Laxmipeta Massacre

Laxmipeta Massacre refers to a brutal caste-based attack that occurred in Laxmipeta village, Vangara mandal, Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, on June 12, 2012. The violence was initiated by members of the Kapu caste against the landless Mala (Dalit) community, resulting in the deaths of five Dalits and injuries to several others. The assailants, armed with sticks, axes, spears, and country-made bombs, launched an unprovoked assault on the Dalit colony, causing significant damage and displacing many residents.^[1][2]

The Kapus, who held economic power and growing political influence in the region, were reportedly unwilling to acknowledge the Dalits' traditional claims to land. The incident was a culmination of escalating tensions and systematic violence, triggered by the Dalits' assertion of their rights and their resistance against perceived oppression.^[3] This massacre highlighted the persistent discriminatory and violent tendencies of caste hierarchies in modern Indian society, drawing widespread condemnation from Dalit activists and human rights organisations.^[4] Following the incident, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) identified approximately 80 Kapus for their role in the violence, and later a significant number of Kapu accused were subsequently arrested and jailed, demonstrating the scale and magnitude of the attack.^[1] It also generated widespread outrage from Dalit activists of the state and led to the formation of Andhra Pradesh Dalit Mahasabha which drew inspiration from Ambedkar's ideals and stood for Dalit rights, and fought against untouchability and exclusion.

Laxmipeta village, located along the ayacut (command area) of the Madduvalasa reservoir in northern Andhra Pradesh, has a long history of caste-based stratification. The Turpu Kapu community, while categorized as an OBC, had achieved significant economic prosperity and wielded considerable political influence in the region, leading them to assert dominance over the historically marginalised Dalit communities. The Malas, a Scheduled Caste, largely comprised landless agricultural laborers who had traditionally worked on lands owned by Kapus or relied on common lands for their livelihood.^[4]

Several factors converged to ignite the conflict:^[2]

• Land Dispute: A primary trigger was a dispute over land that had emerged from the submergence of the Madduvalasa reservoir project. The state government had acquired 7,852 acres of land for the project, affecting 21 villages, including Laxmipeta. After the reservoir's height was reduced by two feet, 250 acres of acquired land became usable again. Of this, 190 acres were cultivated by Turpu Kapus (despite having received compensation and resettlement packages), while 60 acres were cultivated by Dalits. The Kapus began asserting claims over the land the Dalits had been cultivating for years, creating intense friction. The Dalits, for the first time, began actively asserting their traditional rights, even filing complaints under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the Kapus. This defiance was perceived as a direct challenge to the Kapu's established dominance and "caste-supremacy."^[3]
• Challenging Untouchability and Social Distance: The Dalits' assertion also visibly disrupted traditional norms of untouchability, reducing the physical and social distance between them and the Kapus. This breakdown of traditional hierarchy contributed to simmering tensions.
• Political Assertion by Dalits: A significant contributing factor was the election of a Dalit woman as the Sarpanch (village head) of Laxmipeta. Under provisions for unanimously elected village panchayats, ₹5 lakh was allocated for village development. The Dalit Sarpanch used these funds to provide basic amenities like drinking water, roads, and drainage in the Dalit colony, demonstrating autonomy and bypassing the traditional intervention of the Turpu Kapus. This visible exercise of power by a Dalit woman was perceived as a direct threat to the Kapu community's traditional caste dominance and privileges.

As tensions escalated, both groups lodged multiple police complaints, leading authorities to caution against violence. However, a premeditated plan for a large-scale attack by the Kapus was already underway.

On the morning of June 12, 2012, a large mob of Turpu Kapus, comprising men, women, and even teenagers from Laxmipeta and neighbouring villages, arrived in tractors, auto-rickshaws, and bicycles. This armed horde launched a sudden and brutal assault on the unsuspecting Mala (Dalit) street. They attacked Dalits indiscriminately with axes, spears, sticks, country-made bombs, knives, stones, and chilli powder, hurling casteist slurs and vowing to destroy the locality. The rampage lasted for hours, during which five Dalit men were killed on the spot (the death toll later rose to six), and over 40 people, including women and children, were severely injured. Houses in the Dalit colony were damaged, and many residents were forced to flee for their lives.^[5]

Initial reports indicated that local police did not intervene effectively or arrive in time, despite multiple distress calls, raising serious questions about state complicity or negligence in protecting the vulnerable Dalit community.^[6]

The Laxmipeta massacre immediately triggered widespread outrage and protests from Dalit organisations, human rights activists, and civil society groups across Andhra Pradesh and India. Demands for justice and protection for the victims resonated nationally. Following the bloodbath, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, visited the village to meet survivors and Dalits sheltering in a local hospital. While assuring justice and rehabilitation, the state government set up a fast-track court to try the case, aiming for a verdict within six months. The CID (Crime Investigation Department) took over the investigation and charged around 80 individuals with the killings. A special court was established in Laxmipeta itself to conduct an in-situ trial, a rare measure aimed at expediting proceedings and ensuring victim participation. The trial began in April 2015. While the legal process has been prolonged due to the complexity of the case and appeals, it has seen significant arrests and charges filed. As of recent reports (2024), twelve years after the massacre, Dalit survivors continue to await full justice, highlighting the enduring challenges in securing convictions and ensuring comprehensive rehabilitation in such caste-atrocity cases.^[7]

The Laxmipeta massacre, serves as a stark reminder of the deeply entrenched caste hierarchies in rural India. It underscores how economic power, political influence, and traditional notions of "honor" and "status" can lead to extreme violence when challenged by the assertion of rights and dignity by marginalised communities. The incident also reignited debates on land rights, police accountability, and the effective implementation of protective legislation for Scheduled Castes.^[1]

Dag-Erik Berg's analytical framework of 'dominant caste' (drawing from M. N. Srinivas) is highly pertinent here. While the Kapu community is traditionally classified as an Other Backward Class (OBC) and not an upper caste in the traditional Varna system, their significant economic prosperity and burgeoning political influence in the post-colonial era enabled them to function as a de facto dominant caste in regions like Srikakulam.

Their claim to social superiority and local dominance was heavily predicated on the subordination and 'exclusion' of Dalits, who, in the traditional ritual classification, were relegated to the status of "untouchables." Berg's analysis highlights that when the ritual superiority or social dominance of a caste is not entirely self-evident or is open to dispute (as with OBCs asserting dominance over Scheduled Castes), it often needs to be enforced through violence. Their everyday dominance in Laxmipeta involved not just material exploitation through land and labor control but also the explicit use of force to maintain social order. The deep-rooted notion that 'untouchables' are "nobodies" supposedly justified this violence in the eyes of the perpetrators.

The massacre is seen as a direct consequence of the Dalits' attempts to 'correct' the unfair behavior and dominance of the Kapus. The Malas' assertion of their land rights, their utilization of legal recourse (filing atrocity cases), and particularly the election of a Dalit woman as Sarpanch—a visible challenge to Kapu political hegemony—were perceived as a direct affront to their established superiority. The Kapus, in line with Berg's and other scholars' observations on dominant caste behavior, felt their caste-supremacy was challenged and sought to "teach a lesson" to the Dalits for their defiance.^[2]

While the economic class dimension is undeniably intertwined with caste oppression (with Dalits often being landless laborers exploited by dominant caste landowners), the Dalit movement in Andhra Pradesh (and reinforced by subsequent massacres like Laxmipeta) emphasizzed the critical need to address the issue of caste in its specificity. It highlighted that caste plays a predominant and independent role in the underlying social conflict, driving violence even when economic disparities are present. The continuous struggle for land rights and dignity by Dalits, as seen in Laxmipeta, further propelled the Dalit movement's focus on Ambedkar's ideas of "Annihilation of Caste," promoting self-assertion, dignity, and demanding legal protection from the state against untouchability and exclusion.

• Tsundur massacre
• List of Scheduled Castes in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana

• Srinivasulu, K. (2002). Caste, Class and Social Articulation in Andhra Pradesh, India: Mapping Differential Regional Trajectories. Overseas Development Institute. ISBN 978-0-85003-612-1. Available online

• 12 years on, Dalit Survivors of Andhra Pradesh's Laxmipeta Massacre Await Justice