1981 Meenakshipuram conversion
Mass conversion of Hindus to Islam in India
The 1981 Meenakshipuram Conversion was a mass religious conversion that took place in the Indian village of Meenakshipuram, Tamil Nadu, in which hundreds of oppressed caste Hindus converted to Islam. This incident sparked debate over freedom of religion in India and the government decided to introduce anti-conversion legislation. Later, many converts converted back to Hinduism, citing the lack of fulfillment of promises made during the conversions.
Conversion
Meenakshipuram is a village in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, India. The scheduled caste members in the village were segregated by the other castes, who referred to them as untouchables on the basis of the Indian caste system. The district had a long history of caste-related violence. They embraced Islam, tired of upper caste atrocities, mostly by the landed OBC Thevar community in the village. The scheduled caste members, who belonging to the Pallar community, had historically tussled with the majority Maravar community. The Pallars were considered untouchable by the majority community. They were predominantly employed as farm labour and their income and education was lower.
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This entry incorporates text from “1981 Meenakshipuram conversion” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.