Conversion to Islam: Untouchables' Strategy for Protest in India

Abstract

Many Indians were taken by surprise, anger, and dismay by several thousand South Indian untouchables when they converted to Islam in 1981-82. Hindu chauvinists violently reacted and formed the Vishva Hindu Prishad which later occupied the famous mosque built by the first Mughul ruler of India, Babur. Since then many attempts have been made to analyze the causes of the mass conversion which still continues, although not in large numbers. Abdul Malik's book carefully examines the regional and local causes as well as the consequences of this mass conversion to Islam. Malik explains the elements of the complex social matrix in which the untouchables used conversion as a "conscious and articulate protest" against a cruel and unjust caste system. This unique study provides a thorough sociological perspective that deepens our understanding of more than 200 million untouchables of India. Malik explains, in the first chapter, the methodological and theoretical basis as well as the framework of his study. He raises relevant questions that have been answered in the latter part of the book, questions such as: Why did the untouchables resort to the extreme measure of conversion? Were the conversions isolated cases or were they part of a long-term strategy? Why was Islam as a religion chosen? Malik suggests that the main variables in the process of conversion were the untouchables’ “aggressive and assertive behavior.” While developing his own thesis, Malik carefully examines similar studies by political sociologists such as Feierbend, Gum, Grimshaw, Niebuhr and others. He critically evaluates their work and draws meaningful similarities. Yet he establishes a more comprehensive framework by redefining many terms such as violence and psychological violence in the context of the untouchables’ conversion to Islam. The second, third, and fourth chapters provide a detailed understanding of the caste system that is the core of Indian politics, the economic, social, political, and cultural milieu of the untouchables, the pervasiveness of untouchability in the Indian society, the nature of violence against the untouchables, and the helplessness of ’the untouchables in dealing with the political power that is embedded in the caste hierarchy of the social system in India ...