Muslim Mirror Desk - February 12, 2020
Over 430 Dalits convert to Islam citing injustice,
more are in the process of conversion
By Muslim Mirror Desk
Around 3000 Dalits in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, who had said - post wall tragedy in December 2019 - that they would convert to Islam in phases from January 5 , have started converting to Islam, India Today reported Wednesday.
On December 2, after heavy rains lashed Mettupalayam and the surrounding regions, a wall which protesters in the region called as the “wall of discrimination” collapsed on three houses and resulting into death of 17 Dalits.
The ‘wall collapse’ tragedy which led to the death of 17 Dalits, seemingly promoted over 3,000 people from the Dalit community to announce that they were to convert to Islam .
Illavenil, the state secretary of the Tamil Puligal Katchi, told India Today that 430 people have converted to Islam and many more are in the process of the conversion.
This was the breaking point for many Dalits in the region who claimed that they have been regularly discriminated.
“We converted to Islam all because of the prevailing caste injustice and untouchability. For example, any dalit who is underprivileged could not enter into Mariamman [Goddess Durga] temple. Tea shops have discrimination here. We can’t sit with other people equally in the government bus,” said Mohammed, originally known as Marx, converted to Islam soon after the December 2 event.
Illavenil, who has converted to Islam, said, “We decided to leave Hinduism according to what Ambedkar said. I need to lose my identity, which means I need to get rid of the caste remarks such as Pallar, Parayar, Sakkriyar. I can live with self-dignity only when I shed this cast-based identity. While following Hinduism because of our caste, we aren’t even treated like humans.”
Another youngster named Sarath Kumar who converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdhuallah said, “While 17 of our people were dead, no Hindu voiced for us. Only the Muslim brothers stood with us and protested for us. Where is Arjun Sampath who said that he would voice for the Hindus who are persecuted? Where is that leader? Our Muslim brothers invite us to their houses. Hindus never called us. Would you make me enter the common temple? We could enter any mosque though. I have visited four to five mosques after converting. I worship god there with all levels of people. But would you permit me to enter Mariamman temple and seek god?”
In regions like Coimbatore where these mass conversions are underway, Dalits face all kinds of discrimination right from entry into temples to the burial ground to discrimination towards Dalits at tea shops and public space.
They are still called by their caste names. Though many have shied away from raising their voices against this, the younger generation seems to be more vocal.
In the affidavit submitted for conversion, all of these men have written these five points:
I belong to the Hindu religion, Arunthathiyar class by birth.
My family respects and follows all the principles of Hindu religion till this day. I don’t have any hatred towards Hinduism.
For the past three years, I was inspired by the Islam and I decided to follow the religion because of it’s religious laws and doctrines. This decision wasn’t taken with any guidance.
I wholeheartedly adopt Islam and I would follow it truly.
I believe that God is one and Mohammed Nabi is the last messenger of God. I accept Islam completely and convert to be a Muslim.
Plight of Dalits in India worsened under Modi
This is an article by Hasan Zia Rizvi published in The Milli Gazette in August 2016 which is still true to the condition of Dalits in India.
On 11 July, seven Dalit men were beaten mercilessly in Una, Gujarat, by cow vigilantes. Four of them were tied to a vehicle, stripped and flogged for skinning dead cows. The attackers were from the local cow protection group, Gau Rakshak Samiti. A video of this crime went viral on social media and sparked an outrage resulting in protests all across Gujarat and beyond.
More than a dozen young Dalits attempted suicide and a series of protests were held in Gujarat including in Modi’s hometown, Vadnagar. Many dalits vowed never to touch cow carcasses and threatened to convert from Hinduism if assaults on dalits did not stop. Images showed protesters dumping carcasses outside government offices.
In the wake of frequent attacks and caste discrimination, 250 Dalit families in Tamil Nadu want to embrace Islam. Dalits were denied to perform rituals in the temples and even the temples built by them were occupied by caste Hindus. According to a Muslim organization, Tamil Nadu Towheedi Jamaat (TNTJ), Dalits approached them but only six of them got converted.
“The Hindutva ideology of the attackers is shared by the BJP and Modi. This ideology has ruined Gujarat. Now that they have broken the morale of the Muslims, they are coming after Dalits,” said Shankarbhai, a protester.
Atrocities against Dalits are not new in India or Gujarat and large numbers of cases of violence against Dalits are filed against upper caste people in the state. A Dalit is an outcast in traditional Hindu caste system. They are referred to as Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST).
Dalits are meant for all menial jobs in the society. Skinning of dead cows is one of their traditional jobs. Most Dalits are involved in working for leather industry and carry out the work of disposing off dead cattle. Such open attacks were not common earlier as there was no open political support to the cow protection groups. But after BJP came to power at the Centre two years ago, cow protection became most important RSS-agenda.
BJP-ruled state governments even formed new ministries for cow welfare. Gaushalas (cow care centres) were organized by cabinet ministers and demand of banning beef increased. BJP-RSS backed cow-brigade became so influential that the traditional leather industry is feeling the pinch.
Fifty Dalit families in Sehore in Madhya Pradesh demanded permission for euthanasia from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, alleging that the land granted to them fifteen years ago by government is occupied by rich and powerful people and they are deprived of means to sustain livelihood.
There is a rise in rape cases against Dalits since 2014 and the current scenario is very disturbing. A 20-year old Dalit girl of Rohtak was gangraped by five men belonging to upper castes on 13 July, 2016. The girl was gangraped by the same group two years ago in 2013 in Bhiwani. As the accused got bail, they again committed the heinous crime to take revenge from her for not withdrawing charges against them in exchange for some money.
On 25 July, 2016, a 14-year old Dalit girl succumbed to death after getting raped frequently by a man who allegedly tortured her and compelled her to drink some corrosive substance. She was tortured for two months but the accused people have not been arrested yet.
Dalit oppression
Prejudices are common in India against Dalits as well as Muslims. RSS had refused to accept the Constitution of India drafted by a Dalit scholar, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Though now they apparently hail Ambedkar but actually they hate his ideology and policies.
On 25 December 1927, Manusmriti (old caste-system upholding legal text of Hinduism) was publicly burned by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Manusmriti laws were against Dalits, minorities and women. On the contrary, RSS holds Manusmriti as sacred text.
There are contradictions in RSS stand.Now it is wooing Dalits by calling Ambedkar a ‘National Icon’. Ambedkar had left Hinduism and died a Buddhist. He was against the caste system and all other social and religious evils that are part of Hinduism. He strongly opposed the Hindu nationalist movement.
The current tokenism used by BJP and RSS is deceptive and Dalit activists realise this. Kancha Ilaiah said, “RSS wants one temple, one well, one crematorium for all Hindus. But will they let a Dalit be head priest of Vaishno Devi? Ambedkar was a Buddhist, so how can they convert a person 60 years after his death?”
http://www.milligazette.com/news/14704-plight-of-dalits-in-india-worsened-under-modi
US Report about plight of Dalits
The practice of untouchability continues to blight the lives of millions of Dalits today. The manifestation of such oppression has taken and continues to take many forms.
Age-old customs included prohibiting Dalits from walking public streets in the event they cross “upper-caste” Hindus, and requiring Dalits to mark themselves with black bracelets, string a broom around their waists so as to sweep the path they walk on, or hang an earthen pot around their necks “lest [their] spit falling on the earth should pollute a Hindu who might unknowingly happen to tread on it.”
Indian Prime Minister Manmoohan Singh became the first Indian prime minister to publicly acknowledge discrimination against the Dalits, the practice of untouchability, and apartheid.
In a speech delivered at the Dalit-Minority International Conference in New Delhi on December 27, 2006, Prime Minister Singh explained that “Dalits have faced a unique discrimination in our society that is fundamentally different from the problems of minority groups in general.
The only parallel to the practice of untouchability was Apartheid in South Africa. Untouchability is not just social discrimination. It is a blot on human society.”
The majority of Dalits live on less than US$1 per day. Every week, thirteen Dalits are murdered and five Dalit homes are destroyed. Three Dalit women are raped and eleven Dalits are assaulted every day—a crime is committed against a Dalit every eighteen minutes.
Caste discrimination persists and caste categories are legally recognized in order to implement a form of affirmative action known as “reservations.” Reservations are a quota-based system that classifies individuals and communities as “Scheduled Castes”.
The basis for this discrimination is provided by the Presidential Order of 1950, in which clause 3 states: “Notwithstanding anything contained in paragraph 2, no person who professes a religion different from the Hindu [the Sikh, or the Buddhist] religion shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.”49 Fifteen percent of all places in educational institutions, as well as jobs, are reserved for the Scheduled Castes.
The Presidential Order of 1950, by describing Scheduled Castes as only belonging to the Hindu faith, also denies reservation benefits to any Scheduled Caste person who converts to Islam or Christianity.
India’s Centre for Public Interest Litigation filed a writ petition (no.180 of 2004) in the Indian Supreme Court to challenge the constitutional validity of the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order of 1950, which excludes Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims from the Scheduled Caste list, thus denying them religious freedom in India.
It has now been more than a decade that the Supreme Court of India has unnecessarily delayed its judgment on the case. A Zee News editorial raises a very important question: when the government has amended the constitution to give reservations to Dalit Sikhs (1956) and Buddhists (1990), why is it delaying the matter when it comes to Dalit Muslim and Christians?
The policy of reservations has benefited very few Dalits in the country. Growing illiteracy and dropout rates among Dalits mean very few are able to avail themselves of constitutional rights in public sector employment and education.
A number of key sectors also continue to remain outside the purview of the reservation policy, and caste-based discrimination continues to be practiced in the sectors where reservations are secured, leading to under-enforcement. Segregation between Dalits and non-Dalits is routinely practiced in housing, schools, and access to public and private sector services.
[The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report on Constitutional and Legal Challenges Faced by Religious Minorities in India February 2017]
"Untouchability" and Segregation
Human Rights Watch Report
India's caste system is perhaps the world's longest surviving social hierarchy. A defining feature of Hinduism, caste encompasses a complex ordering of social groups on the basis of ritual purity. A person is considered a member of the caste into which he or she is born and remains within that caste until death, although the particular ranking of that caste may vary among regions and over time. Differences in status are traditionally justified by the religious doctrine of karma, a belief that one's place in life is determined by one's deeds in previous lifetimes.
Traditional scholarship has described this more than 2,000-year-old system within the context of the four principal varnas, or large caste categories. In order of precedence these are the Brahmins (priests and teachers), the Ksyatriyas (rulers and soldiers), the Vaisyas (merchants and traders), and the Shudras (laborers and artisans). A fifth category falls outside the varna system and consists of those known as "untouchables" or Dalits; they are often assigned tasks too ritually polluting to merit inclusion within the traditional varna system. Almost identical structures are also visible in Nepal.
Despite its constitutional abolition in 1950, the practice of "untouchability"-the imposition of social disabilities on persons by reason of birth into a particular caste- remains very much a part of rural India. Representing over one-sixth of India's population-or some 160 million people-Dalits endure near complete social ostracization. "Untouchables" may not cross the line dividing their part of the village from that occupied by higher castes. They may not use the same wells, visit the same temples, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls. Dalit children are frequently made to sit at the back of classrooms. In what has been called India's "hidden apartheid," entire villages in many Indian states remain completely segregated by caste.
https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/globalcaste/caste0801-03.htm
Scientology - October 22, 2019
The Plight of Untouchable Christians in India Today
An article in Religion Unplugged takes up the case of a 55-year-old Supreme Court lawyer from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu who is challenging India’s discrimination against Christian Dalits—Christians of the Hindu caste of untouchables.
“Franklin Caesar Thomas’s great grandparents converted to Christianity from Hinduism to escape the age-old caste oppression of the Hindu social order. But the stigma of having a lower caste origin continued for Thomas,” writes Freelance journalist Avinash Giri. The systemic oppression of Christian Dalits continued.
“During my childhood days, when we would go to buy groceries or anything, the upper-caste shopkeepers used to avoid touching our hands, thinking our touch would pollute them,” says Thomas. “It’s a discriminatory mindset that reduces the value of human life.”
Some 15 to 20 percent of the population of India is Dalit. Those who framed the country’s constitution in 1947 attempted to make headway against their plight, creating an affirmative action policy. However, this policy was later altered to apply only to Hindu Dalits. In 1956, the law was amended to also encompass Sikh and Buddhist Dalits, but it was not extended to include those who are Muslim or Christian.
The initial affirmative action policy was signed into law on August 10, 1950, the date selected by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) to be observed as a “black day,” on which they organize protests each year in support of Christians and Muslims belonging to “scheduled castes” whose legal rights are still denied.
Thomas was one of the first petitioners in the case challenging this law, scheduled for a final hearing by India’s Supreme Court.
“We are fighting against the discrimination by the state which is not ready to recognize the ground reality that Dalit Christians are still persecuted in the society,” said Thomas. “Even after changing the religion, the stigma of caste continues. It’s hereditary.”
http://www.scientologyreligion.org/blog/the-plight-of-untouchable-christians-in-india-today.html
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
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