Opening the safety valve

International | India allows "untouchables" protest, but the "cute little event" tells much about religious freedom in the world's largest democracy | Mindy Belz

They came lugging bloated legs and displaying open sores. They came hungry, carrying dirty sacks full of all their worldly goods. India's lower caste "untouchables" hobbled from public transportation into a New Delhi stadium on Nov. 4 for a day of public empowerment. They came to convert en masse to Buddhism as a protest against decades of discrimination at the hands of the country's ruling Hindu elites.

Between 50,000 and 100,000 Dalits, the political term for lower-caste Hindus, arrived from all over the country at Ambedkar Bhavan, a walled and cramped public meeting place named for a Dalit forefather who led the conversion of half a million Dalits to Buddhism in 1956.

Ignoring the day's sweltering heat and threats from police, the poor arrived from across the country, many with heads already shaved in the tonsured style of Buddhist monks. Then, in unified, solemn gestures, they took 22 vows before a bronze Buddha. If India's constitution cannot protect them from indignity, their actions said, perhaps conversion to a new religion will.