Dalit activist Chithralekha, who fought against the Left, dies of cancer

E Chithralekha, a Dalit woman auto-rickshaw driver who turned an unwitting symbol of resistance in Kerala’s traditional Left citadel Kannur in the last three decades by exposing caste and gender-based hegemony prevailing among leaders and cadres of the ruling CPI(M), breathed her last early morning on Saturday following complications related to pancreatic cancer.

Chithralekha, 47, had been undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kannur for the last two weeks, and doctors confirmed her death around 3am following respiratory failure.

Chithralekha, who was from the extremely backward Pulaya community, had angered the local leadership of the CPI(M) by marrying a man from the OBC Thiyya community. This was her second marriage after divorcing a man who was from her community. Her actions had made national and international headlines for several years, ever since she was chased out of her birthplace, Edatt, near Payyannur, for attempting to challenge the local male dominance by owning and driving an auto-rickshaw.

Afterwards, she had to move to a rented accommodation in Puthiyatheru on the outskirts of Kannur town. In addition to her modest home in Edatt, the CPI(M)’s trade union wing, CITU, set fire to her auto-rickshaws twice, which were the only source of income for her family—her ex-husband and two children from a previous marriage. In the communist village of Edatt, Chithralekha was the only dissenting voice.

In 2016, former Congress chief minister Oommen Chandy allocated five cents of land and ₹5 lakh to construct a house for Chithralekha at Kattampalli, another part of Kannur district. However, after the Pinarayi Vijayan-led CPI(M) government took power, it revoked the order, leading to widespread criticism. The case is currently awaiting a decision from the Kerala high court.

Death came unexpectedly for her while British filmmaker Fraser Scott was preparing to make a Hindi movie based on her life and struggles. Vidya Balan was set to play the lead role, and discussions were underway. In 2018, director Shekhar Kapoor’s Instagram post praising Chitralekha as a woman as brave as Phoolan Devi had caused a sensation nationwide.

Rights activist K M Venugopalan, based in Kannur, stated that Chithralekha faced opposition from the local leadership of the CPI(M) in 2002 when she married Sreekant, who belonged to the OBC Thiyya community. The CPI(M) in Kannur is predominantly composed of Thiyyas. Despite its progressive stance, the party often discourages marriages between OBCs and Dalits, especially in areas designated as party villages where it has significant influence over people’s personal and social lives.

In 2004, Chithralekha, a healthcare worker at a local hospital then with a modest income, purchased an auto-rickshaw using a PMRY loan. She sought affiliation from the trade union and became the first woman auto-rickshaw driver in Kannur. After three months of persuasion, CITU allowed her to park her auto in the lot designated for local taxis at the village junction.

This didn’t go down well with the male auto drivers under CITU who allegedly despised her because she weaned away their female passengers, especially Muslim women, who found comfort and novelty with the woman driver.

They initially attempted to drive her away by yelling casteist slurs and launching a smear campaign, falsely alleging that she and her mother were involved in prostitution. Despite her resilience, the harassment continued. In January 2005, her auto’s windscreen was smashed, and its hood was ripped off. Then, on the night of December 31, 2005, her auto was set on fire, and a poster campaign was initiated depicting her as immoral and a drunkard. Even when Chithralekha returned to the same Edatt auto stand in 2008 with a new auto purchased with financial assistance from philanthropists and human rights activists, the harassment did not stop.

“For many years, on numerous occasions, she and her husband were physically assaulted. Even their school-going children were not spared from the attacks. The family’s house was vandalised, and false cases of violence were filed against her and her husband, including a case of attempted murder,” recalls N Subrahmanyan, a rights activist based in Payyannur.

As life became unbearable, Chithralekha launched a protest in front of the Kannur district collectorate on October 25, 2014. One hundred and 22 days later, that small protest prompted chief minister Oommen Chandy to promise her five cents (around 2,200 sq ft) of land elsewhere to build a house.

After the Vijayan government took over, the assurance did not materialise. As a result, Chithralekha had to begin another protest in front of the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. She demanded immediate fulfilment of the promise and withdrawal of all the false cases registered against her and her husband.

The leftist government refused to back down, and the related case is now pending in the high court. According to her, the CITU members had spread lies about her owning five acres of land in the district, so the administration hadn’t acted on the then-chief minister’s assurance.

“If I had owned these acres of land, I wouldn’t have had to protest in front of the district collectorate for 122 days or fight the CPI(M) for several years,” Chithra stated in a letter to Vijayan in 2018. “I would have been able to sell that land and live comfortably in a safe place,” she stated.

On August 24, 2023, CITU workers allegedly broke into the compound of her home in Puthiyatheru and vandalised her newly acquired autorickshaw once more. Police have not arrested anybody so far due to a lack of evidence, and CITU continues to claim that she burnt the auto herself to defame the union and to gain publicity.

Recently, Chithralekha accused the Vijayan government of attempting to expel her husband from Kannur by adding his name to the goonda list. A sub-collector has cancelled his bail and issued a new arrest warrant against him for an old confrontation with local CITU leaders. According to Chithralekha, three counter-petitions that CITU members had filed against her and her husband were the driving force behind these actions. She expressed frustration that those who had subjected them to caste-based attacks and forced them to leave their hometown were walking free while they were being pursued.

After a fact-finding mission a decade ago, scholars Gail Omvedt, activist V Geetha, and Professor Nivedita Menon concluded that the intolerance towards Chithralekha in Payyannur was a ceremonial part of untouchability still practised in the region by the so-called inheritors of the progressive politics of Kerala.

The investigation also uncovered that the attack on Chithralekha was not an isolated incident. Other Dalit women who work as auto drivers in North Malabar, including Kannur and Kasargod districts, have experienced similar intimidation, sexual harassment, caste-related abuses, and accusations of promiscuity and immorality. The auto-rickshaw of another Dalit woman in Kannur was also set on fire. She has since relocated to Payyanur and avoids any involvement with CITU. Furthermore, the investigation found that intimidation had pushed a Dalit Christian woman, who operated her auto in nearby Pazhayangadi, to the edge of suicide, leading her to leave the profession.

“The CPI(M) in the area created a fascist atmosphere, which was the cause of Chithralekha’s struggles. Once the party takes over a village, it enforces extrajudicial power over everyone there. The CPI (M) exists and thrives in the region through the use of such power over entire villages. Anyone who questions the party or goes against its wishes is harassed, alienated, ostracised, and sometimes even killed,” points out J Devika, a writer and a faculty member with the Thiruvananthapuram-based Centre for Development Studies.

“Chithralekha faced relentless intimidation because she stood up to her tormentors by joining forces with Dalit and feminist activists. She was a confident, assertive, and independent Dalit woman. The CITU seemingly could not tolerate her unwavering courage and self-assurance. They always viewed Chithra, who did not conform to the conventional Malayali notion of the ideal woman, as immoral and worthless,” she emphasised.

Chithralekha’s close relatives revealed that her life was extremely difficult as her father left her mother when she was just five years old. Her mother raised the children and sent them to school by doing menial jobs. After completing Class X, Chithralekha started a midwifery course but couldn’t finish it due to financial constraints. Despite this setback, she secured a nursing job at a local nursing home. Several years later, her first husband abandoned her and their two children. It was then that she decided to enter into an intercaste marriage.

CPI(M) district secretary M V Jayarajan has stated that Chithralekha’s allegations against the party were politically motivated and had a hidden agenda to defame the left. He argues that the issues involving her are not political but local-level, apolitical matters that have escalated into conflicts. He claims that the party has consistently attempted to resolve the issues amicably, but these efforts failed due to Chithralekha’s lack of cooperation.

The mortal remains of Chithralekha will be available for public viewing at her residence in Puthiyatheru on Sunday from 10 am onwards. It would be cremated at the burial ground in Payyambalam Beach in Kannur Town in the evening.