Home News “My Mother Was Killed By Caste”, Says A Weeping TVK Aadhav Arjuna...

“My Mother Was Killed By Caste”, Says A Weeping TVK Aadhav Arjuna But His Own Aunt’s Account Has No Such Mention

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The Commune
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"My Mother Was Killed By Caste", Says A Weeping TVK Aadhav Arjuna But His Own Aunt's Account Has No Such Mention

At a recent TVK election campaign rally in Villivakkam, TVK General Secretary and Perambur candidate Aadhav Arjuna broke down in tears while speaking about his mother’s death. His words were direct: “Why must caste be abolished? Because my mother was killed by caste.”

Addressing the gathering, Arjuna said, “Where I was, there was poverty, debt, dire economic circumstances – people were attempting suicide right before my eyes.” He further stated, “At the age of five, I witnessed my own mother’s death. I saw it with my own eyes at five years old. The loneliness that was born out of that moment.”

He added, “At 13, my teacher made me sit in the library. He transformed my anger – the anger I felt toward society. I read. I read. I kept on reading. That is when I read Ambedkar. Why must caste be abolished? Because my mother was killed by caste. That is when I truly internalised Ambedkar. That is when I internalised Periyar. And when was this? When I was 14 years old.”

The video went viral as it tugged at people’s hearts as they saw Aadhav Arjuna visibly tearing up, tears running down his cheeks, as he narrated it.

However, a separate account narrated by his relative, former IPS officer Thilakavathi, presents a different version of events surrounding his mother’s death.

Thilakavathi IPS, Aadhav Arjuna’s maternal aunt (elder sister to Aadhav’s mother) and the woman who sheltered him after his mother’s death, gave a detailed interview to Galatta Voice recounting exactly what happened and caste does not feature as the cause.

In the video, she says, “She was settled in a small village called Latteri near Katpadi. In that village, they got her married off to a farmer. All around, near the fields, there was a large step-well. About three-quarters of a kilometre from that well, there was a small house. In that house lived Kalyani, Kalyani’s mother-in-law, and Kalyani’s husband — just three people. She had a brother-in-law, but he was in the Army. So, this girl went there after marriage and faced a huge cultural difference. No television — there was no TV at all. Radio was not allowed either. Every time the mother-in-law passed by, she had to stand up… those kinds of many rules were set by the mother-in-law.”

She continued, “The husband was a very good man, though. Good, quiet, with that simple honest nature typical of a village farmer – nothing you could fault him for. But this problem kept running on. As it happened, I was posted in Vellore as an ASP at that time. That area of Katpadi was within my jurisdiction. So I could go there, pick up Kalyani, and bring her to my home. Whenever conflicts or clashes of opinion would escalate and bitterness would grow, she would tell me, or she herself would come to our house. I would then inform our Periyappa. He would come from Madras. He would sit down with her husband and talk — ‘Can’t you settle this? Can’t you explain to your mother?’ — and after counselling them, he’d leave. Within 10 or 15 days of him leaving, a new problem would arise. This kept happening. During the three or four years I was in Vellore, Kalyani would somehow end up spending 10 days of every month at our house.”

She further said, “After I left for Trichy, she no longer had a place to go to vent her feelings, no place to sit and breathe when problems peaked… I don’t know what she thought, but she took the pesticide that was kept for the chilli plants and drank it. Her husband, he was a loving man, screamed in shock and rushed her to a hospital called Kumaran Hospital. But it was beyond saving. Then they brought her mortal remains here. I think she made a hurried decision.”

The contrasting accounts indicate that Aadhav Arjuna’s portrayal of his mother’s death as being caused by caste could have been used for political mileage.

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