By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mumbai: Terming it as actual ‘ghar wapsi’, Maharashtra-based social organisation ‘Satyashodhak OBC Parishad’ has planned for mass conversion into Buddhism. This mass conversion to Buddhism is planned in October 2016 at Nagpur.
On the lines of Hindu radical outfits’ religious conversion of Muslims and Christians under the disguise of ‘ghar wapsi’ back into Hinduism, the OBC organization has now decided to run similar mass conversion of about five lakh OBCs to Buddhism.
(Courtesy: krisarun.blogspot.com)
Claiming that OBCs to have their real roots with Buddhism, the Satyashodhak OBC Parishad has said it plans to convert over a thousand families belonging to OBCs to Buddhism early next year. “When we tried to find out our roots, it became clear that we are ‘nagvanshi’. It proves that the OBCs were originally Buddhists. We have decided to return to our home. This is not conversion. This is the real ghar vapsi,” said Satyashodhak OBC Parishad activist Hanumant Upare.
The organisation claims hundreds of Maratha families and some Brahmin families have also agreed to participate in the conversion, taking the total count to about 6,500 individuals.
“Before we began the movement of ‘ghar wapsi’ among OBCs, we tried to find out their origin. We found that OBCs were actually Buddhist. So, this movement is an attempt to bring them back into their original religion. This is not conversion but ‘ghar wapsi’,” said Upare.
The latest Buddhism conversion issue is also interesting because of the fact that the conversion is going to be organized by the OBC organization in the very city of RSS headquarter – Nagpur. “We will conduct the mass conversion at Nagpur in October 2016,” Upare informed. Incidentally, it was at Nagpur in October 1956 that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar converted to Buddhism with thousands of his followers.
Alleging that upper caste Hindus are responsible for the struggles and poverty faced by the OBCs, Upare said, “The caste system in Hinduism is responsible for the backwardness of the OBCs. They have always been opposed to development as they want the caste system to remain intact, so that the OBCs can be exploited. There is no respect for OBCs in Hinduism.”
“In 1931, a census of OBCs was conducted by the Britishers. No other census was conducted just for the OBCs in the later days, despite a promise of carrying out a survey in 2010. That’s why the OBCs feel cheated,” he further alleged.
“We have been demanding that OBCs must be given their rights. They have been following all the practices of Hindu religion, yet the religious leaders have never accepted them wholeheartedly,” he complained.
He clarified that the mass conversion into Buddhism is not in response to Hindu outfits’ conversion conferences but that they have been working on this since last three years. “We have been working on this campaign since October 14, 2011. Today we have a list of 1,677 families, which are part of the Hindu religion and belong to various castes right from OBCs, Marathas to Brahmins, who have agreed to convert to Buddhism.”
While this is happening under the nook of BJP-SS government in the state, both the parties have reacted cautiously. BJP’s Maharashtra spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told Economic Times, “We will oppose it if conversion is happening through threats or things like ‘love jihad’.”
Similar statements were issued from the Shiv Sena. Its leader Ramdas Kadam said, “If there is any sign that this is being done by tempting the people or scaring them, then we will not let it happen.”
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