Sivakasi riots
· Sivakasi
In and near Sivakasi, Maravar-Nadar clashes killed 22 people and burnt hundreds of houses until troops stepped in.
In the Sivakasi area, friction between Maravars and Nadars had grown with the Nadars' economic rise and with demands such as entry to temples, and in 1899 it came to a head. In the riots that broke out, 22 people died and around 800 houses were set on fire, together with the temple's great chariot. Order was restored only when the British Indian Army intervened in mid-July 1899. The violence illustrated the caste tensions that accompanied social mobility in the southern districts.