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Hindus Convert to Christianity in a Mass Ceremony
COIMBATORE June 30 (Islamonline & News Agencies) One thousand members from 225 low caste Arundhadhiar families of a small village in the south Indian State of Tamil Nadu, mass converted to Christianity Friday as a protest against alleged ill treatment by caste Hindus, news agencies reported
The villagers from K. Ayyampalayam , Pazhavur and other hamlets near Palladam village, 30 km from the city of Coimbatore renounced Hinduism after complaining that they were "humiliated and harassed" by upper caste Hindus for the past 10 years.
The low-caste Hindus or untouchable are collectively known as Dalits and today comprise 20 percent of India's population of 1 billion.
Most recently they said that they were barred from worshipping by upper castes Hindus at a temple function on June 6. S.T.Kalyanasundaram, president of the Tamil Nadu Arundhadhiar Democratic Front said that they resorted to conversion when authorities did not act even after several representations.
The conversions took place on Friday at a simple religious function organized by a Christian priest.
Western news agencies saidthat this is one of the major instances of known mass conversions in Tamil Nadu after the Meeenakshipuram incident in 1981.
On February 19, 1981, more than 300 families of the Palan sub caste converted to Islam. Acceptance, equal status and self-respect were the reasons they cited for the conversion.
Discrimination against the low castes was so deep rooted in the psyche of the upper castes that in many shops there was a two-tumbler system for drinking water: one set for the low castes, another for the rest.
Some of the villagers had earlier converted to Christianity but finding that the caste-system followed them even there finally settled for Islam.
The neo-Muslims later renamed Meenakshipuram to Rahmat Nagar and stopped rearing pigs. Despite numerous attempts by Hindu extremist organizations to reconvert, most villagers have opted to remain Muslim.
The conversions of Dalits to Islam and Christianity has often attracted violent reaction from extremist Hindu organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, Shiva Sena, who consider such actions to be national threat.
A VHP report last year claimed that nearly 200,000 of India's 23 million Christians are active missionaries engaged in conversions. The report also claimed that the main goal of the Christian groups is to establish one million churches and thousands of Christian institutes, schools and missions across the country.
The Hindu extremists also accuse the Muslim countries of pumping petro-dollars for Dalit conversions to Islam, even though most who accept Islam usually do so after deep study and contemplation, without any efforts from the Muslims countries, most of which are preoccupied with their internal problems.
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