Kalugumalai riots of 1895 information

Kalugumalai riots of 1895
Part of Shanar - Maravar conflicts
Location	Kalugumalai, Madras Presidency, British India
Date	1895 (UTC+5:30)
Attack type	Inter caste, Christian-Hindu
Deaths	at least 10

Kalugumalai riots of 1895 (commonly referred as Kalugumalai riots) was a violent conflict between Nadars (also called Shanars) who had recently converted to Roman Catholicism and Maravars who were traditional Tamil military caste during 1895 in Kalugumalai in Madras Presidency, British India.^[1] A total of ten people were killed and numerous people were injured. The temple chariot of Kalugasalamoorthy Temple was also burnt during the riots. The contention of the communities were over the usage of the Car streets round the temple by Nadars, which were opposed by the other communities quoting private ownership and religious sanctity.^[1]

There was an elongated Court battle between the Nadars and the Ettaiyapuram Zamindar. The Raja Ettaiyapuram had created the streets starting in 1849, allotted house lots on the newly built streets, with shrines to Hindu deities along the cardinally aligned car streets to the temple for festival processions.^[1] Ettaiyapuram argued before the court that the streets were built for the temple and were temple property. The Nadars argued that the streets were public property. All the appeals of the Nadar seeking public ownership of the streets were rejected by the courts, on the basis that the temple streets were a religious issue. In November 1894, the French missionary Caussanel purchased a house site on the temple's East Car street, and began the construction of a Christian chapel. This triggered a Hindu protest. In 1895, Caussanel and Nadars set up a ceremonial porch (pandal) for a baptism ceremony on the same Car street that impeded the temple procession car. This, in combination with the Nadars’ rise as a business community and social status lead to a violent confrontation between the Maravars and Nadars in 1895. This is historically remembered as the Kalugumalai riots of 1895.^[1] The details and motivations behind the riots have rival narratives, states Anthony Good – an Anthropologist and Indologist, with the colonial era Christian narratives focusing on the caste system, while the Hindu narrative focusing on the missionary activity within the temple property and repeated blocking of their temple's procession cart in front of the Church commisssioned by Caussanel.^[1]

The Sessions Court convicted two Nadars, named Mahalinga and Karutna and sentenced them to death on 17 August 1895, while others received 3 to 6 months. The appeal in the High Court was made by Caussanel, the French missionary, immediately in favour of the Nadars and he argued that the evidences were not properly examined by the Sessions court. The High Court overruled the verdict of the lower court and set all of the accused free. The Sivakasi riots of 1899 is considered as an aftermath to this riots. In 1897, a court ordered the Church to leave the Hindu temple street site. After exhausting all court appeals, in 1904 the Christian missionaries led by Caussanel agreed to remove the chapel and Christian activity from East Car street and relocate to a new site in Kalugumalai.^[1]