Bangalore : Our Madurai correspondent proved right (DV Oct. 16) and the RSS and other Hindu leaders wrong. The Indian Express & Deccan Herald (Nov.3) reported largescale conversions of Untouchables in Ramnad dt. of Tamil Nadu to Islam.
The report said : 990 families belonging to a cluster of 10 villages or about 3000 persons have decided to embrace Islam on Jan. 14, 1984. The conversion of 86 persons-37 men and 49 women and children from 19 Harijan families of Seiyalur on Oct. 25 was only a prelude to this. Seiyalur is 11 km north of Ramanathapuram, near Uthara Kosamangal. There are 153 families in the village of whom 90 are Harijan, 35 belong to the Thevar (Marava) community and 28 to the Yadava class.
After the Meenakshipuram (Tirunelveli district) conversions, Harijans in Ramnad district were becoming Muslims gradually and in small groups. In 1982, 93 Harijans of Perumacheri in Manamadurai police limits became Muslims. And now comes the report about mass conversions at Seiyalur.
UNI says : Mrs. Indirani is one of the 80 Harijans from 19 families in Seiyalur who recently embraced Islam. The conversions negate the popular assumption that the tide which rose in Meenakshipuram in Tirunelveli district in 1982 has subsided. Inquiries revealed that about 4,000 Harijans in this district alone have embraced Islam in the aftermath of the caste clashes in Ramanathapuram town 2 years ago.
The Statesman adds : Not with standing the recent TN govt. order that “any person getting selected under the SC quota for public service changes his religion any time after his entry into service, he should have his selection cancelled”‘ in an obvious attempt to discourage Harijans from embracing Islam, set in motion in 1981 when the entire Harijan population of Meenakshipuram, a village in Tirunelveli district, embraced Islam, the process of conversion goes on merrily, though with less fanfare and publicity. The con- version bug has bitten the people of Ramanathapuram district where about 5,000 people, belonging to a cluster of 10 villages, are undergoing catchism on the basic tenets of Islam. They are planning to renounce the faith of their fathers on the festive occasion of Pongal, January 14. Already, 4,000 people in the district have joined the Islamic fold during the past two years. The man behind the new wave of conversions is Ahmed Khan, formerly S. Karuppiah. This 26-year-old Harijan young man who, after discarding his dhoti in favour of lungi and cap, found himself socially a transformed person. The recent Sri Lanka ethnic violence in which Tamil Hindus were butchered and not the Tamil Muslims, was another contributing factor in making Islam socially attractive.
