Author: Pradeep Kaushal
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 5, 2003
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=23308
Former BJP president Bangaru Laxman,
joining issue with UP Chief Minister Mayawati for her threat to convert
to Buddhism, today said that conversion was no panacea for the problems
of Dalits.
Laxman, the first Dalit president
of the BJP, told The Indian Express that the Dalits, instead of adopting
an escapist approach, should fight for their due in Hindu society. He said:
''For me, neither pity nor an escape would do (Na dainyam, na palaynam).
I would not give up my faith. I would rather strive for an honourable place
within the Hindu society.''
He said he would suggest to Mayawati
to launch a crash programme to make every Dalit of UP a literate. ''Once
a Dalit is educated, he would not settle down for anything short of what
is due to him.'' He said that he fully agreed with Mayawati when she talked
of Dalits still not being allowed into temples. ''This practice, even though
alien to big cities, is still continuing in the countryside,'' he said.
However, he pointed out, if conversion could put an end to it, untouchability
would have been eliminated long ago.
''The clashes between neo-Buddhists
and upper caste people in Maharashtra over the renaming of Marathwada University
in the 1970s and '80s were only treated as caste violence. No one described
them as communal trouble.''
Laxman said Dalits, after conversion
to Christianity, had to make do with separate churches or at least suffer
segregation all over South India.
He said Dalits were not only a part
of society but had also made an immense contribution to its rich cultural
heritage. ''Who would have known of Ram but for Valmiki? What would be
our literary, cultural and folk traditions like without Ramkatha? We are
inseparable from Ram. Therefore, we have Jagjivan Rams, Ram Vilas Paswans
and Chand Rams. We are the real inheritors of these traditions. Why should
we give them up?''
