The hero. Image Source: Asianet News Tamil.

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*B. R. Ambedkar* is regarded as the chevalier- championing the emancipation of the minors or the country’s shunned communities. Hymns are intoned by the Constitution, preaching his prowess. At present, minors are granted access to equal opportunities in many aspects of their lives- education, job opportunity, healthcare systems, etc. A special cut is devised concerning the situations these communities dwell in. Though the world is in progression, the faction of Dalits is the common prey of atrocities even today. To brace their fight, people agitate and march in protest, holding up the agenda of the Dalits. Alas! The deaf continue to be deaf. 

The affairs in the South were topsy-turvy. The confrontation between the vexed OBC and the Dalits have been a much antagonistic cold war, before *USA* and *USSR* started digging into the term. And, before Ambedkar, the man who stood up for the rights of the Dalits against the privileged Thevars, was ***Immanuvel Devendrar.***

To pay homage to the great fighter. Image Source: gopalasamudramdevendiraeperavai.com

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On October 9, 1924, Devendrar was born in Sellur, Tamil Nadu. ***Immanuvel Sekaran Devendrar*** is famed for his share in the *Quit India Movement* as a young lad of 18. He was captured by the British police and sent to prison for three months. His name was categorized in the British Army as the *havildar major*. When he returned to Ramanathapuram, his residence, he implanted himself as the youth Congress leader of the ***Indian National Congress (INC)***. When he served in the army, he empathized over the descending conditions of the ***Pallars***, a Dalit community of his homeland. His aim as a leader was mainly to reinstate their collapsed position.

> Being a Pallar himself, he was compassionate to validate their stature to a height where they would demand education and equal rights. Earlier, they weren’t allowed to drink from the same glasses as of other castes or walk in sandals. Devendrar was imbued with the determination to advocate the Pallar’s advancement, which INC **viewed as a great opportunity against the *Forward Bloc’s Thevar*, who betrayed the party to join the Bloc. The rancor of the Thevars and the Pallars was an age-old dispute. INC coached Devendrar as they thought he had the potential to be stamped as a member of the Legislative Council in the near future. That was when; he embraced his Hindu title, ***“Sekaranar”.***
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At a peace meeting, Sekaranar refused to stand up when Thevar entered. It angered the OBC tribe, and they began to plot the end of Sekaranar. He was ensnared and thrashed fatally by a supposed mob of Thevar in **September 11, 1957**. Thevar was later arrested due to the acquisitions of the Pallars and Sekaranar devotees. But, lack of evidence freed Thevar. Thevar’s men took revenge on the Pallars in the 1***957 Ramnad Riots***, killing 42 Dalits, as a consequence of Sekaranar’s demise.

> In his daughter, ***Sundari Prabharani’s*** words, *“My father was a good and genuine man. He was utterly fearless. He knew he was going to die, that he wasn’t going to live through the caste violence of that period. But he refused to budge. My father said that his sacrifice was worth it because one man can do a many great things. Just as sowing a mustard seed can cause a bountiful harvest, he believed his sacrifice would allow other Immanuvels to thrive”*
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Not only a virtuous leader, he was an acitivist, a revolutionary protestant to voice the distressed Tamil Dalits. The Constitution might have guaranteed the rights of the minor, but is each of them getting what they are fighting for?