Kay Benedict

[Ed. Note: The story below appeared on April 9, 2001, in The Telegraph published in Calcutta, India.]

After the cycle of conversion and reconversion, a rebellion is brewing in India in the shape of the world's biggest crossover to a religion. One million Dalits are expected to embrace Buddhism on Oct. 14, 2001, in an articulation of anger strikingly similar to black America's march against the white mainstream.

The particular date - 45 years after Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar renounced Hinduism and found solace in Buddhism - has been chosen with care to hammer home the Dalit rage against the country's social stratification.

The objective behind the mammoth conversion is not only to rebuff the caste Hindus and the Brahminical order but also to remove the internal contradictions dogging the Dalits, who are divided into various camps representing the Balmikis, Paswans, Chamars, etc.

The decision on mass conversion has been made by the All-India Confederation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes that groups together four million Dalits.

"This is for our survival as humans," said K. Ramankutty, president of the confederation's Kerala branch. "Buddhism is a casteless religion. That is the primary reason why we want to embrace it. We have no enmity with anyone. It [the conversion] is for human rights."

However, if the conversion plan takes place, it is certain to raise the hackles of the Sangh Parivar. Sangh hardliners who have opposed conversions have often found it difficult to answer charges that they have done little to dismantle the numerous social barriers in their religion. The conversion of one million people will be seen as further proof of their perceived failure to nurture reforms.

The conversion is also expected to equip the Dalits to fight the constitutional review that is being viewed by some sections as an affront to Ambedkar, one of the founding fathers of the statute.

Ramankutty lambasted the central government that is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for trying to review the Constitution.

"They are trying to bring Manu in place of Ambedkar. They are misinterpreting provisions of the Constitution to defeat the purpose of reservation and to resort to large-scale privatisation. We will soon have no place in the social hierarchy," he said.

Ram Raj, the national chairman of the confederation, termed the conversion the "biggest cultural event in the world." He said that "the most crucial decision" to embrace Buddhism has the concurrence of Dalit leaders from almost all Indian states.

The confederation is planning to organise a series of programmes, including rath yatras (cross-country caravans), to prepare the Dalits for a cultural change. The target is to convert the nation's entire scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population in the country of 25 crore or 250 million people, Ram Raj said.

The confederation will devise an agitation programme for reservation in the judiciary, army and private sector in view of the central government's decision to disinvest from public sector units.