Thol Thirumavalavan one day election campaign full coverage 17Apr2014 Thirumavalavan or Thol. Thirumavalavan (born 17 August 1962), is Dalit activist, Member of Parliament in 15th Lok Sabha and the current President of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (Liberation Panthers Party), a Dalit political party in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. He rose to prominence in the 1990s as a Dalit leader, and entered politics in 1999. His political platform centres around ending the caste-based oppression of the Dalits, which he argues can best be achieved through reviving and reorienting Tamil nationalism. He has also expressed support for Tamil nationalist movements and groups elsewhere, including Sri Lanka. He did his Bachelor's course in chemistry, masters degree in Criminology and completed law at Madras Law College. He worked in the government's Forensic Department as a scientific assistant, which he later resigned in 1999 to contest polls. He contested the 1999 and 2004 general elections unsuccessfully and won the 2009 general elections from the Chidambaram constituency. He won the 2001 state assembly elections in alliance with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a post he resigned in 2004 quoting idealogical differences with DMK. He has written a few books and has acted in a few Tamil movies. Thiruma, being the leader of a caste centred party, is often alleged to have instigated caste violence in Tamil Nadu. His confrontation with Vanniyar based caste Pattali Makkal Katchi and its leader Ramadoss has resulted in frequent clashes between Dalits and Vanniyars. Both parties accuse each other of instigating violence against the other community. Both Thiruma and Ramadoss reconciled and worked together during the period of 2004 to 2009, when they were part of the same electoral alliance. Several party men quoted strained relationship with Thirumaa and quit the party on account of the increased involvement of him in Katta Panchayat (kangaroo courts), bringing disrepute to the party. Thiruma was also in the centre of controversy when the party asked party cadres to donate weighing against Thiruma in 2012, on the occasion of his 50th birthday. In August 2013, Kavitha, a divorcee and mother of a girl child, accused Thiruma of reneging her on the promise of marrying her and she filed a complaint in police to similar effect. Early life[edit] Thirumavalavan was the second child of Tholkappian (Ramasamy) and Periyammal, and was born in the village of Anganur in Ariyalur District in Tamil Nadu, India. His father had studied up to the grade, while his mother remained uneducated. He has a sister and three brothers, but he was the only member of his family who went on to higher education after completion of his schooling. He initially studied chemistry, and went on to do a masters degree in Criminology, before studying law at Madras Law College. He then began working in the government's Forensic Department as a scientific assistant.[1] He began growing interested in politics in 1982, when he was still a student, in reaction to reports from refugees of Sri Lankan military atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka. He began holding rallies and organised boycotts and conferences to support the Sri Lankan cause. He ran around Madras Law College, but failed . This, he alleged, was due to his being a Dalit. The incident led to his meeting and becoming acquainted with politicians from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a major political party in Tamil Nadu.[1] Till 2002, he had his name as R. Thirumavalavan, with his father's name Ramaswamy as initial. He changed it to Thol. Thirumavalavan, "Thol" indicating the shorter version of Tholkappiyan.[2] Dalit activism[edit] In 1988, when working for the government's Forensic Department in the southern city of Madurai, he met Malaichamy, the Tamil Nadu state convenor of the Dalit Panthers of India (DPI), an organisation that fought for the rights of Dalits. The next year, following Malaichamy's death, Thirumalavan was elected the leader of the DPI. He designed a new flag for the organisation in 1990. As part of his work, he also began visiting Dalit villages in the Madurai region, and began learning about the problems faced by Dalits. The killing of two Dalits in 1992, he says, made him more militant.[1] Against the background of increasing Dalit assertiveness, he emerged as one of two major Dalit leaders in Tamil Nadu, with a large base of grassroots support, particularly in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu.[3] During early 1997, he was suspended from his government job on account of his increased political activity. He resigned from his job formally in August 1999 to contest in the 1999 Indian general elections.[4]

• published: 18 Apr 2014
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