Tag Archives: Dalits

Madras: RSS leaders are not unanimous in their opinion on Meenakshipuram. Subramanian Swamy, who hates Vajpayee and who in an article in the “Sunday” (10-5-81) criticised Vajpayee for his “fondness for girls and drink”, says untouchables became Muslims in Meenakshipuram as they were tortured by the Hindus.

The Janata Party general secretary disagreed with BJP leader Vajpayee’s views that money played a role in the Meenakshipuram conversion. He said they were voluntary. Such conversions may take place anywhere in the country, he told pressmen here on July 17. Swami, who visited Meenakshipuram earlier said what had happened there was the result of a complex sociological process and politicians should act to correct snags which led to such conversion. Subramanian Swami said in the Courtallam a series of incidents over a number of years culminated in the conversion. (Hindu 18-7-81).

(Letter to Editor)

Durai Anbalagan, Dalit Panthers President, Dharavi unit, Bombay:

We came to know during our tour of Tamil Nadu that more than 10,000 people in the State are planning to embrace Islam to get equal status.

We admit that conversion to Islam will bring status. But at the same time, Muslims are less in number. By joining Islam our strength will go down. Therefore I suggest the Dalits to get converted to Buddhism. Ambedkar had shown us the path.

The truth is that Dalits need no ‘religious conversion’ but ‘spiritual conversion’.

Dalits should think over this. By going over to Islam they will never solve their problem. On the other hand, Dalits will lose their strength in population.

Is there any guarantee that in future our converted Dalits will not be called “Harijan-Muslims and they continue to be untouchables like “Harijan-Christians”?

Here is a happy news for the backward classes.

The Karnataka Arya Idigara Sangha, Bangalore, headed by H. R. Basavaraj, a leading industrialist and a former M P., told us that the Sangha would be starting from June a monthly journal in Kannada called “Hindulidavaru (backwards).

The journal will be edited by Vishu Kumar, a noted writer. We wish the new journal all success.

However, we hope the backward class movement in the State, which disappeared with the exit of Devaraj Urs, will be once again revived with the birth of this journal.

OBCs are also as poor as the Dalits. Sometimes poorer. But in many places, it is mostly the OBCs who are committing atrocities on Dalits.

Again, it is mostly the OBCs who are playing into the hands of the upper castes. They went in a writ to the Supreme Court against the reservation in promotions The writ has been since dismissed.

It is again the OBCs who are leading the anti-reservation agitation all over India. But do the OBCs know that it is they who stand to lose if caste-based reservations are scrapped?

It is high time the OBCs realise that they must stand by the Dalits and fight for reservation in Central services by implementing the Mandal Commission Report.

We call upon the proposed journal to fight for the unity of the Dalits and OBCs, the unity of all persecuted minorities.

H. R. Basavaraj who did so much for the backwards must at least now realise his past mistakes and help build a movement of the Dalits.

Bangalore:

We are flooded with letters, reports, articles, statements and speeches on the Meenakshipuram mass conversion of untouchables to Islam. It is no longer a flood but a deluge. The epidemic is spreading to Karnataka, Andhra and U.P. Earthquake, as we declared in our previous issue. The Hindu communalists have raised it to the level of Armageddon. The untouchables have tasted the benefits of conversion and more and more of them appear to be rushing to embrace Islam which did produce miraculous results.

B.J. P. president Vajpayee visited Rahmat Nagar and later told the press at Madras on July 17 the RSS version of the conversion. The Deccan Herald report (18-7) says the conversions were “master-minded by certain notorious smugglers who would like to cover up their involvement with counterfeit currency cases. These unscrupulous elements have succeeded in roping in innocent Harijans who have been made to carry fake currency on the assurance that they will not be harassed by the police once they became Muslims”. Vajpayee raised questions of involvement of a foreign agency in printing fake notes, establishment of a technical training school which received Rs. 1.5 crore foreign aid and involvement of an Indian who became a Muslim in a gulf country but is now busy converting untouchables by using foreign money. But Vajpayee was careful not to mention names of the persons doing this conversion or the company that gave the machine to make currency notes or the Arab country from where the petrodollars are pouring. Why did he not give the names? Is he afraid or does he not have the information? The RSS has supplied him the information. But he did not like to repeat the RSS charge because he wants to become the Prime Minister. And he knows that nobody can become PM without the support of Dalits and Muslims. And in these conversions, unfortunately, the very two communities are involved. RSS wants to groom him for the Prime Minister but at the same time it cannot get out of its “caste character” which makes it hate these two persecuted minorities. This was Vajpayee’s dilemma when he visited Rahamat Nagar.

What is the RSS? In the July 18 issue of the ‘Organiser‘, under the headline “inside story of Meenakshipuram”, it says “Muslim priests and leaders are working to convert 1 lakh Harians living in 500 villages spread over 3 districts of Tamil Nadu”, The whole thing is described as a “Global conspiracy to subvert India”. It recollects the Times of India (21/3/81) front-page headlines in this connection. The annual report of the “South India Islam Society had said that 8,000 Harijans had been converted to Islam”. The facts, Organiser says, are: The first conversions took place in Korayur, Ramnad district, in Feb. 1980. The person responsible for these conversions is a Ramnad District Health Officer, Dr. Manoharan who became Dr Munnawar Khan and Dr. Jayaseelan, another local Harijan doctor At Meenakshipuram, the police unearthed a big counterfeiting activity in an estate. The counterfeiting was being done according to the police, by some Christian padris with the aim of a printing machine donated by Douglas Charity of America. This has been established by the confessions of the accused persons to the police. A Christian family residing in Tenkasi Taluk, is also running an orphanage aided by the Douglas Charity. The primary purpose of this orphanage is conversion of Harijans to Christianity. This orphanage abets several Harijans to create caste tensions between Harijans and nonpartisans in several villages, so as to create an atmosphere of alienation from the Hindu society, which is necessary for conversions. The family running the orphanage is also said to have made available the machinery for counterfeiting. According to the police, printing and distribution of counterfeit currency has been going on for several years. The modus operandi is that the printing is done by the Christians and the distribution outlets are the trade channels of Muslims. The Harijans are employed to carry the counterfeit currency. The Organiser says “one Thangaraj, a notorious local goonda, changed from Christianity to Islam and became Yusuf to save himself after eloping with a Thevar girl. This Thangaraj had link with the fake note racket. The two Thevar youths who discovered this connection were murdered. Police investigation revealed the fake note racket The police were harsh on SCs and the Muslims assured them that police would not dare touch them if they embraced Islam”.  

This is the RSS version of the whole story which Vajpayee repeated at Madras. The Organiser refers to the Tanjore district conversion led by Ambikapathi father-in-law of Thasi M. Karunanidhi, a DMK MP from Nagapattanam. He converted 20 other Dalits. A famous street is renamed Madina street. The Organiser gives the following details of conversion in Tamil Nadu: total is 1,369. The conversions have nothing to do with social reasons. “They have much to do with the feeling that there is money and power in being a Muslim”. The Organiser later propounds 12 bogus schemes to avert conversions and save “Harijans”. However, some Dalit friends have thrown a challenge: If the Arabs can pay Rs. 500 per convert, the RSS, the Shankaracharyas and the Birlas, who together can command crores of rupees, can offer Rs. 1,000 per head and reconvert them, but as Brahmins. They said they are ready.  

RSS leaders who became so nervous by these conversions have virtually started pissing in their pants. The national executive of the RSS met in Delhi for two days from July 11, Babasaheb Deoras presiding. The full text of the resolution passed at the meeting was published on the front page of the Organiser. We have carefully gone through the resolution and would like to tell our Dalit friends not to be deceived by these crocodile tears of this high caste fascist organisation. Except saying that caste distinction must be buried and the “pernicious practice of untouchability must be ended”, there is nothing concrete. We have had enough of these humbugs from the days of Gandhi. 

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.