Mass Conversions to Hinduism among Indian Muslims

Yoginder Sikand Manjari Katju

In cases of mass conversion of Muslims to Hinduism, the central thrust has been on their de-Islamisation rather than on their accepting the Hindu religion. The Muslim castes which have been particularly vulnerable to Hindu missionary efforts have been those which are only nominally Muslim and retain many Hindu customs and beliefs. Most of the mass conversions have occurred among Muslim Rajput groups. The Hindu missionaries, too, have shown an inordinate interest in converting the socially dominant and powerful Muslim Rajputs and not the 'lower' Muslim castes who form the majority of the Indian Muslim population. Finally, the mass conversions have mostly occurred in the backward regions of northern India where feudalism is still largely intact and where brahminism has not been challenged by assertive 'lower' castes.

THE origin of the term 'Hindu' can be traced to the ancient Persians who employed to refer to the inhabitants of India who were unified not by belief in any single set of religious doctrines but by membership in hierarchically arranged 'jatis' (castes) which collectively formed what was known as the 'varna vyavastha' (caste system). What today goes under the name of the 'sanatan dharma' (Hinduism) refers essentially to the duties and rights of individuals as members of castes into which they are born, the dharma of each caste being different. Hence, caste, and not any common set of religious beliefs and customs, forms the bedrock of the Hindu religion and social order.

Unlike, for instance, Islam and Christia-nity, Hinduism lacks any creed which non-Hindus are required to accept in order to enter the Hindu fold. Theoretically, since birth in a particular Hindu caste alone qual-ifies one to be considered a Hindu, non-Hindus cannot convert to the sanatana dharma. However, the spread of Hinduism from the Hindu heartland of 'aryavarta' (the Gangetic belt of north India), not only to the rest of the subcontinent but even to far-off Indo-China, Malaysia and Indonesia in ancient times suggests that in actual practise it has been possible for non-Hindu groups to be Hinduised. This Hinduisation process is, in fact, still under way among many aboriginal and other non-Hindu groups in India who are outside the pale of the caste system.

HINDUISATION PROCESS

Till recently, the process of Hinduisation proceeded in a completely unorganised fash-ion. Typically, itinerant brahmin priests would venture off into non-Hindu domains and establish mutually supportive relation-ship' with the ruling chieftains of those areas. The priests would confer upon them the exalted status of kshatriya (warrior caste)

and, in turn, the chieftains would recognise the brahmins as their spiritual preceptors and would grant them extensive landholdings as well as other forms of state patronage. Grad-ually, the brahminical values, customs and beliefs would then filter down from the chieftains to their subjects leading to their eventual Hinduisation and their absorption into the caste system, mainly as sudras (untouchables and menial castes).

Today, however, this unorganised Hinduisation process is being supplemented with planned and organised missionary ef-forts of such groups as the Arya Samaj, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Ramakrishna Mission, etc. These outfits do not restrict themselves merely to the propagation of religious tenets, but also run a network of schools, dispensaries and community-service centres for many of the non-Hindu groups among whom they are proselytising.

Traditionally, Hinduisation of non-Hindu groups occurred in a very gradual fashion over a long period of time, sometimes ex-tending over several generations. This was because it was essentially an extended pro-cess of cultural transformation. In this sense, therefore, it would not be entirely proper to speak of 'conversion' to Hinduism since non-Hindus admitted into the Hindu caste system were not required to accept any particular set of beliefs and customs as a pre-condition. What Hinduisation did entail was the acceptance of certain brahminical no-tions, such as the Karma theory, belief in the supremacy of the brahmin caste and obser-vance of the rules of caste purity and pol-lution. Non-Hindus gained entry into the Hindu fold through this acculturation pro-cess which occurred alongside their accom-modation within the caste system.

Unlike, for example, in Islam, where non-Muslim individuals and groups become Muslims immediately upon their recitation of the Islamic creed, in Hinduism, which

lacks a set of fundamental tenets binding upon all its followers, entry of non-Hindus cannot be instantaneous. Hence, 'conver-sion' to Hinduism occurred as the result of a long process involving not the acceptance of any particular religious doctrine but, rather, the imbibing of brahminical cultural norms legitimising the caste system, This went along with the discarding of customs incompatible with these cultural norms.

This gradual process of Hinduisation through cultural change is, however, today being added to by Hindu missionary groups which conduct 'shuddhi karan' ('purifica-tion rituals' or conversion ceremonies) of non-Hindus, who become Hindus immedi-ately upon the completion of the initiation rites.1

In India the closest ties that an individual has are with members of his or her own caste or jati. The jati is an endogamous, com-mensual unit affording security as well as an identity to its members. Membership of a jati is restricted only to those who are born into it. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a Hindu to exist in isolation from his or her own particular jati. Hence conversions in India to or from Hinduism (or any other religion for that matter) generally take the form of mass conversions. Entire jatis con-vert together instead of isolated individuals changing their religious allegiances. Today, however,the Arya Samaj, aneo-Hindu outfit, arranges for both individual as well as mass conversions. Non-Hindus getting married to Hindus now can, and, indeed, often do, convert to Hinduism through the Arya Samaj. This is a very recent development, which the 'sanatani' (orthodox) Hindus frown upon since the Hindu scriptures explicitly proscribe inter-caste and inter-religious marriages.

The vast majority of India's over 120 million Muslims arc descendants of low-caste Hindus who converted to Islam to escape from the oppression of the higher

2214 Economic and Political Weekly August 20, 1994

castes and in search of equality and dignity. Rarely did individuals convert by themselves, for that would have meant completely cut-ting off their ties with their castes. Hence, entire caste groups embraced Islam together and then adopted a new, Islamised or Arabic caste appellation for themselves. For instance, the tantis (weavers) of Bihar began to call themselves ansaris after becoming Muslims. In Punjab, the musallis bhangis (sweepers) adopted the more respectable title of Musallis. In all these cases, the endogamous caste unit which was in existence prior to conversion, remained intact even after that. This is how Muslim society in India has come to be characterised by a multiplicity of endoga-mous caste groups. As shall be discussed later on, it is the existence of castes among the Indian Muslims that allows for the pro-cess of Hinduisation to operate among them.

HINDUISATION OF INDIAN MUSLIMS

Conversions of Hindu castes to Islam for social emancipation from the shackles of the caste system proceeded steadily so long as the Muslims were politically dominant in India. Thereafter, with the establishment of British rule, this process slackened con-siderably. In the early years of the present century the British rulers began instituting political reforms granting Indians a certain measure of self-government. These new op-portunities, such as limited voting rights and representation on local body councils, were apportioned among the various religious com-munities of the country in accordance with their respective numerical proportions. The Hindu 'upper' caste elite, forming not more than 6 per cent of the then Indian population, represented a numerically relatively small, yet enormously powerful, minority. In order to corner the benefits of the British-instituted reforms, this minority group felt it imper-ative to enhance the Hindu numerical strength. The only way it could do so was by incorporating into the Hindu fold the untouchables, the aboriginals and other non-Hindu groups. The conversion of these non-Hindus, therefore, clearly represented a political strategy to employ the power of an artificially constructed "Hindu majority com-munity" to bolster the fortunes of the 'upper' caste Hindu minority.

As one perceptive scholar observes, There is hardly any region in the subconti-nent in which 'Hindus', as they defined themselves before Gandhi attempted to co-opt or incorporate all Untouchables commu-nities into the 'Hindu', fold, represented a cohesive or clearly identifiable 'majority' community... The conjuring up of this con-cept can be seen as nothing more than another attempt by one elite minority or coalitions of elite minorities to dominate all others.2

Hence, the organised efforts by 'upper' caste Hindus to proselytise among the un-touchables (who, being outcastes, were

considered to be outside Hindu caste society) and among Muslims and Christians cannot be seen in isolation from the wider political context since political considerations played a very crucial role in the entire enterprise.3

This continues to be the case to this very day. Orthodox, or sanatani, Hindus held that it

was not possible for non-Hindus, whom they considered 'impure' ('ashuddh') to become Hindus. It was the Arya Samaj, a revivalist neo-Hindu outfit set up in 1875 by a Gujarati brahmin, Day ananda Saraswati, which broke from orthodoxy in this regard. It allowed for non-Hindus to convert to the Arya Samaj sect through a ritual known as the shuddhi karan ('purification') ceremony.4

'Shuddhi' ('purity') is said to be an ancient and central concept in Hinduism. It refers to a state of ritual 'purity' needed for the per-formance of one's dharma, the central com-ponent of which is observing the duties assigned by the brahminical scriptures to one's caste. Since dharma has both ritual as well as social dimensions, shuddhi refers to the state of 'purity' required for the perfor-mance of both religious rites and social intercourse.

Shuddhi may be lost by 'pollution', which may occur through a death or birth in one's household or by the touch of 'polluted' materials or 'impure' people. Shuddhi Karan refers to the rite through which this 'pollu-tion' is considered to be removed and ritual 'purity' restored, thus enabling one to regain one's caste status.5 As an orthodox brahmin 'pundit' opines:

The abandonment of prohibited food, separa-tion of contact with low persons, and living in one's situation according to Varnasrama dharma (caste-system) is called Suddhi.6

The shuddhi karan rite seems to have been formulated in the 19th century only, though efforts were made to bestow upon it an ancient history.7 It first made its appearance in the context of 'upper' caste Hindus who lost their caste for having crossed the seas. The ban on travelling abroad had been imposed by Hindu scriptures for fear of 'upper' caste being unable to observe the rules of the maintenance of caste 'purity' in foreign lands. With the establishment of British rule in India many 'high' caste Hindus went to England for higher education. For this, they were excommunicated from their castes but now could seek re-admission after undergoing a 'purification' ceremony. It was this newly-invented ritual that later came to be used to convert untouchables and other non-Hindu groups to Hinduism.

Prior to the mass conversions of certain Muslim groups by the Arya Samaj, there had been isolated instances of individual Muslims undergoing the Arya shuddhi karan ceremony. Most of these early Muslim conversions to Hinduism were, however, cases of Hindu converts to Islam reconvert-ing back to Hinduism.8 The first instance of

the conversion of a born Muslim to the Arya Samaj was reported in 1877 when Day ananda Saraswati performed the shuddhi of a Mus-lim of Dehra Dun, giving him the Hindu name of 'alakhdhari'.9

The mass conversions of Muslims to Hinduism assumed significant proportions only in the 1920s, in the backdrop of con-certed efforts by the Muslim and Hindu elites to inflate their numbers so as to enhance their political bargaining power. The Arya Samaj was particularly successful among Muslim groups which were only partially Islamised and had still retained many of their old Hindu customs and beliefs. Thus, for instance, the sheikhs of Larkana (Sind), alow half Muslim-half Hindu caste, were converted by the Sukkur unit of the Arya Samaj as early as in 1905. Similar was the case with the subrai labanas of Ludhiana (Punjab) and the maiwaris of Ajmer (Rajputana), who, like the Larkana sheikhs, followed a curious mixture of Hindu and Islamic practices.10

It is interesting to note that these group conversions to Hinduism organised by the Arya Samaj entailed essentially the giving up of a certain Islamic customs such as the burial of the dead, 'nikah', the visiting of 'dargahs' and circumcision, rather than the imparting of Hindu religious knowledge to the new converts.11 This was possibly be-cause the shuddhi movement was motivated far less by the desire to promote spirituality and moral and religious values than by strong anti-Muslim passion.

CONVERSION OF MALKANAS AND JATS

The Arya Samaj claimed to be opposed to the caste system based on birth. However, it is interesting to note, that in the case of the mass conversions of entire Muslims groups to Hinduism a crucial component of the Arya Samaj missionary strategy was first to construct an artificial history of these groups as being the descendants of 'upper' caste Hindu kshatriya warriors who were forcibly converted to Islam. It then sought to win them over by instilling in them a false pride in this constructed caste identity, prom-ising them the restoration of their 'upper' caste privileges if they were to de-Islamise themselves. All Muslims, including those of 'upper' caste Hindu descent, were treated by orthodox Hindus as 'unclean' and 'impure' ('achchut' or 'ashuddh') and hence, for Muslim castes of imputed kshatriya descent, conversion to Hinduism seemed to offer a means to regain many of their caste privi-leges which they had lost on becoming Muslims. Appealing to the caste sentiments of Muslim groups, therefore, played a crucial role in the Arya Samaj's missionary succes-ses. Indeed, this remains the basic mission-ary strategy of Hindu missionaries even today. For instance, the present head of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, asserts:

Economic and Political Weekly August 20, 1994 2215

The Muslims and Christians of this country were made to forget their Hindu identity, yet their lesser identity is still meticulously preserved securely Till this day they can recall from which particular caste they were converted and in most cases they continue to maintain their caste identity. This identity alone will, in the future, become the means for them to recognise their Hindu identity, as a result of which the large numbers of those who have been cut off from Hinduism will come back into its fold.12

The appealing to caste sentiments formed, as in all other similar cases, the basis of the most controversial of the Arya Samaj 's mass conversionsthe shuddhi of the Muslim malkana rajputs of the western districts of the United Provinces in the 1920s.

The term 'malkana' is not a clan name, but is a title derived from the word 'milkiyat' or ownership of land. The malkanas are said to have been nominally converted to Islam under the Afghan rulers from whom they received extensive land grants in the Jamuna tract in the neighbourhood of Agra, Mathura and Delhi. They claimed to be the descen-dants of the Jadun rajputs, though some of them are also said to have possessed Agarwal bania and tarkar brahmin ancestry.11 The malkanas followed both Hindu and Muslim customs, because of which they were also known as adhbariya ("half Hindu-half Muslim"). Yet in the censuses they tended to return themselves as Muslims.14 Their population in the 1920s was said to number several hundred thousands.15

Effor t s to conver t the malkanas to Hinduism began in the first decade of the present century when shuddhi sabhas were set up at various places in the United Prov-inces by Pandit Bhoj Dutt Sharma of the Arya Samaj. In 1907 the Hindu rajputs of the Agra division Hocked to these sabhas in an attempt to convert the Muslim rajputs so as to thereby enhance the numerical strength of the rajput community.10 By 1910, the Rajput Sabha, which was, along with the Arya Samaj, actively engaged in the shuddhi movement, claimed to have converted 1,052 rajput Muslims to Hinduism.17

It was, however, only in the 1920s thai the dramatic mass conversions of malkanas began. The first of these conversion ceremo-nies took place at Raibana, near Agra. Within the first few months of 1992, over 5,000 malkanas were said to have been Hinduised and the figure rose to over 30,000 by the end of the year.18 This drive continued till 1927 or so, by which time it is reported that about 1,63,000 malkanas had entered the Hindu fold. ,19

In the conversion of the malkanas, the Arya Samaj was actively assisted by the Kshatriya Upkarini Mahasabha (Rajput Welfare Society). On August, 30 1992, the Mahasabha at its meeting at Kashi under the presidentship of Raja Sir Rampal Singh, decided "to take back Hindu rajputs who at

one time or another had turned Muslims".20

The Mahasabha sought to win over the Muslim rajputs by repeatedly playing up the issue of their upper caste kshatriya ancestry. That the Arya Samaj had to seek the active co-operation of the Mahasabha suggests that despite its professed disavowal of the caste system, the Aryas did not hesitate in making as their central missionary strategy the evok-ing of caste sentiments.

In the conversion of the malkanas the primary aim of the Arya Samaj seems to have been their de-Islamisation so as to decrease Muslim numbers. It is also evident that the Arya Samaj was not particularly concerned about instructing the new converts in the principles of the Arya faith. Instead, the malkanas seem to have been rehabilitated, at least partially, as Hindu kshatriyas. As Chinmayananda Sanyasi, an activc Arya missionary, admitted,

The malkanas do not become Arya or. shuddhi but go to their community (Rajput ) which is mainly sanatanist (orthodox)^' That the Hindu rajputs' activc role in

converting the malkana rajputs was spurred more by an interest in increasing their num-bers rather than by a genuine sense of brother-hood is evident from the fact that even today the Hindu rajputs refuse to inter-marry with the malkanas.

The jats are a peasant community inhab-iting north-western India, including parts of present-day Pakistan. The jats of western Punjab are, by and large, Muslims, those of central Punjab being Sikhs and those of the eastern districts mostly Hindus. However, in the Haryana region of the then province of Punjab, particularly in the Rohtak division, there lived a significant number of nco-Muslim jat cultivators known as the Mula jats. This community soon became the focus of the Arya Samaj 's missionary efforts.22

By 1921, Rohtak had emerged as a major centre of the Arya Samaj movement. Nearly 90 per cent of the registered Aryas of this region were drawn from among the Hindu jats. Chhotu Ram, the leading jat politician, who had a strong base among the jat peas-antry of Rohtak, was a staunch Arya Samaji and was the main force behind the shuddhi of the mula jats. At his instance, resolutions were passed by various Hindu jat panchayats of the Rohtak division calling for the con-version of Muslim jats. On November 12, 1925, a resolution to the same effect was passed by a massive gathering of Hindu jats at the pi1grimage town of Pushkar near Aj mer, which was presided over by Maharaja Bijendra Singh, the jat ruler of the Bharatpur state. By 1927, under Chhotu's influence, even the jat mahasabha, the leading jat organisation, had become actively involved in the shuddhi movement. In the same year, a committee presided over by Choudhry Ghasi Ram, a member of the Punjab Council, was set up to promote the conversion of the

mula jats. Chhotu Ram was appointed as its joint-secretary.

Chhotu promised the mula jats that they would be fully accepted by the Hindu jats if they were to renounce Islam. A resolution was passed during the course of a meeting held at Rohtak on April 8, 1923, in which it was declared that,

Shuddh-Shuddha ('purified') Jats will be fully integrated into the Jar Community. No Jat is to discriminate against shuddh-shuddha Jats in any matter of eating, socialising or marriage alliances.13

Despite Chhotu Ram's efforts to integrate the Hinduised mula jats into the broader jat community, the Hindu jats seemed unwilling to accept them.24 The shuddhi of the mula jats, therefore, proved a failure and many of them were reconverted back to Islam through the efforts of the Ishaat-e-Quran and the Tabligh-ul-Islam, Muslim organisations set up in 1923 with the aim of rescuing Muslim jats, gujjars and rajputs who had been con-verted to Hinduism by the Arya Samaj.2'

As with the conversion of the malkanas, the shuddhi movement among the mula jats, in which the politician Chhotu Ram played the key role, was undertaken more for poli-tical gain than out of any genuine spiritual commitment. Chhotu's personal interest in ensuring the success of the movement lay in his concern for increasing his own jat political support-base. As his biographer ob-serves:

It needs to be emphasised that Chhotu Ram was not interested in the shuddhi movement, as some other Arya Samajists were, in claim-ing back some Hindus of lower caste who had embraced Christianity or Islam in the Haryana region. He only worried lest the numbers of Hindu jats got dwindled by their conversion. Pointing to the dwindling num berof Hindu jats in the population of Punjab, Chhotu Ram advocated wide-scale shuddhi of the mula jats (Muslim jais) as one of the ways in which it could be over come... In fact, the failure and success of the entire shuddhi movement was measured by the Chhotu Ram in relation to the addition it was likely to make to the total number of Hindu jats. The numerical strength of any "com-munity" was necessary in the Punjab of Chhotu Ram's days as that alone gave the 'Community' a leverage to make claims to the government for allocation of jobs, re-wards, patronage, etc. Chhotu Ham's inter-est in and advocacy of shuddhi in relation to jats alone substantiates the theory that he was acting not for the sake of 'Hinduism' but 'jatism' to maintain the numerical strength of jats, and to increase it, if pos-sible. Significantly. Chhotu Ram was advo eating the readmission of the purified jats into their own jat biraderi (caste-brother-hood) not as Aryas but as jats. In fact, he resisted all attempts of the Arya jats to be called Aryas only.26

Chhotu Ram, too, acknowledged the es-sentially political motives behind the shuddhi enterprise when he stated that:

2216 Economic and Political Weekly August 20, 1994

The very aim of the (shuddhi) movement was to integrate the Shuddh-Shuddh jats into the fold of the jat community so ns to strengthen the jats.27

It should also be noted that, as in the case of the malkana rajputs, the supposedly anti-caste Arya Samaj not only sought to convert the inula jats as an entire caste group (which it would not have attempted had it really been opposed to the caste system), but also tried, though in vain, to get the mula jats absorbed into the Hindu jat caste. Had the shuddhi of the mula jats been successful this would undoubtedly have further strengthened the caste system, a social order which the Aryas denounced in theory.

Besides the conversion to Hinduism of nominally Muslim castes such as the malkanas and the mulajats, the Arya Samaj also reached out to castes on the peripheries of the Hindu caste order who, though non-Muslim, prac-tised many Islamic customs. Historically, it was the gradual adoption of many Muslim practices by non-Muslim caste groups that paved the way for their eventual formal conversion to Islam. The Arya Samaj sought to prevent this by campaigning against these customs and practices. This de-islamisation among the peripheral castes was soon fol-lowed by their eventual conversion to Hin-duism alter undergoing the Arya shuddhi ceremony.

One instance of this is the Arya Samaj's missionary efforts among the Bishnois, a large farming community spread over Rajputana and the western districts of the United Provinces. The Bishnois had adopted several Muslim customs such as burial of the dead, employing the name Allah' to refer to God and using Muslim names and, unlike orthodox Hindus, they did not worship idols. A leading Arya missionary, Shraddhananda Sanyasi, explains this by saying that:

...having once slain a Qadi, who had inter-fered with their rite of widow-burning, they had compounded the offence by embracing Islam.28

The Arya Samaj began working among the Bishnois in the 1920s. Gradually they were made to give up their Islamic customs and today they are almost a full-fledged Hindu caste.

Another similar case of the Arya Samaj's efforts to do away with Islamic customs practised by peripheral non-Muslim castes was that of its work among the bhangis (sweepers) of Rajputana and the Punjab. From the point of view of the brahminical Dharmasastras (law-books), the bhangis, along with all other 'untouchable' groups, are considered to be non-Hindus or outcastes, since they fall outside the 'chaturvarnya', the four-fold Hindu caste order. Hence, the bhangis were largely uninfluenced by the brahminical ethos. They, in fact, had adopted many Islamic customs and several of them had converted to Islam in search of social equality and dignity.

This free borrowing of Muslim customs by the bhangis was noted by William Crooke who, writing in 1896, observed that,

The religion of the sweepers is a curious mixture of various faiths. Some ... profess to be Hindus, others Musaimans, others Sikhs.. The bhangis of the princely state of Jodh-

pur in western Rajputana celebrated Muslim festivals such as Shab-e-Barrat, Moharrum and the'urs of local 'pirs'. Most of them were followers of the cults of Sufi saints such as Zinda Pir, Lai Beg, Sujani Pir and Ghazi Pir. Many non-Muslim bhangis of Jodhpur kept Muslim names.30

The Arya Samaj began its programme of dc-Islamising the Jodhpur bhangis in 1923. Its main objective was said to have been "to eradicate Muslim influence from their socio-religious spheres and to create a feeling of Hinduism".'' The conversion of the bhangis to the Arya Samaj fold did not in any way help in ameliorating their dismal social and economic conditions. Nor did the giving up of Muslim customs al all help in elevating them from the lowest rung of the caste system.

In the wake of the partition of the sub-continent in August 1947, bloody riots broke out all over northern India in which thou-sands lost their lives. In several areas, Hindus forced Muslims to choose between fleeing to Pakistan, being slaughtered or else agree-ing to convert to Hinduism. Under duress scores of Muslims are said to have chosen the third option.-2

By 1950, when India declared itself a republic, the communal situation had shown some signs of improvement. Fairly strong modernist and liberal political tendencies had emerged, and Hindu political outfits such as the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS had been considerably marginalised. This, however, was not to last very long and by the early 1970s, coinciding with the emer-gence of the general crisis of the Indian state, extreme right wing brahminical Hindu mil-itancy saw an enormous upsurge. The main force behind this was the RSS, which op-erates through a large number of frontal organisations working in different fields. One of the most powerful of these is the VHP, the "World Hindu Congress", floated in 1964, among whose main objectives is the conversion of all the non-Hindus to Hinduism.

RECENT CONVERSIONS

The most recent of the mass conversion of Muslims to Hinduism organised by the VHP has been that among the Cheeta-Merat rajput Muslims. This community numbers over 3,00,000 and is scattered across the districtsofUdaipur, Pali, Bhilwaraand Ajmer in Rajasthan, with their biggest concentra-tion being in the Beawar region of Ajmer district. These Muslims are believed to be descended from the rajput king Prithvi Raj

Chauhan, who fought several battles with the Muslim rulers of Delhi. According to local tradition, Cheeta, grandson of MeraChauhan, converted to Islam during the reign of the Mughal emperor Aurang/eb (1658-1707 AD) and his descendants came to be known as cheetas, mers or merats. On the other hand, the other descendants of Mera Chauhan re-mained Hindus and are known as gorat merats, barar mers or rawats."

In the early censuses, however, al I the mers were classified as belonging to non-Hindu aboriginal tribes and even today the distinc-tion between Muslim and Hindu mers re-mains blurred. Indeed, apart from the prac-tice of circumcision and the burying of the dead, the nominally Muslim mers are quite indistinguishable from their Hindu relatives. Until recently, mers, irrespective of religion, used to freely inter-marry and brahmins would perform their marriage ceremonies accord-ing to Hindu rites.

Commenting on the admixture of Hindu and Muslim customs among the merorcheeta rajputs, Lodrick notes that:

Mers (Muslims) and Rawats (Hindus) shared a common culture, inter-dined, wore similar dress and even worshipped the same Hindu deities. Hindu mers disregard many of the traditional Hindu prescriptions concerning ablutions, ceremonial forms and food, and have no compunction about eating beef or any animal flesh. Many orthodox Hindus disassociate themselves from the mer com-munity, and a strong case can be made for regarding mers, whether Katat mers, Gorat merat or Rawat, as a distinct group that fits neither the Mouslem nor the Hindu mould.34

The close kinship and other social lies between the Hindu and Muslim mers, how-ever, came in for vigorous opposition from the Arya Samaj. Its founder, Dayananda Saraswati, had set up his headquarters at Ajmer, and he is said to have made the Hindu mers of the neighbouring Masauda and Merwara regions give up the practice of intermarrying with the Muslim mers.35

The gradual drifting apart of the Muslim mers and the Rawats was further accelerated by the introduction of the franchise and com-munal representation in British India as well as by the bloody events immediately before and after the independence of India in 1947.36

According to Jamal Khan, president of the Cheeta-Mcrat-Kathat Sabha of Beawar, the first conversions of Muslim mer rajputs to Hinduism occurred in 10 to 15 villages in the Bhim tehsil of the Udaipur district in 1947. Thereafter, strenuous efforts were made to Hinduise the mers of Beawar. One means that was adopted was the instruction given to Hindu school teachers by some local rajput heads of villages to change the names of their Muslim students to Hindu ones in the official school records.37

In the 1970s, the organised attempts by the VHP to convert the mer Muslims were further intensified. It has been alleged that since

Economic and Political Weekly August 20, 1994 2217

1975, the VHP's conversion drive in this region has been funded by a monthly grant ofRs3,00,000byBirlaand Company, India's largest industrial house.38 In the same year, the Chauhan Rajput Sabha, a Hindu rajput outfit allied to the VHP, held a meeting on January 19 at Kana Kheda in the Ajmer district which was attended by Hindu Chauhan rajput heads of several villages. In its resolution it appealed to the Muslim Chauhan mers to abide by the following decisions of the sabha;

(1) Circumcision should be done away with. (2) Keeping in mind the glory of our caste,

the marriages of our children should be performed in Hindu style by circum-bulation of fire.

(3) On the death of any Chauhan, no fakir (Muslim mendicant) should be called and nor should the fatiha be recited.

(4) Since we are the descendants of Prithvi Raj Chauhan, to maintain the glory of our caste we should give our children only Hindu titles and surnames such as Singh, Raj, Chand, Kumar, Lai, Ram, etc."'

As is evident from this resolution, the de-Islamisation of the Muslim mers, and their acceptance of certain Hindu customs and cultural norms, rather than a concern for their spiritual and social development, forms the core of the conversion drive among them.

The VHP is reported to have made several films on Prithvi Raj Chauhan and Baba Ramdeo Ji, another Chauhan hero whom Muslim rajputs also revere, which are reg-ularly screened in mer Muslim villages. Through these films the VHP is seeking to propagate a distorted history of the ancestors of the mers as having been forcibly convert-ed to Islam by the Muslim rulers.40

Taking advantage of the abject poverty of the mers, the VHP is said to be attempting to win them over by the liberal distribution of rice and clothes. It has set up free dispen-saries in the Muslim mer-inhabited hamlets of Shyamgarh, Chana and Kharkhedi in Ajmer district as well as schools, hospitals and creches in other mer villages of the Beawar region.41

The process of persuading the Muslim mers to convert to Hinduism is said to take several months and it involves organising kirtans (ceremonies at which hymns are sung and sermons are delivered) and meetings in which the VHP's version of the history of the mers is narrated.42 Before the actual conversion itself, villagers are made to sign a joint letter addressed to the VHP which invariably states that they want to give up their Muslim customs at a ceremony in which they shall take a solemn oath to adhere to the 'pure kshatriya dharma', the rules of social conduct appropriate to members of the Hindu rajput warrior caste. The letter is said to always end with a request to the VHP to make arrangements to screen films on Prithvi Raj Chauhan. A letter of this sort is the

VHP's way of ensuring that the conversion ceremony is seen as purely voluntary.43

The VHP claims to have converted over 47,000 mers, though this number is said to be a gross exaggeration. In the wake of these conversions some Islamic organisations such as the Jamiyat-ul-Ulema-i-Hind, the Rajasthan Dini Talimi Sangh and the Muslim United Forum of Pali are said to have step-ped up efforts to bring the mers back to Islam.

The conversions among the mers, quite expectedly, caused great concern to Muslim leaders and a leading Indian Muslim poli-tician, Syed Shahabuddin wrote to the govern-ment seeking its opinion in the matter. In response, the home ministry, in its letter December 29,1983 to Shahabuddin, opined that the Cheeta-Merats who had come under the influence of the VHP had only thereby "re-affirmed their faith in Hinduism".44 The choice of the phrase "re-affirmation of faith" instead of "conversion" was too significant to be ignored.

The VHP claims to have converted over 20,000 Muslims in the remote Kutch district of northern Gujarat, though this is certainly a gross exaggeration. It is now said to be eyeing the 5,00,000 strong Maul-e-Salaam girasiya rajput Muslims of central Gujarat, who still retain many Hindu customs.45

Muslims in many parts of India live in con-stant fear of attacks by Hindu mobs in which, especially in recent years, the policeis known to play an extremely partisan role, often actively assisting the Hindu rioters. Height-ened insecurity has driven some Muslims to enter Hinduism to protect their lives and property. Hasmukh Patel, a leading VHP functionary from Gujarat, explains his out-fits success in winning Muslim converts by stating that:

We promise the both swabhiman (self-re-spect) and salamati (security) if they con-vert.46

Seen in the context of the repeated bloody anti-Muslim progroms that periodically rock Gujarat, this promise to grant Muslim con-verts security seems but a veiled threat of violence being unleashed against Muslims if they fail to convert.

The VHP is said to have converted some 200 Muslims of the mir caste of musicians in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in early 1993. It is also said to be attempting to convert half a dozen Muslim castes in central Gujarat who still have not discarded many of the Hindu customs of their ancestors.47 Conversions of Muslims to Hinduism arc also said to have occurred in some states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the right wing Hindu party. Thus, in 1992 the rajput Muslim inhabitants of eight villages in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh were converted by Arya Samaj and the VHP. According to a report in a leading English language daily:

..over the past many years, volunteers of the RSS have been systematically raiding

the community (i e, the Muslims of these villages), using their abject poverty to lure them with promises of employment and a higher standard of living... Not surprisingly, the exertions of the RSS band bore fruit and four years ago, a sizeable number of Mus-lims, as many as 12 each from the villages of Allahpur and Sujjan alone, took to Hin-duism. The report goes on to add that the ruling

BJP, too, had a hand in these conversions, and that;

...it (the BJP) has begun to take direct in-terest in the operation. On October 18, a party delegation led by two MPs from Hathras, Dr L B Rawal and Mr Suresh Anand, participated in a shastra pujan ('worship-ping of weapons') ceremony at Sujjan. The ceremony was organised by the Saraswati Shishu Mandir, a school run by the RSS-sponsored Vidya Bharati mission. At the ceremony, the MPs, according to eyewit-ness accounts, gave impassioned speeches extolling the virtues of the kshatriya (rajputs) and stressed that the adoption of the kshatriya dharma was the only path to salvation.

Since Sujjan is an overwhelmingly Muslim village, the purpose of the visit by the BJP's MPs, according to the report, "could only have been to secure more conversions".46

The dramatic rise in recent years of the BJP in Indian politics has ominous portents for the future of the Indian Muslims. It is likely that if this party were to come to power at the centre, efforts to convert the Muslims to Hinduism would receive a tremendous im-petus. After all, the late M S Golwalkar, the head of the RSS of which the BJP is the political wing, had declared that the Indian Muslims must,

... either adopt the Hindu culture and lan-guage, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i e, of the Hindu nation, and must lose their separate exist-ence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treat-mentnot even citizen's rights49

CONCLUSION

The Hindu missionary enterprise seems more of a politically-inspired movement rather than a purely religious undertaking. In all the cases of the mass conversions of Muslims to Hinduism the central trust has been on theirde-Islamisation rather than on their accepting, in any real sense, the Hindu religion. This is not merely due to the ab-sence of a set of fundamental tenets in Hinduism, but primarily because the Arya Samaj and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad missionaries seem more concerned with weaning Muslims away from Islam than with the spiritual instruction and development of their converts.

2218 Economic and Political Weekly August 20, 1994

Muslim castes which have been particu-larly vulnerable to Hindu missionary efforts have several features in common. They are generally only nominally Muslim and still retain many Hindu customs and beliefs. Most of the mass conversions haveoccurred among Muslim rajput groups. The malkanas, cheeta merats, Maul-e-Salaam girasiyas and the meos are all of rajput origin, and the mula jats, too, claim kshatriya ancestry. In con-verting to Hinduism many rajput Muslims were perhaps attracted by the promises given to them of their being restored the 'upper' caste privileges due to them as descendants of members of the rajput kshatriya com-munity.

The Hindu missionaries, too, seem to have exhibited an inordinate interest in converting the socially dominant and powerful Muslim rajputs, since the entire shuddhi movement was largely undertaken to bolster the for-tunes of the entrenched Hindu 'higher' castes. On the other hand, there have been few instances of mass conversions to Hinduism among the 'lower' Muslim castes, who form the majority of the Indian Muslim popula-tion. This is perhaps due to the fact that the Hindu missionary outfits, being upholders of the brahminical caste order, have not shown great concern for the spiritual salva-tion and the social upliftment of the lower castes. Further, since the Hindu missionary organisations promise to rehabilitate Mus-lim converts into the caste to which their Hindu ancestors originally belonged, few 'low' caste Muslims would be willing to enter the Hindu fold since that would mean being once again accommodated at the lower rungs of the caste system as untouchables and shudras.50

It is also worth noting that these mass conversions have mostly occurred in the backward regions of northern India where feudalism is still largely intact and where brahminism has not been challenged by assertive 'lower castes as elsewhere. In regions such as southern India, where Muslims are fairly well-educated and where 'upper' caste Hindu communalism has been, to a great extent, countered by low caste anti-brahminical militancy, few conversions to Hinduism among Muslims have been report-ed. There have, in fact, been no instances of any major mass conversions of Muslims outside the orthodox brahminical heartland of northern India.

N o t e s

1 J F Seunarine, Reconversion to Hinduism through Suddhi Madras, Christian Literature Society, 1977. See pp 100-105 for a detailed description of the actual conversion cere-mony.

2 Robert Eric Frykcnburg, 'Fundamentalism and Revivalism in South Asia' in James Warner Bjorkman (ed), Fundamentalism, Revivalists and Violence in South Asia, New Delhi, Manohar, 1988, p 39.

3 A leading Hindu Punjabi leader, Lala Lajpat Rai, writing in The Tribune of Lahore on December 13, 1924, stated that, "The Prin-ciple of Shuddhi has now been accepted by the Hindu Sabha, and I am free to confess that the idea at the back of this decision is

partly political partly communal and partly humanitarian"

4 See Rajeshwar, Paravartan Kyo aur Kaise7 (Hindi) ('Conversion: Why and How?'), New Delhi, Suruchi Prakashan. 1992. The author is the former head of the south Delhi unit of the RSS and served for many years as the president of the Delhi wing of the VHP. The book is an account of shuddhi by one who claims to have performed many conversions of non-Hindus.

5 See JTF Jordens, 'Reconversion to Hindu-ism: The Shuddhi of the Arya Samaj' in GA Oddie (ed), Religion in South Asia, New Delhi, Manohar, 1977 for a detailed treatment of the issue.

6 Shriman Mehta Ramachandra Ji Shastri, Patiton Ki Shuddhi Sanatan Hat {'Shuddhi of the Backward Classes is Ancient') Lahore, Arya Pradeshtk Pratinidhi Sabha, 1908, p 76.

7 See Seunarine, op cit, pp 29-31 8 Kenneth W Jones, Arya Dharm Hindu Con-

sciousness in Nineteenth Centur)' Punjab, New Delhi, Manohar, 1972, p 131.

9 Jordens, op at. p 147. 10 Ibid, p 152. 11 Jordens observes that, "In the extant reports

there is a noticeable absence of any reference to the religious instruction of converts, shuddhi was not a rite that presupposed an inner religious conversion reinforced by instruc-tion to foster a new interior life. It was a rite of access... A change in the individual's (neo-Hindu's) religious life is not a question pri-marily of inner conversion, hut rather the acquisition of the right of entry into the manifold sects, panths. orders and sabhas and the right of access to the very heart of ortho-doxythe Vedas and the Vedic rites," (op cit, P 154)

12 Quoted in Rajeshwar, op cit, p ix 13 Mushirul Hasan, Nationalism and Communal

Politics in India 1885-1930, New Delhi, Manohar, 1991, p 21 Of.

14 Jordens, op ( it, p 158 15 Horst Kruger (ed), Kunwar Mohammad

Ashraf An Indian Scholar and Revolu tionarv, Akademie-Verlag Berlin, Berlin. 1966, p 350,

16 M Hasan, op cit. p 237 17 Jones, op cit, p 131. 18 M Hasan, op at. p 210. 19 Seunarine, op cit, p 37 20 Ibid, p 37. 21 Quoted in Seunarine, op cit, p 37. 22 Prem Chowdhry, Punjab Politics- The Role

of Sir Chhotu Ram, New Delhi, Vikas, 1984, p 121.

23 Ibid, quoted on p 121. 24 Ibid, p 122f. 25 Ibid, p 121. 26 Ibid, p 122. 27 Ibid, quoted on p 122. 28 Shraddhananda Sanyasi, Hindu Sanghathiin,

Kurukshetra Gurukula, Kurukshetra, 1924, p 36.

29 W Crooke, The Tribes and Castes of the North Western Provinces and Oudh, Vol 1, Office of the Superintendent of the Govern-

ment Printing Press, Calcutta, 1896, p 267. 30 ShyamLal, 'Sanskritisationand Social Change

among the Bhangis in Jodhpur' in Indian Journal of Social Work, Vol 34, No 1, 1973, p 39.

31 ShyamLal, \Social Reform Movement among the Bhangis of Western Rajasthan' in Eastern Anthropologist, Vol 32, No 2, 1979, p 101

32 See Partap C Aggarwal, 'The Meos of Rajasthan and Haryana' in Imtiaz Ahmed (ed), Caste and Social Stratification among the Muslims, New Delhi, Manohar, 1973. p 25 for an account of forced conversions and killings of meo rajput Muslims by Hindus and royal authorities in the princely states of Bharatpur and Alwar in 1947.

33 Deryck O, Lodrick, 'A Cattle Fair in Rajasthan' in Current Anthropology, Vol 25, No 2, April 1984, p 221.

34 Ibid, p 221. 35 V K Vashishtha, 'Arya Samaj Movement in

Rajasthan during the 19th Century' in S C Malik (ed). Dissent, Protest and Reform in Indian Civilisation, Indian Institute of Ad-vanced Study. Simla, 1977, pp 229-30.

36 Lodrick, op cit, p 221. 37 Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi, 'The Story of

Muslim Conversions in Rajasthan' in Radi-ance, September 20-26, 1992, p 7.

38 Ibid, p 7. 39 Ibid, quoted on p 6. 40 Ibid, p 6. 41 Ibid, p 7. 42 Sreekant Khandekar, Rajasthan: Conversion

Convulsions', India Today, June 30, 1986, p 143.

43 Ibid, p 143 44 Quoted from a letter dated December 29,

1983 from the Home Ministry of the Govern-ment of India to Syed Shahabuddin, MP, Muslim India, Vol II, No 14, February 1984, p 55

45 India Today, February 28, 1993, p 100. 46 Ibid, The India Today report quotes a certain

Abdul Rashid Mir, now Prakashbhai, a scooter mechanic of Ahmedabad, who ex-plained his conversion to Hinduism by say-ing, "We want our sons to be secure in the future "

47 Ibid, p 100. 48 Vidya Subrahmaniam, 'Muslims in Western

UPSpectre of Conversions Haunts a Mi-nority', The Statesman, New Delhi, April 10, 1992.

49 M S Golwalkar, We, or Our Nationhood Defined, Bharat Publications. Nagpur, 1939, pp 47-48.

50 As for those Muslim converts to Hinduism who were not aware of the caste of their Hindu ancestors, the Hindu Mahasabha, the leading orthodox Hindupolitical organisation, proposed that a new Varna or broad caste category, in addition to the existing four varnas be created to accommodate them. Thus N C Chatteijee, delivering the presiden-tial address at the Hindu Mahasabha's 30th general session at Bhopal on December 28, 1952 asserted that, "We should not neglect Shuddhi and Sangathan (Hindu unity) and we should declare all converts to Hinduism who cannot be fitted into their old families as belonging to the Mahasava Varna" (see N C Chatterjee, Presidential Address, All India Hindu Mahasabha, New Delhi, 1952, p 19)-

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