“Justice Chandru and his controversial suggestions for ‘Social Justice’ in Tamil Nadu schools”, Swarajyamag, June 20, 2024:
“Justice K Chandru, a retired judge of the Madras High Court, is fairly well known in Tamil Nadu. He has been the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government’s man of choice to head various state-level committees, such as the one that recommended a ban on online rummy. As part of his latest assignment, Justice Chandru has submitted a report suggesting measures to prevent casteism in schools. However, the report has proved controversial due to some of its recommendations.
The contentious ones include prohibition on the tilaka and coloured wristbands (because these could indicate caste), the appointment of an expert body to investigate allegations of ‘saffronisation of education’, and not posting officers from the dominant caste in an area. The one-man committee of Justice Chandru was formed after a gruesome incident: two children from a scheduled caste (SC) community were brutally attacked with sickles by a group of students from a dominant caste.
The attack took place in Nanguneri, Tirunelveli district. Let’s look more closely at some controversial suggestions made by the Justice Chandru committee: 1) Prohibition of coloured wristbands, rings, or forehead marks (tilaka) After the Nanguneri incident, news reports said wristbands of certain colours are worn by members of dominant castes and certain other colours by Dalits. Therefore, the wristband colour can act as a mark of identification. However, critics say not every wristband is an indicator of a person’s caste. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai, while criticising this recommendation, said that very often threads of different colours are used in temple rituals, and these threads have nothing to do with caste……”
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