Udit Raj
Udit Raj (born Ram Raj 1st January 1958, Ramnagar, Uttar Pradesh) was born into a low caste Hindu family, and studied for BA at Allahabad University. He was selected for the Indian Revenue Service in 1988 and is serving as the Joint Commissioner of Income Tax at New Delhi. He is a prominent activist working on behalf of India's Dalits, also known as untouchables. After his conversion to Buddhism on November 4, 2001, he changed his name, following the tradition of Dalit intellectual and activist B. R. Ambedkar, who spearheaded the Indian Buddhist Movement. He is married to Seema Raj and they have two children Abhiraj and Saveri.
Among his more controversial activities are mass conversions away from Hinduism and making disparaging statements against the religion.
Activism
He formed Indian Justice Party, The All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations on 2 October 1997 and in 1996 founded the Lord Buddha Club.
He is a strong advocate of increased Reservation in India for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. He has dismissed arguments against this form of positive discrimination as "baseless"[1]. Raj has formed partnerships with Christian organizations including the Indian Social Institute and the All India Christian Council. Raj has worked with prominent Christian leaders such as John Dayal and Ambrose Pinto and with Muslim leaders such as Maulana Mahmood Madani, general secretary of the Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Hind.
Controversies
Mass Conversions
On October 27, 2002 Udit Raj organized a controversial conversion ceremony in which thousands of Dalits 'converted' to Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. He has organized other conversion events including one at Chennai on December 6, 2002. These conversion activities have been criticized by some journalists as "deceptive","violent" and a "exercise in self-promotion" on the part of Udit Raj [2]. Giriraj Kishore, senior vice president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has quoted:
The only purpose of the rally is to establish Ram Raj politically, but he will not be able to gain political mileage. The BJP vote bank is not threatened by this political drama[2].
In particular, when he mocked Hindu deities during his conversion speech, as a gesture of how he did not appreciate the religion, his audience was not amused and reacted with hostility. Raj has worked with Christian groups to proselytize Christianity and convert away from Hinduism. Sometimes these prosetylizations are considered illegitimate. His claims of Dalits yearning to convert to other religions have also been criticized as "tenuous at best"[2].
He has organized other conversion events including one at Chennai on December 6, 2002. These conversion ceremonies aroused the ire of Hindu nationalist groups - like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad [2]. Hindu leaders such as Praveen Togadia have accused Raj of being in the payroll of Christian missionaries and inciting communal violence by deceptively converting Hindus into Christianity. Raj has replied, accusing of Togadia and other Hindu Nationalists fomenting violence against Dalits[3]. He reiterated:
The Jhajjar conversions were a direct reaction to the lynching of Dalits in the region and the confederation will wage a concerted battle against the forces of communalism, especially the VHP.
Organizations like the Hindu American Foundation hold the view that, though casteism arose from the malpractice of Hinduism, the prevalence of caste discrimination among other religious communities shows that this practice is not rooted in religion but rather a complex dynamic of political, social and cultural interests, and calls for Dalits to "renounce their faith" are unhelpful[4].
Allegations of anti-Hindu views
Raj has been accused by several Hindu groups such as the Hindu American Foundation for having anti-Hindu views and sentiments[4]. He has been accused of being part of the missionary agenda to foment social unrest in India by turning segments of the population against Hindus. His views on conversion, which include the belief that conversion to Christianity or Islam will alleviate Dalits from poverty and social injustice, have been criticized by Hindu organizations. Regarding Hinduism he has written: "For a Hindu priest, a leper, a beggar and a widow are hateful objects who need to be punished because of the “curse of their past life”. (from a letter posted on Bahujan group, Feb 9, 2004).
However, some minority Hindu groups claiming to be "reformists", such as those led by Swami Agnivesh, have expressed approval of the mass conversions, claiming that they are "an urgent and necessary cry for social justice"[5].