The Supreme Court of India recently ruled that Dalits converting from Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism to other religions like Islam and Christianity will lose the rights of reservation. The ruling is strictly in accordance with the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950 that bars any such claim.
The issue is not rocket science that it may be difficult to understand. Dalits have been marked as Scheduled Castes, because of generations of discrimination and atrocities they suffered. It was an affirmative, proactive and corrective measure envisaged by the framers of our Constitution to correct a grievous wrong and address injustice.
The Congress has expressed reservations about the Supreme Court ruling along the expected lines. This suits the party’s narrative to be seen as a pro-minority organisation. Senior party leader and general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala went to the extent of asking was it “a prelude to denying all reservation benefits (as SC or BC) to the minorities in the country?”
Reservations on the basis of caste are provided because the caste system prevailed in the Hindu religion. It does not prevail in any other religion, particularly among the Christians and Muslims. Once someone converts to Christianity or Islam, he has no other identity, but that of a Christian or a Muslim as there is no caste-categorisation in these religions.
It is common sense that one ceases to be a Dalit by virtue of being a Christian or a Muslim, how can s/he avail of the benefits based on the caste when s/he has foregone that particular identity. There is nothing unusual or illogical about it. There are no ifs and buts about it.
The Congress is going by its rulebook of appeasement where in fact it really does not need to. And then raising fear and apprehension that this may be a prelude to scrapping reservation benefits completely. In fact, no devout Muslim or devout Christian would like to claim any benefit on the basis of caste. If a Muslim or a Christian considers himself/ herself anything other than a Muslim or a Christian s/he will not be true to his/ her faith. The matter ends there. The Supreme Court has not ruled anything unusual or illogical. Yes, the court does not need to be politically correct, like the Congress always tries to.
Certain truths need to be told bluntly. There is a massive conversion campaign going on across the country among the Dalit community. Punjab’s Amritsar-Gurdaspur border belt is one of the worst examples. The rate of conversion is phenomenal. A large section of the Dalit community is getting converted to Christianity. May be those who get converted have hope and expectation of being treated as equal.
Also read: Conversion to other religions ends Scheduled Caste status : SC
It is a fact that while Indian society has significantly moved forward, there are certain sections, which still practice caste discrimination. Majority of the Dalit population still feels discriminated against, isolated and marginalised. Sadly, even after converting to Sikhism, members of the Dalit community do not escape caste discrimination. Caste does indeed travel along. This holds true for other castes like Jatts as well. There are Jats among Hindus (in Haryana), among Sikhs (in Punjab) and among the Muslims (in Pakistan) who proudly assert their Jatt/ Jat identity over their religious identity, be it Hindu, Muslim or Sikh.
But the Christianity and Islam strictly forbid the practice of caste system. There are no separate Dalit-Muslim mosques or Dalit-Christian churches. Mosques and churches are for everyone. Even the Gurdwaras and temples are for everyone. Although there is no bar for any Dalit Sikh to enter any Gurdwara anywhere, yet the Dalits have built separate Gurdwaras of their own. There has never ever been any incident of any Dalit, or anyone else, having been barred from entering a Gurdwara on the basis of his/ her religion.
Allowing SC reservation benefits to Dalit converts to Christianity and Islam will only encourage conversion. Widespread and mass conversion will be a social challenge for the country. The framers of the Constitution, in order to change the status quo, have already introduced caste-based reservations. The matter should end there.
There is a lesson for the Congress on this. When the British tried to divide the Hindu community along the caste lines by introducing the “caste electorate”, whereby the Dalits would have got separate political representation, on the pattern of the “communal electorate”, Mahatma Gandhi saw through the design. Dr BR Ambedkar was strongly in favour of “caste electorate”. Gandhi resisted the move and went on fast unto death and forced the British to withdraw the order. It took a lot of convincing and motivation to make Dr Ambedkar agree with it. The two then signed the famous “Poona Pact”.
The Congress must learn some lessons from the Poona Pact before rushing through to defend, support and encourage reservations for the converts. When one foregoes an identity then s/he foregoes every benefit that is because of it. It is as simple as that.
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