Articulating Honor, Authoring the Past: Political Statements among the Devendra Kula Velallars of Tamil Nadu

VICTORIA G. GROSS, then a student at Columbia University, New York, New York, was awarded a grant in April 2012 to aid research on 'Articulating Honor, Authoring the Past: Political Statements among the Devendra Kula Velallars of Tamil Nadu,' supervised by Dr. E. Valentine Daniel. The Devendra Kula Velallar community-a Dalit caste long subjected to violent subjugation in the Tamil region of India-is in the midst of a multivalent socio-political movement. Devendras, who are known to others as Pallars, are in the process of claiming a higher status for themselves. They articulate their claim by adopting a more aristocratic caste title, performatively asserting dominance during caste-centered functions and in everyday moments of bodily comportment, writing and distributing documents about their history, and engaging in conspicuous consumption indicative of a high class position. In opposition to most approaches to Dalit assertion, which employ the discourses of human rights and distributive justice and foreground the oppression of India's untouchables, Devendras refuse victimization. Instead they focus on their position in the distant past, which, they claim, was very high. Some even claim that the Devendras are, in fact, the descendants of the ancient kings of the Tamil region. Such claims are not voiced without opposition. The Thevar community, which used to dominate Southern Tamil Nadu, is staunchly opposed to the Devendras, and intercaste violence between the two communities is increasingly common. This study tracks both the Devendras' upward mobility and the Thevar backlash that it elicits.