On December 26, 2004, a 100-foot-high tsunami killed over 230,000 people, many of them in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The tsunami was triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake under the Indian Ocean. So many people died because, back then, India did not have an early warning system. Mighty tsunamis tend to travel under the water surface . . . until they hit the shore. On September 2, 2023, in Chennai, Mr. Udayanidhi Stalin, triggered a massive socio-religious-political earthquake. It has started a different tsunami. It will churn the electoral waters until the General Election’s results come out. Then its impact will be felt everywhere for a long time to come. Udayanidhi, a film-maker/actor turned Minister in Tamil Nadu, was delivering a carefully crafted written-speech at a ‘Sanatana Abolition Conference’ in Chennai. He, the son of the current Chief Minister M. K. Stalin and the grandson of a former Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, said, “Sanatan Dharma [i.e. Hinduism] is a principle that divides people in the name of caste and religion. Certain things like Malaria, Dengue and Corona need to be eradicated, not merely opposed. Likewise, Sanatana should also be eradicated.” How do you eradicate a religion? Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the architect of modern India’s Constitution (1950), echoed the missionary’s view that CONVERSION, that is, acceptance of Truth is the only way to eradicate false and harmful beliefs. English speakers may not realize that “low”-caste Hindi YouTubers are ecstatic about Udayanidhi’s statement. He has become a voice of the voiceless. In the 1980s, my former boss Kanshiram, the founder of the BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party), popularized the (missionary-Phule-Ambedkar) idea that education, organization and politics were important for uplifting the lower castes. However, CONVERSION, Ambedkar said was the only remedy for Hinduism’s victims — the “low-castes”. BSP’s top leadership no longer advocates “conversion.” That has frustrated second-tier lower-caste leaders. BSP’s compromise with the BJP has allowed Udayanidhi to become their national spokesman. His timing is perfect: (a) During the previous month (August ’23), Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister went out of his way to woo Backward Caste youth. Hundreds of thousands of them walk for weeks to carry river Ganga’s “holy” waters on their shoulders. En route they infuriate ordinary citizens in many rude ways. Instead of guiding and controlling them, Yogi Adityanath showered on them flower petals from his helicopter and ordered the state machinery to honor their “religious” enthusiasm. Backward Caste leaders realized that the Yogi was recruiting OBC youth to his private militia. They will serve his Fascist interests and persecute Muslims and Christians. This forced thoughtful lower caste leaders and YouTubers to launch a counter offensive against a mean-spirited misuse of religious sentiment. Yogi’s blatant abuse of religion has compelled North India’s Backward Caste leaders to target his religion itself. Whenever a corrupt and brutal political dictator uses religion as his principle selling strategy, his opponents are left with little choice but to undermine his main weapon – religion. Muslims are learning this lesson in Iran as tens of thousands are quitting Islam. (b) BJP’s political opponent will have to respond to its abuse of religion because it plans to use the new Ram Mandir in Ayodhya for its electoral gain. It can respond with “Soft Hinduism” but that is a failed option. ‘Oppose Hinduism’ is an alternative strategy being advocated by Udayanidhi. The support for this is gathering momentum. growing . . . In public, politicians such as Rahul Gandhi will (rightly) counter BJP’s appeal to religion with economic issues such as poverty, unemployment, corruption and inflation. Mr. Udayanidhi’s offensive against Sanatan Dharma is, in part, an attempt to pre-empt the BJP’s effort to make an inroad in Tamil Nadu through emerging Hindu leaders such as Mr. K. Annamalai. It is also an attempt to cover up his party’s failures, inefficiencies and corruption. Nevertheless, a tsunami remains a tsunami, whether you like or dislike it. Here are a few important points to consider: 1. True conversion is NOT an outward change of religion. It is an inner spiritual transformation. It makes a rebellious sinner God’s loving, obedient child. 2. Nevertheless, Conversion has social aspects. In Iran it means quitting Islam. In India, it includes quitting Hinduism to join another religious or non-religious group. The Dravidian movement that invited Udayanidhi to speak on Abolishing the Sanatan religion, began as a rationalistic/atheistic effort with Periyar E. V. Ramasami. However, Udayanidhi’s family and party (DMK) rejected Periyar’s Atheism in favor of Theism. Buddhism does not appeal to a people looking for god – any god, other than a Hindu god. This makes Christianity the most available alternative in Tamil Nadu. 3. In North India, including in Maharashtra, Dr. Ambedkar made Neo-Buddhism a viable alternative to Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. However, the political dynamics of the previous seven decades have made Ambedkar’s Buddhism a religion, primarily of the Scheduled Castes (Dalits/SCs). That makes Buddhism unappealing to the OBCs (Other Backward Castes) who are presumed to be approximately 52% of India. 4. North India’s most explosive social reality is “intellectual” – change of paradigm. For a century or so, upper caste leaders such as Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and the lower caste opinion makers such as Ram Manohar Lohia looked at Indian society through Western academic lenses. They taught the OBC leaders such as Mulayam Singh and Lalu Yadav that the lower caste shudras were poor because of Capitalism. Current lower caste leaders no longer believe that paradigm. They understand that NOT Capitalism, but Hinduism made them “low” and “backward”. This makes Conversion necessary, along with discarding Nehru’s socialism and Modi’s Hindu capitalism. 5. How will Rahul Gandhi (or Arvind Kejriwal) respond to the tsunami triggered by Udhayanidhi? That, indeed, is an important question. Beginning with his great-grand father Nehru, grandmother Indira Gandhi, and father Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul’s party was controlled by the Brahmins. That is why the Congress ruled states enacted the first anti-conversion laws. That misguided “Soft Hinduism” did not prevent conversions. It cost Congress Party the support of Muslims, Dalits and OBC because it began to be dismissed as Brahminism’s
