Communal Hindus led by RSS are making a sort of war preparation over the mass conversion of untouchables to Islam in Meenakshipuram and other parts of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra, etc. A similar threat has come from Bangalore and Kanpur also.
Reports by the special correspondents of the Hindu, Indian Express, Deccan Herald, Times of India, Statesman, other periodicals, PTI and UNI, apart from other impartial observers like the Regional Director of the SCs and STs of the Government of India have all gone to conclusively prove that the untouchables there have embraced Islam out of sheer desperation having been unable to bear the Hindu torture and barbarity.
The converts have testified that after becoming Muslims they have gained self-respect and manhood. The very Hindus who used to keep them out have started respecting them. It is only the conscious and awakened Dalits who have taken this extreme step. Union Minister of State for Home, Makwana, after a visit to Meenakshipuram, had hailed their stand. Prof. Subramanian Swamy had also visited the place and came to this very same conclusio.
As regards the charge that untouchables were purchased by Muslims by using Arab money, we consider it a serious aspersion on the Dalits of India as a whole. We are not such a cheap people as to sell ourselves. Actually, it is the RSS that is trying to bribe them. The Hindu leaders and the RSS must stop making this charge which will only add insult to the injury. Press reports have said that in places where there has been a mere threat of conversion, the Government has immediately jumped and acted to redress their grievances. What the Dalits could not achieve in centuries has been accomplished by a mere threat. Such is the miracle brought by conversion. But the Hindus led by religious leaders like the Pejawara Swamy are creating all sorts of confusion by staging dramas. While they have not bothered to touch the basic social issues that brought about this suicide to Hinduism, these religious leaders are propping up non-issues and side-tracking the basic issues. We are afraid the religious frenzy and the war-like preparations by these people may lead to serious communal riots in Tamil Nadu.
The Karnataka Dalit Action Committee, which will shortly send a team to Meenakshipuram and other areas to study the situation and also to reassure the converts, has been repeatedly urging the Dalits to quit Hinduism as directed by Dr. Ambedkar. During our recent protest demonstration on the Gujarat caste war, our main slogan was “Quit Hinduism”. We have even announced our plan to hold a massive “Quit Hinduism” conference in Bangalore. Dr. Ambedkar had said that untouchables will not get equal status as long as they remain as Hindus. That is why he vowed not to die a Hindu and embraced Buddhism.
All over India, Dalits are quitting Hinduism after getting convinced that they cease to be untouchables once they get out of Hinduism. History has proved that they are right. Meenakshipuram is a standing monument to symbolise the graveyard of Hinduism, they are being killed and burnt, their property destroyed only because they are untouchables. Ambedkar has opened the floodgates. Not even a hundred Shankaracharyas and Pejawar Swamis can stop the flow now.
Nor have they any right to demand that converts be deprived of reservations. If their plea is that reservations should not be given only to converts, why did they launch the Gujarat caste war on untouchables who were within Hinduism? Does it not prove that they will not tolerate reservations even to Hindu untouchables? That means as long as untouchables live within Hinduism they are tortured and the moment they quit; they are threatened with the punishment of withdrawing the reservations. But the Dalits shall not be cowed by these threats.
Reports said 200 more untouchables became Muslims on the July 27 Hindu conference for reconversions. Hindu leaders who want to woo back the converts to the Hindu fold could have at least offered a promotion to the reconverted. They could have assured to convert them as Brahmins. In the absence of any such assurance, it means that the Hindus are out to make them once again as untouchables.
Therefore, the Dalits will not be fooled any longer by these tricks. We can see through their game. False promises will no longer tempt us. Dalits will no longer be deceived by this sudden Hindu sympathy for “Harijans“. Their crocodile tears. How is it that now after 3,000 years they have suddenly realised that untouchables are also Hindus and they are humans. Too late.
While congratulating the untouchables for quitting Hinduism and thus getting themselves liberated, we call upon Dalits all over India to observe Independence Day (Aug. 15) as “Quit Hinduism Day” and bid good-bye to suffocation and seek fresh air.
