From cheri to ur: The historical geography of a Dalit village in the Tamil countryside

Spatial segregation in rural Tamil Nadu often takes the form of the division of the village into the ur settlement (for non-Dalits) and the cheri (for Dalits). This continuing segregation of village communities along caste lines has given rise to the view that outmigration, either in the form of circular migration or permanent exit, is central to any prospect of social mobility for rural Dalits. Consequently, the dissolution of the village community as a locus of class relations is often considered necessary for sustained social mobility for Dalit communities in the countryside. This article counters this commonly held view and offers mobilisation-in-place as an alternative path that can better explain instances of Dalit social mobility. These arguments are developed in the context of a detailed analysis of a single village in southern Tamil Nadu—Kilakottai, near Tirunelveli—that witnessed upward mobility for Dalits, from a historical and comparative perspective. I find that a theory that valorises the migrant as the agent of change cannot explain the time- and place-specific character of Dalit assertion in this region. By contrast, this article highlights the role of systematic shifts within agriculture during the 1940s and 1950s, enabled by localised struggles for land and water. These struggles were enabled by democratisation and favourable political coalitions in southern Tamil Nadu and had the effect of reconstituting the Dalit cheri as a space of caste autonomy.