The Question of Dalit Conversion in the 1930s

In June 1936, the Hindu Mahasabha leader B. S. Moonje and the Dalit leader and trenchant critic of Hinduism Dr B. R. Ambedkar jointly proposed mass conversions of the ‘untouchables’ to Sikhism. According to Ambedkar, if the untouchables converted to Sikhism, they would leave the Hindu religion but not Hindu culture. The untouchable converts to Sikhism would escape caste oppression without getting ‘denationalized’. This initiative provoked a major controversy, and leaders as diverse as M. M. Malaviya, Mahatma Gandhi, M. C. Rajah and P. N. Rajabhoj expressed their views on the subject. This article explores what Ambedkar meant by expressions like ‘de-nationalization’ and ‘Hindu culture’. Malaviya’s anxieties about the weakening of the Hindu community because of this initiative, Rajah’s fear that mass conversions could lead to a Sikh–Hindu–Muslim problem at a national level, Gandhi’s emphasis on spiritual values and the voluntary removal of untouchability in a spirit of repentance, and Tagore’s universalist and humanist attitude towards religion are explored. The complex political and intellectual responses of Hindu and Dalit leaders to the proposed mass conversions to Sikhism in the mid-1930s reveal dimensions not often considered in mainstream narratives about Hindu nationalism or Dalit conversions.