Tag Archives: Meenakshipuram

Madras:

K.K. Mohiadeen, general secretary of the Islamic society of India, in a letter to the Prime Minister has urged her to avert the danger of Hindu-Muslim communal riots looming over Tamil Nadu following largescale conversion of untouchables to Islam in different parts of the State.

He says that the “communal elements who are itching for trouble are planning to start an agitation in and around Meenakshipuram. Even if one SC convert is beaten up, it may turn into a Hindu-Muslim clash”.

Therefore he suggests immediate precautionary measures:- transfer of communal-minded officials, rounding up of bad characters, averting of police and paramilitary forces, formation of peace committees, instructions to press not to publish rumours.

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION: In another letter to Jagjivan Ram, he urges the former Deputy Prime Minister to fight for proportional representation to all communities. In admission to education and recruitment to jobs, each community including SCs, ST and minorities should be taken in proportion to its respective population. He also asks Jagjivan Ram to start a party called the “Harijan-Muslim Congress”.

SEPARATE BANKS: To safeguard the interests of minorities, he suggests separate Ministry of Minority Affairs and a separate financial institution to meet the needs of SCs, STs and minorities. As the weaker sections are getting a raw deal in the nationalised banks, the only solution is a separate bank for minorities, he says.

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).

Meenakshipuram has rocked the Mindu sanatanists. From North come hordes of Hindu religious leaders and religio- political leaders, to the South to exhort Hindus against conversion. In three districts, Tirunelveli, Madurai and Ramanathapuram, “Harijans” embraced Islam. Still the process is going on. In Ramnad, the Government had filed criminal cases only against untouchables. They are on conditional bail in far off places-a cruel punishment. They find no food or support there. In Salem District also untouchables have threatened to join the stream of conversion. Around Madras some thousands of untouchables have decided to join Budhism.

Jagjivan Ram said in Agra that, “the Harijans who embraced Islam … had been left with no other option. He criticised the Hindu religion for denying rights to Harijans. If the Hindus do not accept the Harijans as Hindus, what is the point in their staying within the fold of that religion? (The Hindu, 30-6-8)

Pejawara Swami of Udupi said in Kurnool, (AP) that “caste Hindus were responsible for driving Harijans to the arm of other religions. The Swamiji spoke regretfully of the torment and humiliation that caste Hindus heap on Harijans. He agreed that caste Hindus treat Muslims and Christians with greater respect and tolerance than Harijans” (the Hindu, 30-6-81) 

Makwana, Union Minister of State for Home said in Madras that “conversion could not be done by lure of money or coercion … What was very clear was that the Harijans had been treated badly, humiliated and attacked and their property was looted and burnt. From newspaper reports, it was obvious that out of humiliation and anger they had converted to Islam … the Hindu religious leaders must, therefore, learn from history. (Hindu-24-6 81) 

“Makwana said the Harijans who embraced Christianity and Buddhism had found that casteism was being practiced in these religions also. Probably the intelligent Harijans of Tamil Nadu had chosen Islam which welcomed them with open arms”. (UNI reports in Deccan Herald, 26-6-81)

V.G. Prasad Rao, Times of India, Staff Correspondent at Madras, in a report says: – “It was not mere economic gain that drew the Harijans into the Mohammadan fold but rather a yearning for social equality. Another interesting fact is that some Christians have also become Musalmans. This is obviously to protest against the caste system imported into Christianity in the South”. (Times of India, 1-7-81)

Threat to Embrace Islam:

UNI reports from Salem that 70 untouchable families of Devarayapuram village in Namakkal taluk of Salem district have threatened to embrace Islam on Aug. 1,  if untouchability practiced against them by the Hindus is not ended by then. (Deccan Herald, 3-7-81)  

Untouchables Externed

P.R. Kuppuswamy, Advocate, Karur (T.N.) writes: About 600 untouchables are on bail with the condition to stay 200 to 250 miles away from Ramnad. They are starving.  

Makwana Visit to Meenakshipuram:

Union Minister of State for Home, Makwana, who had earlier made an appeal to the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Kamakoti Peeta urging him to help stop conversion of untouchables to Islam, visited Meenakshipuram and other Tamil Nadu villages where mass conversions had taken place. Talking to newsmen on July 4 at Madurai after the visit, he said untouchables in Tamil Nadu were feeling insecure because of the rising criminal atrocities of Hindus. He said, “Utter neglect of the Harijans and insult and humiliation at the hands of caste Hindus were stated to be the reasons for the religious conversions which were reported only in Tamil Nadu”. He said the Harijans, who had embraced Islam, had told him that they had lost faith in Hindu leaders and Hindu society, as a whole. Those who had been converted felt they were treated with equality and respect by their co-religionists. Conversion is happening because of social injustice. Asked if he suspected involvent of foreign money, he said he was not in a position to say anything on it. The government “was investigating”. (Deccan Herald 5-7-81, quoting UNI report)

“Organizer” Editorial

The RSS official journal in an editorial under the headline: “From Meenakshipuram to Rehamat Nagar,” (5-7-81) says: “if the Harijans of Meenakshipuram had any grievances, they could have ventilated the same and sought redress. After all, ours is an open and democratic society and not an Islamic country where dissenters can be flogged or have their hands or feet cut. Why did anybody have to use their grievances to destroy them socially, culturally, emotionally? We are very sorry to say that what has happened in Meenakshipuram is not an outburst of local grievances but a small expression of an old conspiracy to destroy Hindus, Hinduism, and Hindustan”. The editorial further says: “the whole things is immoral … And in so far as it has excited Hindu-Muslim feelings, it has threatened public order”. It calls upon the government to protest to the Sri Lanka government for the misconduct of its Speaker. It also calls upon the Election Commission not to recognise the conversions, and demands a probe into the flow of foreign money into India.

The “earthquake” in Meenakshipuram has drawn the attention of the whole country, its Government, Parliament, press, public, political parties, religious leaders and other busybodies. There is an endless discussion on the mass conversion of untouchables to Islam. Hindu society is shaking in its shoes. The tiny village has suddenly become a centre of pilgrimage to all sorts of trouble-makers.

Union Minister of State for Home Yogendra Makwana’s visit to the village renamed Rehamat Nagar became a front-page news in the national press. Eve’s Weekly called it a “national crisis”. Home Minister Zail Singh was grilled by MPs Including a CPM leader and they all extracted an assurance from him that the Government of India was seized of the matter. The Shankaracharya of Kanchi Karnakoti Peetha sent a three-man team of Brahmin (religious) leaders headed by the Pejawara Swamy, president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Scores of “fact-finding teams beelined” to the village. They met the Prime Minister, who according to AlCC general secretary Moopanar expressed grave concern over this. The Hindus suddenly overcome by compassion and love towards the “Harijans” decided to dig wells in Rehamat Nagar. Makwana, after a stormy visit to the areas gripped by bloody Hindu violence on untouchables, got locked in a verbal battle with Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran over his remark that the “Harijans are not safe under the Tamil Nadu police. The well-planned visit of Makwana had raised high hopes in the Hindu communal circles that they would discover “Arab money” and the “threat” to convert the ‘poor Harijans’. But he discovered nothing. His wait turned out to be a big disappointment to the communal Hindus. On the other hand, his off-the- record talks with the press man at Madurai and Madras and Dalit leaders revealed the truth. 

Our representative present at such informal talks writes: Makwana mission was a total failure. He could do nothing with the untouchable converts to Islam. He admitted that some of them even shouted “Makwana go back” slogans. Besides the untouchables of Rehamat Nagar, Dalit representatives of neighbouring villages, particularly Dalit lawyers, teachers and other educated Dalits, told him that they ware ill-treated only because they were Hindus. Therefore, they had decided to quit Hinduism to gain social status. Makwana admitted that he had written letters to the Shankaracharyas but this was wrong on his part. The methods adopted by the Hindus would provoke even those one or two still remaining as Hindus in each family. If Hindus behaved this way, he said, nobody could stop the exodus. He feared that even if a single convert was assaulted, it might result Hindu-Muslim clash causing serious repercussions all over India. He condemned reports about Arab money. According to him ill-treated by Hindus police atrocities and the frustration of the youth were the three causes for the conversion He said very clearly that he was not against “conversion to Islam” writes our representative in Madras. 

As regards the allegations made by the RSS and other Hindu communalists that Arab money was paid and that force was used for conversion, they must be specific. Which country paid the money, who brought it and who received it and how much? All these details with their names, must be published. So, also the names of those who used force for the conversion. 

Untouchables and tribals all over India are desperate. Hinduism has made mincemeat out of them. They are suffocated in the air-tight, stinking dungeon of Hinduism. It is this desperation that is driving them out of the Hindu fold. Ambedkar had opened the gates and showed the way. Even to this day, untouchables are a set of people who are negatively defined by their exclusion from the Hindu community. This takes both religious and social forms. Their movement under Ambedkar to seek a more positive identity at the time of independence was thwarted by Gandhi and other communal politicians for political reasons. Now the Hindu community has failed to integrate them in the last 30 years of our “national” existence, they should refuse to be fooled again by the myth created by the high castes that they are Hindus. The truth is that the untouchables were never Hindus, nor will they ever become Hindus except in negative forms. So the question before them is how they should get rid of their negative identity socially and religiously. It is time that they should now decide for themselves and not allow anybody to exploit them. The only way and the best way is to quit Hinduism and announce it publicly. They may lose the crumbs of reservations which have reduced them to the level of permanent beggars before the closed doors of the Hindus. The untouchables of Rehmat Nagar have at an example by renouncing Hindus and thus gaining manhood. 

But the way this conversion episode is tackled is something unprecedented. The whole thing looks mysterious. Why did Meenakshipuram receive so much attention; Why did the Hindu press, which always used to suppress any news about conversion, suddenly go berserk over Meenakshipuram? There appears to be a method in this madness, this breast-beating by the Brahmins, the SOS of the Shankaracharyas. It looks as if the sky is collapsing over Tamil Nadu. And this cry of “wolf, wolf” is not stopping even after impartial observers declared that there is no wolf, not even a mouse. Why this scare-mongering? 

This is what makes us suspicious about the whole thing. We feel there is a deep-rooted conspiracy behind these exercises. Something big is in the offing-chief Minister M. G. R.. said that conversions to Islam are not new to Tamil Nadu. A report in the Hindu (July 7) says M.G. R. gave statistics to prove that “almost every year from 1969 to 1978 there had been cases of such conversion in two villages in Bodinaickanur taluk, Madurai District In Tirunelveli district too there had been such mass conversions, in 1944, in 3 villages involving  170, 40 and 27 Harijans families“. In six other villages also “Harijans as families or individuals has taken to Islam in the past. So it was incorrect to say that the conversion was a new phenomenon“, he said. Different Dalit organisations have arrived at the same conclusion. 

Then why all this un-ending deafening noise? A sort of a war-preparation? Our information is that the RSS and other communalists are planning to repeat Moradabad’s events in the South, may be between Muslims and untouchables themselves. Tamil Nadu has been so far free from communal clashes, because, thanks to Periyar, it had always voted for his followers. To wrest Tamil Nadu from the Periyar’s followers and restore the Brahmin supremacy, the twin interest-free “vote banks”-scheduled castes and Muslims – are needed. And the communal bigots cannot get a better opportunity than the current conversion controversy in which these two persecuted minorities are locked. This appears to be the game. We call both the Dalits, Muslims and Christians to beware of this fascist game and nip it in the bud. Muslims and Christian organisations all over India and Tamil Nadu in particular must immediately jump and take positions. Dravida Khazagam, DMK, Marxists and other Left elements should realise that any chance given to the Hindu communalists to poke their nose will be a setback to their respective movement. 

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. 

Meenakshipuram has turned into a forest fire engulfing the entire Tamil Nadu, if not the country. An Indian Express report says the Government of India appears to be very much worried about this fast-spreading epidemic that is sweeping the South. Reports of conversion are coming from Kanpur and Gujarat also. 

While every conscious Dalit should be happy about these developments – the revolt of the Dalits -they should be equally concerned about its consequences. As we have hinted in our previous issue, our fears about the prospects of a communal riot rocking TN are expressed by both Muslims and Dalits.  

Since then, we had reports of a clash in Wandiwash in TN. Our information is that a big preparation is going on. Communal and political interests are out to exploit the present situation and see that TN is seized from the hands of Periyar’s followers who have been ruling the country’s most progressive State. This is the one State in India where the RSS is weakest. The trick it always adopts to gain a foothold is to start a communal riot and then pitch its tent. This is what it did in Kerala, where it has gained sufficient following.  

CPM – RSS clashes are a daily feature there. Over 100 have been killed so far. It wants to repeat the same thing In TN by starting a series of clashes, if possible, between the SCs and Muslims themselves. If this is the game of the communalists, anti-Periyar political leaders are wanting to seize TN by raising the bogey of law and order and proving that the lives of the SCs and Muslims are not safe under MGR’s ADMK Government. The very same political and communal forces are collaborating in Kerala and the same pattern will be repeated in TN – at the cost of much bloodshed of the poorest of the poor.  

Unfortunately, our CPM-CPI comrades have not till now opened their mouth on the TN conversions. Perhaps, they are also welcoming the bid to oust Periyar’s followers and restoration of the Brahmin rule in TN. Therefore, once again we call upon all progressive forces led by the DK, DMK, Left forces, Dalits, Muslims and Christians to frustrate the game of this unholy communal-political axis and keep alive the torch of Periyar EVR in TN.  

Fascist clouds are gathering over TN. Dalits must not only revolt but also give no room for fascists.