Tamil Nadu Timeline

ConflictRise of Dravidian rule

Kilvenmani massacre

· Kilvenmani

Kilvenmani massacre
njkl, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Around 44 Dalit agricultural labourers' family members, mostly women and children, were burnt to death at Kilvenmani in Thanjavur district.

On 25 December 1968, in Kilvenmani village in the then Thanjavur district (now Nagapattinam district), around 44 people from the families of striking Dalit agricultural labourers were killed. They were burnt alive in a hut by a gang allegedly led by local landlords during a dispute over wages. The labourers had been organised by communist unions. The chief accused, Gopalakrishnan Naidu, was later acquitted by the Madras High Court, and the massacre became a lasting symbol of caste and class violence in Tamil Nadu.

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