Getting to Know India

Conversion: the best, simplest, surest & the most non-violent way to liberate Dalits

The Untouchables (Dalits) are the single largest chunk forming 20% of India's 1,200-million population. They are the original inhabitants of India and also builders of its great and glorious Indus Valley Civilization, rated next only to the Nile Valley Civilization.

The invasion of alien Aryans led to the imposition of a caste hierarchy in which the indigenous peoples were assigned the lowest wrung of the caste ladder. This was corrected by the Buddha through his powerful socio-spiritual revolution. The entire lot of Dalits and other victims of Brahmanism (today called Hinduism) embraced Buddhism which assured them liberation. Buddhism reigned over India for over 1,000 years which is described in history books as the "Golden Age of India" however Aryan Hinduism wiped them out of India.

A dwarf Brahmin from Kerala, Adi Shankara, undertook the task of reviving Brahmanism by destroying Buddhism, physically annihilating Buddhists and their monks, and converting Buddhist viharas into Hindu temples. After a prolonged bloody war and violence, the Brahmanical religion was revived by manufacturing two tales - Epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata — and then scripture called the Bhagawad Gita. The caste system was evolved, codified and strictly enforced through the Manu Dharma Shastra; non-violence (ahimsa) was borrowed from Jainism and incorporated into Hinduism. Brahmins were directed to abstain from meat-eating and become vegetarians. And others were directed to refrain from eating beef and cow was declared a sacred animal (gomata) and next only to mother. These were the tricks adopted by Brahmins to destroy Buddhism and re-establish the world's most violent religion of inequality, injustice and inhumanity. All these form part of the history written by Brahmin historians themselves.

This is the beginning of the downfall of India and the wave of foreign invasions. Even the "independence" of India (1947) did not bring relief to the oppressed sections. The Scheduled Castes (20%), Scheduled Tribes (10%) and Backward Castes (35%) — a total of 65% of India's population — are today facing serious social, political, economic and religious crisis.

To this long list of the persecuted nationalities denied human rights we have to add the Muslims (15%), Christians (2.5%) and Sikhs (2.5%) — a total of 20%. Even the women of upper castes have been a deprived lot. A total of 85% of our population is today facing gloom and doom. Every part of India, every section of India, every community of India is facing unprecedented crisis — political, economic, social, cultural and religious. Law and order has collapsed. Corruption is sky-high. All the three pillars of the state — executive, legislature and judiciary — have broken down. The fourth pillar - the media, to which I belong - is in shambles. Several state governments have no money to pay salaries to their staff. While China, which became independent two years after India, has assured food, clothing, shelter and even health and education to all its 1,300 million people. India cannot even provide enough food for all its citizens. But the 15% upper castes (Hindus) have become rulers of the land by exploiting the rest of the population.

Why India has become a failed state? This is because the new rulers (Hindus) have failed to look after the just needs of its 85% population particularly the Dalits who are at the bottom of the society.

A country is like the chain of a cycle. The cycle can move smoothly only if every link in the chain is in perfect condition. In the Indian cycle chain only about 15% of the links are well-oiled and well-maintained. The rest of the links are rusted, decaying. That is why the cycle is not moving. It is as simple as that.

The first people who revolted against this Hindu bid to destroy India are the Dalits who are carrying the weight of this entire oppressive Hindu society. Of all the people, why the Dalits alone are in the forefront of the revolution? There are two reasons for it:

That is why the Dalits form the vanguard of the revolution to bring about a transformation in the society. Dalits alone can save India. No other section has that much of an urge to save India.

Though I am a Buddhist since many years, I have not been a practising Buddhist. I find no major contradiction between Buddhism and Christianity in India - at least not to my knowledge. Dalit Voice, of which I am the Editor, has readership all over India. So far, no Buddhist has complained to us against the Christians. Buddhists are fighting mainly the Brahmanical (upper caste) people. In Maharashtra, where the largest numbers of Buddhists live, our people do not face any problem from Christians. In fact the Christians are fully with us.

Our No.1 Enemy is Brahmanism which today goes by the name of Hinduism. Though the upper caste rulers of India including their leader M.K. Gandhi declared Buddhism as part of Hinduism and made Buddha an avatar (incarnation), they refused to extend constitutional reservations to Dalit converts to Buddhism. It was Prime Minister V.P. Singh in 1991 who removed this restriction. The Hindus are doing their best to hinduise (enslave) the Buddhists. A big debate is going on in Dalit Voice on this subject and we are soon calling a meeting of concerned Buddhists at Nagpur to discuss steps to fight this Hindu menace.

The social and religious aspirations of Dalits are not only to liberate themselves but by doing that to save India itself. According to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the Father of India, who conducted a series of experiments in this field, this is possible only through religious conversion. (Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: Why Go For Conversion?, Dalit Sahitya Akademy, 1987 reprint). Religious conversion is the best, the simplest, the most inexpensive and also the most non-violent way of not only liberating the Dalits but also the country as a whole. It is as simple as that.

The upper castes (Hindus) give equal treatment to Christians, Muslims and Sikhs. People belonging to these three sections (called religious minorities) did not come from outside India. Christians of India did not come from Rome, Muslims did not come from Arabia. They are converts from today's SC/ST/BCs i.e. our ancestors. They achieved equality and self-respect only through conversion. When 20% of India (Muslim, Christian and Sikh) could achieve equality and self-respect through such a simple social engineering (conversion), why not the rest of the SC/ST/BCs follow this simple path?

Such a conversion will bring happiness to the SC/ST/BCs as well as their oppressors (Hindus). As long as Dalits remain within the Hindu fold, they have to fight with Hindus daily. See what happened in Jhajjar (Haryana) recently. It is a daily fight in the countryside today. India is full of caste wars between the Hindus and Dalits. Conversion will once for all end this war and violence and there will be peace in the countryside and India as a whole.

The Hindus may ask: When there is caste inside the religions of Muslim, Christian and Sikhs, why again go into such a leaking house? This is a mischievous question. There is a great deal of difference between the Hindu caste system and the castes within other religions. Caste is not the chief characteristic of these religions. But the Hindu caste system has the religious sanction. Even M.K. Gandhi, the father of the Hindu nation, defended the caste system because it had the blessings of Hindu religion. That is why no Dalit has been made a Shankarachari to this day. But several Dalits have become Bishops, Imams and Sikh Sants. They can destroy their castes without destroying their religions. But if you destroy the caste system, Hinduism itself is dead. This is because the caste system is the other name for Hinduism. Kill caste, Hinduism is dead.

We have found Christian and church leaders praising Gandhi and some priests even imitating Gandhi. Such ignorant Christian leaders do not know the real face of Gandhi. They have not read what Gandhi had said about the church and its glorious services to the oppressed — a service which can be written only in the letters of gold. We call upon such church leaders to read Gandhi's own book published by his publishing house. (Christian Missions — Their Place in India, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad-14, 1941, edited by Bharatan Kumarappa). In this book at several places Gandhi asks the Christian missionaries "not to entice the Harijans" (p. 52) and warns: “Those who are engaged in the competition are not serving the cause of religion". (p. 52) He was angry with the church because it is liberating the Dalits from Hindu slavery and racism.

The most important among Gandhi's speech is one he made at the famous United Theological College, Bangalore, which he visited sometime in 1927, long before ‘independence’, when the college was staffed by mostly Western missionaries of repute. The speech he delivered clearly proved that Gandhi was totally against conversion of Untouchables. Because Gandhi knew that his Hinduism, which was a gold mine for the upper castes (Hindus), would be reduced to a minority and naturally die if the Untouchables quit that religion. He warned the missionaries: " While I am strengthening the faith of the people, you (meaning missionaries) are undermining it" (ibid p.101).

He asked the church to make the Harijans "better Hindus, as they belong to Hinduism". (Ibid p.103). But Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the Saviour of Dalits, has declared that "Untouchables are not Hindu and were never Hindu". Every word that Gandhi uttered proved that he was a hard-core Sanatani Hindu and that was why Dr. Ambedkar called him the Enemy No.1 of Untouchables. The church leaders will agree with this assessment if only they read this book which is a devastating criticism of the Christian services to humanity.

The conversion of Untouchables may weaken Hinduism but it will certainly strengthen the country. But to Gandhi and his jatwalas, who being Aryans and hence aliens, their religion is more important than the country. Who is anti-national? The Christian church must decide.

Islam, Christianity and Sikhism have become powerful religions and the people following it have also become powerful because of their egalitarian values. So, if Dalits also quit Hinduism and embrace these egalitarian religions not only they will get social harmony but thereby they also become powerful. India also can secure peace and through peace it can become powerful. Look at the neighbouring Kerala where 25% of its population is today Muslim and another 25% Christian. Kerala is a literate, clean, disciplined and progressive state because of the leading role played by these two egalitarian religions. Similarly the North-Eastern states have become fully literate, powerful and revolutionary because the entire Mangoloid Tribals got converted to other religions. Sikhism transformed the whole of Punjab. This is the miracle of religious conversion. Therefore, those who argue against conversion are not only the enemies of Dalits but the enemies of India itself.

Ever since India became "independent" (1947), we did not have any social harmony. After the advent of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a pure Brahminical outfit, social harmony is totally dead. The Gujarat Genocide of Muslims (2002) presents the worst example. Caste system is killing the country. The Hindus themselves are fighting within themselves. If conversion can end this entire problem in one stroke, why the Hindus are opposing it?

The reason is simple but it is kept a top secret. Brahmanism, which has lately taken the new name of Hinduism, has become the "majority religion" by annexing Dalits (20%), Tribals (10%) and the Backward Castes (35%). Untouchables, said Dr. Ambedkar, are not Hindu and were never Hindu. Hinduism or Brahmanism is an Aryan import. This is true of Tribals and BCs also. That is the reason why the Hindus hate all the three. Because the SC/ST/BCs are not Aryan but original inhabitants. By annexing this 65% non-Hindu population, the 15% minority Hindus suddenly became a majority religion and thereby rulers.

Conversion reduces the number of their slaves. And once the Hindu population — now put at 85% (disputed) — is reduced, the Hindus become a minority. Conversion thus has a double-disadvantage to the Hindu:

That is why the Hindu is shouting and crying —not because of any love for the Harijan but out of pure self-interest.

That is why the Presidential Order of 1950 was brought to confine the SC/ST/BC slaves to the Hindu prison house. The state itself was used to promote Hinduism. Even our Hindu judiciary did not question this Presidential Order.

A Brahmin Chief Minister Jayalalita brought a new law in Tamil Nadu with the same reason to see that the Hindu edifice does not crumble and become a minority religion.

But none of these legislations or state-sponsored tyranny can stop the oppressed people from seeking social justice. That work is going on — silently but steadily.

The leadership of Muslims, Christians and Sikhs can speed up this process of social justice through conversion. Islam does not have machinery for conversion. Christians have their powerful evangelical wing. But after the foreign missionaries left India, the work in this direction has slowed down, if not almost stopped. This is because the upper caste Christians captured the church leadership and did not want to hurt their cousins in the Hindu ruling class, the caste scenario contrined with Christianity unchanged unlike Sikhs and Moslems. Had the church leadership launched a powerful struggle, the Govt. of India would have been forced to withdraw the 1950 Presidential Order.

The church leadership betrayed the Dalits who would have simply flocked into Christianity (at least in South India) had the Presidential Order been withdrawn. The church leadership, both Protestant and Catholic, did not look at the Dalit issue beyond its selfish interest — that is beyond conversion.

The church is not interested in liberating the Dalits as a whole. The persecution, daily struggle, the rampant racism in the countryside, young Dalit girls becoming prostitutes, their hunger, unemployment, murder and mayhem — their struggle for social justice — does not interest the church. What type of a church is this?

The Dalits, the worst persecuted section, today are in a very bad shape - totally impoverished. I am not referring to the SC/ST who are enjoying the reserved jobs. They form just 2-3% of the Dalit population. The village-dwelling, illiterate Dalits are on starvation diet. Poverty and deprivation is not giving them even a chance to think. A revolution is preceded by a revolutionary situation. Such a revolutionary situation does not exist in any part of India. A hungry man cannot be a revolutionary. So, an organised religion like Christianity has the ability to create a revolutionary situation among Dalits by supporting their socio-economic needs and then by awakening them. As the Bible says: “Know the Truth and Truth shall make you free".

Did the church tell the Truth? Did the church identify the enemy? The poor, innocent Dalits do not know who is their Enemy, who is their friend. Once they come to know this Truth, they will simply explode. Why the church failed in its most important duty towards the oppressed?

The upper caste church leadership is not taking interest in such a work. Had this leadership taken liberation of the Dalits as the sole objective of the church, the non-Christian Dalits would not have opposed the Dalit Christian reservation issue. Lately, we find some change in the attitude of the church leadership. The church offered full support to the Dalit case before the United Nations conference at Durban which sought to equate India's casteism with racism. India’s upper caste-led govt. vehemently opposed our demand and defeated us at Durban though for the first time the world was shocked to hear about the horrible Hindu Apartheid system prevailing in India. After Durban, we find a welcome change in the attitude of the church.

On behalf of the Dalits of India we want to tell the church authorities that if they put the full might of the church behind the Dalits, it is possible to bring about big socio-cultural changes in the country. For this the church must take to a new Dalit liberation theology and make it the principal mission of the church.

In this new mission proposed for the church, it has to take some precautions. No political party, not even a Dalit political party, will take interest in the social and religious liberation of Dalits because that will affect their votes. That is why no party is taking a stand on this issue. Nor will the educated Dalit employees like it (with minor exceptions). This is because having taken advantage of reservations, they have been corrupted and co-opted by the ruling Brahmanical Social Order. The church has to conduct its social engineering experiment with the village-level grass-root Dalit organisations which still remain uncontaminated and hence revolutionary.

The church can embrace the Dalits only if it gets the full cooperation from its own Dalit Christians who form over 60% of the Christian population. Unfortunately, the Dalit Christians are angry with the church. When the upper castes within the church are not treating their own Dalit Christian brothers as equals, how will the Dalits outside develop a trust in the church?

There is good lot of mistrust between the Dalit Christians and Dalits. This can be removed if the church gives a prime place to Dr. Ambedkar's revolutionary thoughts and accords a prime place to the "Father of India". It can also seek the cooperation of Muslims in this task.

India's second independence struggle for social and religious liberation is possible only if the Dalits are at the forefront of this movement. The Dalits are willing. They are impatiently waiting. Church — being the most well-organised, cadre-based organisation with millions of its dedicated sisters working in every corner of India — is ideally cut out to act as the catalyst for such a revolution.

V.T. RAJSHEKAR - is the Editor of the Dalit Voice, India's oldest and the largest circulated English journal, published in several Indian languages. As India's best known Dalit writer, he has authored over 50 books dealing with the problems of caste, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Brahmanism.

“The British gave the Brahmins what they most wanted – ruler ship rule over a country of a billion plus people in which they are no more than fifty million. They gained much but learnt little. The methodology they use for minority to rule in perpetuity - unite and rule - is explained at length by Mr V.T. Rajshekar. It worked for all except the Muslims who had a leader with wisdom, integrity and courage – Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Many peoples – particularly Dalits and the Sikhs – had been dealt better cards but they were ready to let the Congress lead them. Allama Iqbal conceptualised the polity of post-imperial South Asia that has since been popularly known as the ‘Two-Nation Theory’. Mr Jinnah considered the Sikhs and the Untouchables of India also to be separate nations. He promised them support in their national endeavours. But Mahatma Gandhi was telling them the exact opposite. He told them not to trust the Muslims. After having tried hard to get the Muslims to fall into the trap of being ‘Indian’, he abandoned the effort and tried instead to consolidate ‘everybody else’ under the ‘tricolour’ flag of the Congress Party. India was thus partitioned on the basis of the Two Nation Theory – the Muslims were one nation and ‘everybody else’ was the other nation.”