JOIN USThere are many reasons for the decision taken by the victims of the Una flogging and their family members, who are Dalits, to convert to Buddhism. One is the failure of the Gujarat government to make good the promises it made to them after the incident attracted national attention. The cases against those who paraded and flogged them in public for skinning a dead cow is dragging on without a sign of progress. The incident took place in July 2016 and the victims, and the nation, were promised that the case would be fast-tracked in a special court and the accused would be brought to justice in 60 days. No special court was set up. The 20 people who were arrested then are roaming free now, and the victims and their family members are living in fear. They continue to face oppression and discrimination because they are Dalits and their occupation is skinning dead animals.
Dalits have converted to Buddhism in the past, too, in protest against the caste system that oppressed and marginalised them. Those like the Una victims are considered the lowest even among Dalits because of their profession. Many Dalits renounce Hinduism because they lose hope of being treated as equal members of society. Even Babasaheb Ambedkar embraced Buddhism in the final days of his life because he was convinced that Hindu society would never be able to eradicate the caste system. There was a three-fold increase in the number of Dalits who converted to Buddhism in Gujarat within a year of the Una incident. The conversions are not confined to Gujarat. The mother and brother of Rohith Vemula, the Dalit student of Hyderabad University who committed suicide in 2016, too, converted to Buddhism. There have been regular reports of such conversions from other parts of the country. Uttar Pradesh leader Mayawati has threatened that Dalits would convert en masse if atrocities against them continued. Even Union minister Ramdas Athavale recently called upon Dalits to renounce Hinduism and convert to Buddhism.
While the Una victims have not got justice, cow vigilantism has gone from strength to strength. The BJP and Prime Minister Modi claim to venerate Ambedkar but the Dalit situation has hardly improved. In fact, there is a deterioration in it as the incidents at Una and elsewhere show. The Sangh Parivar keeps complaining that Hindus are persecuted and are being reduced to a minority in the country. While it makes this wild claim, Dalit Hindu families are voting with their feet against the religion. The least the government can do is to ensure that the Una culprits, and those in such cases, are brought to justice.