250 Dalit families denied entry into TN temple, want to convert to Islam

Chennai: 250 Hindu Dalit families from two Tamil Nadu villages, Pazhangkallimedu and Nagapalli, are planning to convert to Islam.

The reason? During the five-day annual temple festival, the Dalits were denied entry into the temple, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Six Dalit Hindus from the village have already embraced Islam, the report says.

The coastal village of Pazhangkallimedu has about 400 families, 180 of them Dalits. According to the report, residents said volunteers of the Tamil Nadu Towheed Jamaat (TNTJ) distributed copies of the Quran in the village, while a Christian missionary also approached them.

Meanwhile, leaders of outfits such as the Hindu Munnani and the Hindu Makkal Katchi have appealed to the Dalits not to convert and are attempting to mediate in the dispute.

Senthil Kumar, a leader of the Dalit party, VCK, has alleged that the administration and the police failed to ensure worship rights for them in Bhadra Kaliamman temple.

A senior police officer said to The Indian Express that talks are on to end the stalemate. He added that while discussions were on to allow Dalits to conduct puja during the day, but they insisted on temple access for the full 24 hours.

A similar story has emerged from Nagapalli village in Karur, 240 kilometres away, where 70 Dalit families are planning to convert to Islam. P Vetrivel, president of the temple trust in the village, said to The Indian Express that his father built the structure seven years ago, but after caste Hindus returned from Sri Lanka to the village, they began to deny entry to the Dalits.

Sri Mahasakthi Mariamman temple was built in 2009 by Dalits with a fund from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Tamil Nadu government. A trust with a Dalit majority runs the temple. “Now they want to conduct festivals without Dalits,” Vetrivel was quoted as saying.

According to ANI, several Dalit families have also returned their Voter IDs and Aadhaar cards in protest.

The office of the Karur district collector said they will hold a peace meeting in two days between caste Hindus and Dalits.

The last religious conversion on such a scale in Tamil Nadu happened in the early 1980s, when 800 Dalits converted to Islam at Meenakshipuram village near Tirunelveli.