WHY THE HARIJAN CONVERT TO ISLAM VIEWS RESERVATIONS WITH RESERVATION

The Indian constitution makes provision for protective discrimi-nation (also termed ’positive discrimination’, or, more usually, ’reservations’) in favour of communities in the lower positions of the Hindu caste system. Although this has facilitated the economic advancement of some members of untouchable castes, these communities as a class still face major discrimination in every-day social interaction. Consequently, some sections of the un-touchables have chosen to leave the Hindu caste system altogether by accepting religious conversion, even though this entails loss of their eligibility for the quotas of places in educational est-ablishments and in public service employment reserved for untouch-ables under the constitution. This article will focus on one example of this phenomenon: the mass conversion to Islam of the untouchable community of the village of Meenakshipuram in South India