Look who's talking

Brand Dalit. Branded Dalit. The activist with a known cause is a pretentious and privileged animal. As far removed from ground reality as Madhyamgram is from Massachusetts. And then there is the faceless untouchable, who, is, was, will be, the damned – in the many villages of India Shining. Humiliated, humbled, raped, burned. Reservation, did you say? Proselytisation, they offer, is the way out. Or is it?Every year, on Buddha jayanti, Dalits (a catch-all term for the country’s socially oppressed) reject their inherited faith and embrace Buddhism. Ambedkar had shown the way in October 1956. And every year, Brand Dalits (op-ed page hacks, khadi-endorsing activists, seminar regulars and worthies such like) argue how it is an exercise in futility. That conversion to another faith brings about no discernable change in the way society treats Dalits. Whether you are a Buddhist Dalit, a Dalit Christian or a Dalit Muslim, you were, are, will remain a Dalit.They argue Dalits learnt the futility of conversions long before the advent of ‘foreign’ religions like Islam and Christianity. That those who converted to Buddhism to escape social ostracism, reconverted to Hinduism to avail of the benefits of becoming dwija (twice-born) through good karma in the present birth. Further, caste wheedles its way into other religions as well.The Branded Dalit will argue that these inequalities are not as stark as in Hinduism, and untouchability, the worst of human indignities, is definitely not followed in other religions. The fact is most Dalit converts today are happy with the new faith they have embraced. More, reconversions to Hinduism are done mostly by coercion. Left to themselves, Dalits would remain Christians or Muslims because of the obvious benefits-either social, educational, financial or all of them, that most often come with it.The Brand Dalit will rave and rant. Conversion is an easy option. Hinduism is not a religion, but a way of life, purge it of vices like untouchability. But that, the Branded Dalit will tell you is yet another story. Till then, there are other false Gods.