2004 Kalapatti violence

The 2004 Kalapatti violence refers to the violence against Dalits by dominant-caste villagers in the village of Kalapatti, Tamil Nadu on 16 May 2004. About 100 Dalit houses have been burned down by a mob of 200 villagers and Dalits who attempted to escape were attacked. The attacks lasted for 2 hours and 14 people were seriously injured in the violence including a man's arm reportedly hacked off.

Tensions reportedly started after Dalits in the village boycotted the 2004 Lok Sabha election as a protest because some of their grievances remained unattended. This is said to have angered the dominant caste villagers and also the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers when the dalits remained unconcerned during the BJP general secretary's visit to the village. Other incidents include an attack against a Dalit youth who was pasting posters to celebrate Dr. Ambedkar's birthday and an altercation between Dalit youths and the dominant-caste men in an auto-rickshaw.

The attacks started after the loss of BJP's state general secretary in the polls. The United states Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor reported that the attackers blamed the loss of their candidate on the Dalits. Thol. Thirumavalavan, leaders of political parties CPI and CPM blamed the BJP for the violence.^[1]