Earlier this month, a young Dalit boy Ilavarasan, was found dead on the railway tracks. Initially, his family suspected he was murdered for daring to marry a girl of the higher, Vanniyar caste. The police now claim to have enough evidence to suggest that he committed suicide. But this makes his death no less a tragedy, nor does it exempt those who have used the Ilavarasan story for political gains, even if it came at the cost of suicides, riots, and the sharpening of caste tensions.
