Punjabee in USA

Do you personally know the "200 million Dalits who are treated worse than animals daily", or is that just hearsay ?

What about the "upper caste" women who get raped ? And the upper caste folks who earn less than a $ a day ? Why make this into a Dalit/Non-Dalit issue ?

Btw, in India one can survive with $ a day

happyheart

PUnjab jee i really do not expect that from u
defending and more concerned with upper class
afsoos jee afsoos

Punjabee in USA

^ I am not defending anyone. However, I take strong objection to taking something out of context and making that into a problem of epidemic proportion.

Example - Many terrorists have been Pakistanis - does that mean all Pakistanis are terrorists or that all terrorists are Pakistanis ??

happyheart

Well aha
that interesting
talking about
"taking something OUT of the context"
where did i see that happening before.

Oh wait wait its been happing all over GS forum by you and others (nothing personal, strictly business mates!!
lolz since weeks.

Punjabee in USA

^ That was intended to be an example to illustrate how exaggeration works

Iconoclast

To this day, most Indians still believe, and this includes a majority of Dalits, that Dalits are being punished by God for sins in a previous life. Under the religious codes of Hinduism, a Dalit's only hope is to be a good servant of the high castes and upon death and rebirth they will be reincarnated in a high caste. This is called varna in Sanskrit, the language of the original Aryans who imposed Hinduism on India beginning some 3,500 years ago. Interestingly, the word "varna" translates literally into the word "color" from Sanskrit.


WOW, no wonder dalits hate Gandhi

Maverick_27

big no!

most of them are part of VHP and RSS

Punjabee in USA

I don't see the connection between what you quoted and Dalits hating Gandhi

Did Gandhi write/say this ??

zxcvb

Caste system in indian muslims is even worse. "Dalit" muslims are in an even worse situation.

happyheart

Could not agree more with you mate!!

Punjabee in USA

LOL...who are "Dalit" Muslims ? I thought there was no caste system in Islam...

happyheart

I think what he meant was that Dalits are seen as Untouchable by Hindus not by Muslims.
For your surpise i must tell you that there are also Dalit Sikhs, yes .

One of the biggest reasons that many people are leaving Hinduism and converted and still daily (thousands of Hindus) to Islam, Christianity and Sikhism is because of the fact they want to come out of the cast. But even when they are converterd they have a ladder to climb and in India to climb a ladder is like climbing Mound Everest with bare feet.

njgal

How are Dalits identified in India? Is it by their family names? If you convert and/or change your name and move out into a large cities of India - who can identify you as a Dalit or non Dalit.

happyheart

The thing is that the upper class hindu extremists they classify them for their own gains.
Of course u cannot tell by just looking at them its not possible but often they are lowest on the economic ladder and often they work where they grow up so its easy to find out.

But its a good question i must say.

Punjabee in USA

Yes, I know that As mentioned in another thread, one of our central ministers - Boota Singh is a "dalit" Sikh.

I have only heard of "dalit" Hindus converting to Christianity & Budhism due to the caste system and more importantly due to the cash incentives given (in Christianity). Sikhs also have a caste hierarchy so your logic does not apply.

Never heard of a Hindu converting to Islam to escape the caste system

Punjabee in USA

Thats the irony - the so called "dalits" want to be identified as "dalits" to get all the freebies that the government gives them but still crib about being "dalits"

Punjabee in USA

Instead of speaking out of ignorance, pls travel to India once...I am sure you will return a more educated person

happyheart

1. u have heard of pleasing a population to shup them up by throwing bone.

2. When did i say that you know everthing?

what? u want prove? As you know this beloved brother of yours does not talk like you do without any prove




Dalits convert to Islam, Buddhism and Christianity

By MG News Desk

New Delhi, October 28 (MG): Over a hundred Dalits (low-caste Hindus) converted to Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, Sunday, October 27, in protest against the inequality in Hindu religion, which treats Dalits as sub-human, even less important than cattle.

The new converts included families of the five Dalits lynched on October 15 for skinning a dead cow. For hundreds of generations these people have been skinning dead animals. High-caste Hindus worship the cow as “ mother,” and are generally anti-cow slaughter. However, they have traditionally allowed skinning of dead animals, including cows, and their trade.

On October 15, a mob of 2000 upper caste Hindus lynched five Dalit young men for having “ killed” a cow barely 60 kilometres from the national capital as 50 policemen and senior government officials watched silently. Families of victims say that their relatives were actually killed by the police for refusing to pay high bribes. The latest round of conversions has come in response to that event.

Dalits are aggrieved not only about the continuing harassment and humiliation at the hands of high-caste Hindus, but by the justification of such harassment by religious leaders. Soon after the lynching, a high-profile Hindu religious leader, Giriraj Kishore, told newspersons in Delhi that as per Hindu scriptures, “ the life of a cow is more precious than a man’ s.”

Dalit leader Udit Raj, himself a convert from Hinduism to Buddhism, said Sunday, October 27, that Hindu religious and ultranationalist organisations like “ the VHP, Bajrang Dal and RSS and their so-called leaders are forcing the Dalits across the country to convert to different religions” . He said that the guilty had been allowed to go scotfree which meant that the government was anti-Dalit.

Dalits had been oppressed for the last 5,000 years, since Vedic times, because the Hindu religious scriptures sanctioned such mistreatment. “ That left Dalits with no other option than abandoning Hinduism for a dignified life,” Udit Raj added.

Nearly half a century ago, one of the greatest Dalit leaders and the architect of the Indian Constitution, Dr BR Ambedkar, renounced Hinduism along with half a million other Dalits to join Buddhisim. Ambedekar said, “ I was born a Hindu, but I will not die one” . He said there would be no emancipation of Dalits unless they left the religion (Hinduism) which allowed such discriminatory treatment of Dalits.

The present leader, Udit Raj, is a follower of Ambedkar. He supports conversion as “ a healthy process” . “ Conversion from one’ s existing religion to another leads to a change of thought, ” he asserts.

The government, instead of nabbing the guilty, sent the dead cow for post-mortem examination to determine whether the cow had been killed or had died of some other cause!. Fortunately for other Dalits, the post-mortem report said it had died one day before the lynching of the Dalits.

“ We do not want to be a part of a religion in which there is a premium on a dead cow,” said Chhattar Singh, relative of two of the lynched Dalits. Criticising Hindu religious leader Giriraj Kishore for his observation that “ a cow’ s life is more precious than a man’ s,” Udit Raj said, “ the system which has the cow and Kishore in it is not worth much.”

That the Dalits had changed religion in defiance of Hindu caste oppression was evident form one Dalit’ s name after converting to Islam. He chose to rename himself as "Saddam Hussein." A prominent member of the Dalit community in Gurgaon, his previous name was "Bhim Shankar Das Khairatia".

The new Saddam Hussein said, “ I know how the Western world is after Saddam. He is a hero.” After Meenakshipuram (a place in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu) conversions of early 1980s in which 180 Dalit families embraced Islam, this one was the most dramatic protest against caste oppression which the lynching symbolised.

Last August, 250 Dalits converted to Christianity in Tamil Nadu to escape oppression. Last year 1,500 similarly oppressed low-caste Hindus embraced Christianity.

According to the BBC, 400 Dalits in Tamil Nadu are planning to convert to Islam “ because of what they describe as persistent unfair treatment by their higher-caste Hindu neighbours.”

Dalits who converted Sunday to Islam said they preferred this religion because it emphasised equality and brotherhood, which they missed in their earlier religion. Islam also gave them dignity, which they never knew as Hindus.

The conversion yesterday took place during a huge Dalit rally in Gurgaon, south of Delhi, against the lynching. About 100 Dalits embraced Islam, while about 15 chose Buddhism and around three preferred Christianity.

The rally, attended by around 7000 Dalits, decided not to celebrate Diwali, festival of lights, this year in protest against the lynching. They also decided to converge on Dulina, where the lynching took place, on November 4. More conversions will take place on that date.

The electronic media here chose to ignore this event while today's newspapers chose to ignore the fact that the majority converted to Islam which was confirmed to MG by Dr Muhammad Rafiq Azad who performed the rites of the Dalits' conversion to Islam yesterday at Gurgaon.


http://www.milligazette.com/dailyupdate/20021028.htm


So next time be aware what u ask for
because
because
who know
ur wish come TRUE!!!

Punjabee in USA

^ Milligazette ??? Would you believe what RSS's website tells you about Islam ?? I am sure you can do better, yaar

I can understand that Indian media failed to cover it, but what about western media which has always highlighted such issues ??

njgal

What freebies do they get - Scholarships? loans?