India: Commission set up to investigate affirmative action rights for Dalit Christians and Muslims

Religious nationalism India | 03 November 2022

Whereas affirmative action protection rights were granted to Sikh converts in 1956 and Buddhist converts in 1990, Dalit converts to Islam and the Christian faith have been deliberately left out. This Commission could change that.

As reported by the Christian Post on 15 October 2022, a petition was filed 18 years ago by the Center for Public Interest Litigation seeking to challenge the Presidential Order of 1950 which grants special rights to Dalit Hindus but not to Dalits who convert to Christianity or Islam. Since January 2020, the Supreme Court has been hearing a petition to make this special status "religion neutral." Now in October 2022, the government has decided to set up a three-member Commission of Enquiry with the task of reporting on this issue in two years’ time.

World Watch Research analyst Rolf Zeegers comments: “Around 16.6% of India’s population are made up of Dalits, and a large percentage of these are converts to Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam and Christianity. Whereas affirmative action protection rights were granted to Sikh converts in 1956 and Buddhist converts in 1990, Dalit converts to Islam and the Christian faith have been deliberately left out. They thus lack legal employment reservation in government, parliament, state assemblies and educational institutions. Although it is good that the government is at last seriously investigating the situation for Dalit Christians and Muslims, many observers are upset that the Commission has been given two-year deadline and regard this as a delaying tactic. However, if at the end of two years the decision is made that affirmative action should be granted to the millions of Dalit Christians, maybe the waiting will have been worth it.”