C Shivakumar
First Published : 22 Mar 2009 11:31:00 PM IST
Last Updated : 22 Mar 2009 08:27:54 AM IST
The giant statues loom large over the lush green paddy fields. An epitaph is engraved on a pillar adorned with the hammer and sickle of communism along with four stars. Nearby stands a giant hoarding with images of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao.
This is Nayakankottai in Dharmapuri district, the only village in the whole of Tamil Nadu to have statues of its Naxalite leaders, L Appu and Balan. The epitaph marks their contribution to the movement.
It was in their time the late 1970s that the movement reached its peak. Says Siddhanandam, one of the pioneers of the movement: “We were successful in doing away with the double tumbler system (one for Dalits and one for other castes), which was discriminatory.”
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