Conversion to Islam: Untouchables' Strategy for Protest in India By Abdul Malik Mujahid. Chambersburg, PA: Anima Books, 1989

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 ...