail.75

Muthuramalinga Thevar was detained in the Madras Penitentiary. In pursuance of section 7(1) of the Act, the government communicated to him the grounds of his detention. In the first part of the order, Thevar was charged with making objectionable speeches intended to foment communal hatred and inciting people to violence. The government provided three instances to substantiate their charge:76

1.When addressing a public meeting at Madurai on 12 May 1956, Muthuramalinga Thevar declared that the Forward Bloc, of which he has been a local leader, would give six months notice to the Prime Minister of India to quit the Commonwealth, failing which a nationwide violent struggle would be started by Thevar to oust the Congress from power.

2.Muthuramalinga Thevar addressed a public meeting at Sayalgudi on 17 April 1957 alleging that the Nadars had become rich by dishonest methods of business. Therefore the general public should have no transactions with them and should desist from making any purchases in their shops. Thevar also said that there was a conspiracy in Virudhunagar in July 1956, during which secret meetings of the Nadar community were held and a section of the Pallars had

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.