Since the question of caste is predominantly exclusive to the Indian context, it is very much absent in western theoretical frameworks, including in Marxist and other communist theories. Hence, when these theories and praxes are adopted by the political leaders of the Indian sub-continent, the fight against caste takes a noticeable backseat to that of class. Thus, in their fight to upend the class struggle, all the while quoting Gramsci and Marx, the parties and their upper-caste leaders often forget that class differentiation is only one of many features baked into the intricate web of caste system. This obliviousness of the obvious often has grave consequences for the people living in the margins of society.

Meena Kandasamy in her debut novel, The Gypsy Goddess, recounts the brutal Kilvenmani massacre of Dalit farmers by their upper-caste landlords in late 1968. With the support and encouragement of the local communist leaders, the farmers were protesting against the low wages and inhumane working conditions they were subjected to by the landlords. In light of the alleged transgressions of the farmers against the landlords, an infuriated leader of the Paddy Producers Association, Gopalakrishnan Naidu, orchestrated a brutal slaughter on the farmers’ village. Forty-four people, most of them being women and children, were burned alive that day in the attack. Every single accused walked away from the court without any lasting or meaningful indictment for their role in the massacre.

During the course of her searing narrative, the author points out the deafening silence of inaction from various state mechanisms, whether it be through the limited verbal reassurance from political parties ruling or opposing, the police institution colluding with the landlords to cover up the incident, the indifference of media until they can capture the graphic aftermath of violence on film rolls, or the court which proclaims “justice” based on the last names of the accusers on stand. This is just some of the ways in which the Dalit populace is systematically oppressed in a what-is-supposed-to-be a post-caste Indian society. Nonetheless, the community of survivors refused to be bought out by the state and its players either through offers of money and relocation, or by the tears they shed for yet another photo op for the papers to print the next day. 

It is due to the community refusing to give in to their oppressors in the face of overwhelming brutality that large-scale reformations happened afterwards. But even after all the progress which followed, in the words of then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Annadurai, the Indian society and state expect the oppression of the Dalit people to “forget (this) as they forget a feverish nightmare or a flash of lightning” (Kandasamy, 2014) from the larger cultural consciousness.