 The agricultural labourers of the Tanjavur district were used like slaves by the landlords. The system was prevalent in the unified Tanjavur district till the 1960s. The children of these labourers were even denied education. One family was paid wages in the form of Paddy till 1968. The labourers were subjected to harsh punishments during work. Henchmen were specially appointed by the landlords to beat down the labourers even if they were tired after work. One of the most cruel act was forcing the labourers to drink water mixed with cow dung. During this period, the leaders of the communist movement including Mani Ammai and B. Srinivas Rao campaigned extensively among the workers and created awareness of their rights. They succeeded in organizing an agricultural workers union in the district. The unionist workers demanded wage revision. They demanded the doubling of their wages as they had unlimited working time. The landlords who were never questioned by the labourers got irritated. They rejected the demands of the labourers. And they denied work for the labourers affiliated to the union and even attacked them in a move to disintegrate the unity of the labourers. The landlords then formed a union Paddy Manufacturers Association and appointed workers from other districts leading to suffrage between the workers and landlords. The Association of Landlords planned to assassinate certain leaders of the union. The government was alerted of this plan by the leaders of the CPIM Antisan Sabha but no action was taken against the landlords. When the situation was tense, on the 25th of December 1968, two farm labourers of Venmani village Mutusami and Ganapati were subjected to brutal torture in the house of Savariraaj Noidu. On hearing the news, the labourers organized and managed to rescue the tortured labourers from the house of the landlord. The heated argument between the labourers and the landlords led to the invasion of Venmani village by Gopala Krishnan Aidu and the local police. The deadly combo of policemen and landlords went on a rampage and the residents of Kilvenmani were severely attacked. There was continuous firing and the labourers had to retaliate in self-defense. The labourers had to take a hiding unable to face the continuous firing. The children, women and elderly who could not run away to safety took shelter in Ramayana's hut, the last one in the street. A total of 48 people were there in the small hut. The furious Gopala Krishnan Aidu ordered his henchmen to set the hut on fire. The 48 people locked inside the hut were suffocating. The henchmen took guard around the hut to prevent anyone from escaping. However, six of them managed to run out but the henchmen pushed two people back into the fire. This inhuman henchmen and the landlords even threw back a one year old child who was thrown out by her mother to safety. Three children who shouted in agony on seeing this inhuman act were also thrown into the fire by the landlords and the henchmen. The Kilveilut police was alerted by 8 p.m. but they turned up only by 12. The fire service arrived late by another two hours at 2 a.m. The locked hut was opened at 10 a.m. the next day only to find the buried bodies of 42 people. The doctors denied to conduct autopsy as the bodies were severely burned. The police tried to narrate the incident as a clash between the workers and even planned to register only 29 deaths instead of 44. The newspapers carried sensational news about the incident. The workers of Koyabatur and Velur staged a strike against the brutal murders. The attack on the working class was defined as a shame for the nation by the Patriot and New Age. B.T. Ranadeve, Jyoti Basu and P. Ramamurti who were attending the Politburo meeting of the CPIM in Kerala rushed to win money the next day. Thousands of farmers and agricultural laborers rushed to win money to voice their agitation. They were angered by the incident and wanted to retaliate. P. Ramamurti, the CPIM leader, addressed the laborers and they finally decided to pursue legal action. A case was filed and the villagers became the witness of the case. The DMK under the leadership of Anadurai was in power during the incident. 108 landlords were booked along with Gopala Krishnanayidu and most of these landlords were active members of the Congress party. In spite of all these happenings, the landlords tried to defend themselves by twisting the facts and even managed to publish their version in local newspapers. Even after 51 years of the incident, the left parties, particularly the CPIM and CPI, conduct annual meetings in memory of these 44 people who sacrificed their lives to claim their rights.