A BJP spokesperson’s statement (“ >Dalits were upper castes: BJP leader ,” Oct.29), when he said that Dalits were Brahmins and Kshatriyas who refused to embrace Islam, comes across as a joke as it involves the deliberate falsification of history. Will the same assumption, invented perhaps to win the support of the Dalits, make inter-caste marriages easier? It is puerile to say that the practice of caste post-dated the advent of Islam in India. Ancient Hindu scriptures sanctify the division of man from man on the basis of birth. It would be futile to attempt to de-link caste from Hinduism. The practice of untouchability is predicated on the notions of ‘purity and pollution’ and ‘superiority and inferiority’, enshrined in the Hindu religious texts. To associate caste with Islam makes no sense since it is one religion that does not discriminate on the grounds of descent — a reason why it has attracted many victims of caste oppression.
G. David Milton,
Maruthancode
