Dalit Christians, Muslims urge govt to delink religion, caste

Dalit Christians and Muslims who met last week in Andhra Pradesh urged the government to delink religion and positively respond to the fight of Dalits to gain Scheduled Caste status.

The meeting which was held in Osmania University Centre for International Programmes (OUCIP) demanded the government to grant them privileges of representation in the legislatures, legal protection and all reservations given to the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Dalits.

They urged the central government to table Justice Ranganath Commission's Report in the Parliament and put an end to 57 years of injustice done to the Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians.

“Justice Ranganath Misra Commission for Linguistic and Religious Minorities in its findings submitted to the Govt. of India in May 2007, reportedly, has strongly recommended to the government to delink religion from caste net and grant equal rights to all Dalits irrespective of religion,” said Fr XJ Bosco SJ, Secretary, SC, ST & BC Commission APBC and coordinator UFDCR–United Front for Dalit Christian Rights.

Rev Marampudi Joji, Archbishop of Hyderabad, Potturi Venkateswara Rao, Senior Editor, Janab MM Khan, President, Jamatae– Islami Hind AP and Orissa and Prof Kancha Ilaiah, were among those who addressed the round table conference said ICNS.

It further quoted Prof Kancha IIaiah saying, "Religion and nation are not the same, and we must delink nation from religion and respect the freedom of every citizen irrespective of religion."

The issue goes back to a 1950 presidential decree which established in law the principle of affirmative action for the Scheduled Castes in the fields of education and public employment. Originally, it included only Hindus but was eventually extended to Sikhs and Buddhists.

However, it left out Christian and Muslim Dalits.