By Michael Gonsalves

Mass religious conversions of dalit and tribal people are a natural opposition to India's oppressive caste system, Church leaders and others say.

On May 27, Buddhist monks presided as more than 50,000 people from lower-caste groups and nomadic tribes became Buddhists at a function in Mumbai, 1,410 kilometers southwest of New Delhi.

Ramdas Athavale, president of the Republican Party of India, organized the program and administered the oath to the converts. He described the event as the "biggest show" of strength by people whom society neglects.

The conversion will help the dalit escape the rigid caste system that denied them equal status, he told UCA News May 29.

Dalit, meaning "broken" in Sanskrit, denotes former untouchables at the bottom of the traditional Indian caste system. Dalit form nearly 16 percent of India's 1.02 billion people. Tribal people account for about 8 percent.

Another organizer, Laxman Mane, lamented that most dalit and nomadic tribal people in India remain uneducated even 60 years after the country's independence. "Go home with dreams in your heart and send your children to school," the 56-year-old Buddhist writer told the new converts.

Auxiliary Bishop Agnelo R. Gracias of Bombay considers mass conversions of dalit and tribal people "an expression" of their fight for dignity and equality. Bombay is the old name of Mumbai, India's commercial hub and the capital of Maharashtra state.

The first mass dalit conversion in India came in 1955, when B.R. Ambedkar, champion of India's untouchables, and 200,000 dalit embraced Buddhism. Dalit groups have organized similar events since.

Bishop Gracias told UCA News June 2 that religious conversion gives dalit legitimate status in a society that has kept them down for centuries. Even so, the prelate saw "political color" in the recent event since some political parties supported it. They want to gain a vote bank for the 2009 general election, he remarked.

Bishop Thomas Dabre of Vasai, whose diocese neighbors Bombay archdiocese, also sees the event as a "natural revolt," but he disapproves of people changing religion without an inner conversion. In "such a large exodus from one religion to another, it is questionable whether spiritual values were imbibed," he added.

Leaders and scholars from other religions also were among the people with whom UCA News spoke about mass conversion.

Irfan Engineer, an Islamic scholar, said such an act is a "defiance" of the "oppressive caste system" and "does not involve learning the tenets of the faith." According to him, mass conversions have become a movement in India, especially when federal and state elections are near.

Jesuit theologian Father Peter Arockiadoss said mass conversions signal an assertion of political, social, economic and cultural freedom by the dalit and tribal people. Upper caste groups have brainwashed these people over centuries to accept their status, he charged.

Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu ascetic, pointed out that caste is determined at birth, leaving no freedom to choose a religion. Those born as "low castes" are seen as "unlucky," fated to endure centuries of "inhuman existence," he explained. In such a situation, he continued, conversion is a "symbolic protest" and a means to seek equal opportunities.

Ram Puniyani, professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, observed that dalit and tribal people have lived "on the mercy of the rich and influential" for centuries. These landless and "poorest of the poor" people face harassment whenever some theft or looting occurs in villages, he added.

Abraham Mathai, vice chairperson of Maharashtra's Minority Commission, described the mass conversion as a "political assertion" and a "noble action demonstrating freedom of conscience."

Right-wing Hindu leaders say they have no problems with dalit converting to Buddhism. "We do not consider the event as stealing our flock, as Buddhism is part and parcel of Hinduism and Indian culture," explained Ram Madhav.

The spokesperson for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (national volunteers' corps), the umbrella organization of groups campaigning to make India a Hindu theocratic state, said such events show that dalit and tribal people "are moving from a caste-based religion to casteless religion." But he dismissed the mass conversion as "a political gimmick" to help politicians.

He claimed his organization has campaigned against the caste system.

UCA News

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