The violence was between Maravars supporting the Forward Bloc, and pro-Congress Dalit Pallars, and was triggered by a by-election held in the aftermath of the Madras Legislative Assembly elections of earlier that year.
In his book, J. H. Hutton, the then Census Commissioner, explained the eight restrictions enforced on Dalits by Upper castes, including a ban on the use of jewelry, ornaments and education.
But at the other side, the Thevars stayed disadvantaged in education and, as reported in the Government Order in 1957, they were unable to "align themselves with the present democratic reality and could not accept that the feudal system was rapidly disappearing.
The Social Scientist M. S. S. Pandian described that migrating to greener pastures and later returning to their villages and investing in agriculture enhanced their financial base, which ultimately led to Dalits, starting to assert themselves.
[3][2] The Congress Reform Committee (CRC) was formed one month before the 1957 elections to the Lok Sabha and the Madras Legislative Assembly, and soon began cooperation with the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) of U. Muthuramalingam Thevar.
After the election, Thevar chose to retain his parliamentary seat, and a by-election was called for the Mudukulathur assembly constituency.
Gradually, incidents of violent clashes between Thevars (who generally supported the Forward Bloc) and pro-Congress Pallar began to occur.
Initially all delegates, including Immanuvel Sekaran and the district collector, appealed to Thevar to campaign for peace in all riot affected areas but Veluchamy Nadar did not agree.
On 11 September, Emmanuel Sekaran, a member of the Congress delegation at the peace conference, was murdered in Paramakudi by Maravars.
[citation needed] On 14 September, a group of armed police entered the village of Keelathooval in order to arrest suspects in the Emmanuel Sekaran murder case.
The attack was interrupted as Thevars from the neighbouring village of Keelapanayur arrived, driving off the pallar and killing four people.
On 19 September, hundreds of houses, belonging to both Thevars and Devendrakula Velalar, were torched in the villages of Piramanur, Vadi, Tiruppuvanam, Nallur and Tiruppachatti.
On September 10, 1957, Dalits, Maravars, and Nadars met for negotiations set up by the district collector CVR Panikkar at the time.