Writer Perumal Murugan, who was forced to leave his hometown after his novel Mathorubhagan evoked protests from some caste groups.
Recent murder of Dalit youth and social boycott of writer Perumal Murugan
provide ample evidence of the western belt in Tamil Nadu being more casteist than southern districts.
Caste conflicts, it is generally believed, are confined to the State’s southern districts, where caste Hindus and Dalits have often locked horns.
Even the late 1990s witnessed widespread riots, forcing the DMK government to remove the names of all leaders from transport corporations, roads, government buildings and streets, even though many of these leaders did not identify themselves with their caste. However, aggressive casteist tendencies emerging from the western belt of Tamil Nadu seem to overshadow the
southern districts. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/kongu-region-a-hotbed-of-