| Newsgroups |
gmane.culture.region.india.goa |
| Message-ID |
<mailman.3182.1774860476.388432.goanet-goanet.org@lists.goanet.org> |
Send Goanet mailing list submissions to
[email protected]
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
[email protected]
You can reach the person managing the list at
[email protected]
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Goanet digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Schedule for Monday 30th March 2026 (CCR TV)
2. Read: "Rewarding reconversion?" (Vivek Pinto)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2026 21:00:00 +0530
From: CCR TV <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Goanet] Schedule for Monday 30th March 2026
Message-ID:
<CA+1QXA7o2Tv=xw2_Tn_kW+RSR9w=__o6adZ129jdpA2gntCXRA-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
CCR TV GOA
Channel of God's love
You can also watch CCR TV Live 24X7 on YouTube.
Click the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/@CCRTV
Email ID: [email protected]
Schedule for Monday 30th March 2026
12:00 AM
Rosary - Joyful Mysteries
12:23 AM
The Holy Eucharist - Talk By Msgr. Alex Rebello
1:00 AM
Mass in Konkani
2:00 AM
Saibinnichi Ruzai - Sontosache Mister
2:22 AM
Discernment - Talk by Sr Elsis Mathew MSMI
3:18 AM
Sons and Daughters of God - Savio Mascarenhas
4:00 AM
Tujem Raj amka ieum - Fr.Jeronimo D'Silva
5:02 AM
Share the Good News - Fr Fernando da Costa
5:51 AM
Breaking Barriers through Dialogue - Sex eduction in schools - by Jovito
6:40 AM
Obedience to God - Talk by Severina Fernandes
7:00 AM
Praise and Worship - Magno Menezes - SJVRC
7:30 AM
Bhajans 1
8:00 AM
Devachem Utor - Dusri Somurt - Avesvor 33 - Vachpi Orlando D'Souza
8:10 AM
Talk - Standing up for the Truth - Alfwold SIlveira
8:37 AM
Magnnem, Upas, Dhorm Dan - Anthony D'Souza
9:16 AM
Beatitudes 5 and 6 - Kirona Noronha
9:38 AM
Power of Priestly Consecration - Bishop Francis Kalist
10:35 AM
Breaking Barriers Through Dialogue - Road Safety : Hosted by Jovito Lopes
11:20 AM
Hymn - Mhojea Deva Tum Sorv- Fr Seville Antao OFM(Cap)
11:22 AM
Angelus - English
11:24 AM
Intercessions
11:30 AM
Mass in English
12:15 PM
Daily Flash / Jivitacho Prokas
12:18 PM
Lenten Journey - Day 36 - Shirley Gonsalves
12:26 PM
Ask Dr Sweezel - Should I use a Pillow ?
12:30 PM
Badminton in Goa
1:00 PM
Creative Strokes - Yolanda De Souza
1:28 PM
Phishing in Troubled Waters -Matrimony Fraud - PI Vidyanand Pawar
interviewed by Daniel F. De Souza
2:00 PM
Documentary - Wages of Tears
2:40 PM
Entrepreneur - Agostinho Fernandes interviewed by Basil D'Cunha
3:00 PM
Divine Mercy Chaplet
3:08 PM
Abundant Life - Are we capabe teachers? - Prof Nicholas D'Souza
3:49 PM
Bhagiancher Niyall III - Br Malvino Alfonso ocd
4:00 PM
Rosary - Joyful Mysteries
4:23 PM
Prayer - Memorare - Read by Prof. Nicholas D'Souza
4:26 PM
De-Coding the Holy Week - Monday
4:30 PM
Senior Citizens Exercises - 11
5:00 PM
Goal Post - A conversation with Madhav Netravalkar - Alaric Gomes
5:46 PM
The Golden Brigade - Sr Inez Fernandes
6:00 PM
Mass in Konkani
6:45 PM
Temptation - Talk by Fr Socorro Mendes
7:28 PM
Hymn - Sonvsar sompo poriat - Fr Seville Antao OFM(Cap)
7:30 PM
Saibinnichi Ruzai - Sontosache Mister
7:52 PM
Prayer - Ugdas Kor (Memorare) - Read by Prof. Nicholas D'Souza
7:54 PM
Aimorechen Magnnem
7:57 PM
Gaddie-Vahonan Vechea Vellar Bhagevont Zuze Vazache Mozotin Magnnem
8:00 PM
Tumchi Bolaiki Tumchea Hatant - Ep 30 - HPV & Cervical Cancer - Dr.
Wiseman, Dr. Nimish V. Pillai
8:46 PM
Devachem Utor - Dusri Somurt - Avesvor 34 - Vachpi Orlando D'Souza
8:50 PM
Life is Worth Living - Talk by Sr Sirisha Kota
9:00 PM
Adoration - Fr Aaron Magalhaes
9:48 PM
Concert - Pilar Academy - Are You there?
11:35 PM
Prophetic Intercession 1 - Cyril John
Donations may be made to:
Beneficiary name : CCR GOA MEDIA.
Name of Bank : ICICI Bank
Branch Name: Panaji Branch
RTGS/NEFT Code : ICIC0000015
Savings Bank Account No : 262401000183
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:35:16 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read: "Rewarding reconversion?"
Message-ID:
<CAH3OY9x_JY14Wa3xMFf5GJ9aB+y9iY1YVWwPWnk0QcbxPpxHgw-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
By: Ajaz Ashraf [Ajaz Ashraf is a senior journalist from Delhi and the
author of *Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste*]
Published in: *Frontline*
Date: March 30, 2026
Source:
https://frontline.thehindu.com/columns/supreme-court-sc-status-dalit-conversion-christians-muslims-reservation/article70799336.ece#:~:text=Leading%20the%20Debate,BACK%20TO%20TOP
How a 1950 order that stripped Christian and Muslim Dalits of Scheduled
Caste status has, through decades of Supreme Court rulings, become a
roadmap for ?Ghar Wapsi?.
Last week, the Supreme Court, in Chinthada Anand vs State of Andhra
Pradesh, reiterated what has been its default position for decades: the
status of Scheduled Caste is limited to the followers of Hinduism, Sikhism,
and Buddhism. Their conversion to Christianity and Islam eclipses their
Scheduled Caste identity, that is, they cease to be Scheduled Castes, but
the eclipse miraculously disappears on their reconversion to the original
faiths they or their ancestors belonged. They become Scheduled Castes all
over again.
The Supreme Court?s default position, willy-nilly, disincentivises Hindu,
Sikh, and Buddhist Scheduled Castes from converting to Christianity and
Islam. Their embracing of the two Semitic faiths deprives them of their
caste identity, and they, therefore, cannot avail the statutory state
entitlements granted to the Scheduled Castes, such as reservation in
government jobs and seats in educational institutions.
The disincentive to convert springs from the Constitution (Scheduled
Castes) Order of 1950, which the President of India issued to identify
castes for their categorisation as Scheduled Castes. Clause 3 of the 1950
order, however, said, ?No person who professes a religion different from
Hinduism shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.? The order
was, in 1956, amended to add Sikhism and then, in 1990, Buddhism to the
list of religions whose Dalit members were eligible for the Scheduled Caste
status. Only they can avail statutory entitlements linked to the Scheduled
Caste identity.
The argument behind excluding Christian and Muslim Dalits from the ambit of
the 1950 order was that Christianity and Islam do not theologically
recognise caste. But neither do Buddhism and Sikhism. Their inclusion
testifies to both the hypocrisy and injustice of denying the Scheduled
Caste status to the Dalits among Christians and Muslims. Umpteen studies
have shown that castes, in varying degrees, exist in all religions in
India. The 1950 order is palpably a disincentive for Hindu, Sikh, and
Buddhist Dalits to forsake their faiths?they simply stand to lose a lot in
doing so.
In contrast to disincentivising conversion from these three faiths, the
Supreme Court?s reading of the 1950 order provides incentives to Christian
and Muslim Dalits to return to the three faiths they or their ancestors
were born in. Their reconversion leads to them recovering their previous
Scheduled Caste status, and reclaiming the statutory entitlements linked to
that identity. The Supreme Court?s reading can be said to encourage
reconversion as Christian and Muslim Dalits have a lot to materially gain
in doing so.
Have judgments incentivised reconversion?
My contention is based on academic Padmanabh Samarendra?s magisterial study
of the Supreme Court?s judgments on cases emanating from the 1950 order.
Although the purpose of his study, Religion, Caste and Conversion,
published in the Economic and Political Weekly in 2016, was to track the
Supreme Court?s changing attitude to the linkage between caste and
religion, it incontrovertibly establishes that its judgments have
incentivised reconversion.
The first case Samarendra takes up is *S. Rajagopal vs C.M. Arumugam*. Both
Rajagopal and Arumugam were candidates in the Kolar Gold Field, a Scheduled
Caste reserved constituency, in the 1967 election to the then Mysore
Legislative Assembly. Rajagopal won. His victory was challenged on the
ground that he, an Adi Dravida, a Scheduled Caste community, had converted
to Christianity in 1949. With the conversion, the Scheduled Caste status of
Rajagopal, because of the 1950 order, was lost to him. He could not
therefore contest from Kolar. The Mysore High Court upheld Arumugam?s
argument.
Rajagopal went in appeal to the Supreme Court, contending that he had
indeed converted to Christianity, but by 1967, he had reconverted to
Hinduism and consequently recovered his Adi Dravida status. Samarendra
writes, ?This situation gave rise to two questions: could reconversion to
Hinduism automatically lead to a recovery of the membership of one?s caste;
if not, then, on what grounds would a recovery be possible?? The Supreme
Court said such a recovery was possible for Rajagopal only if the Adi
Dravida Hindu caste consented to his claim of being its member. Since he
had not provided evidence that he had been accepted into the Adi Dravida
fold, his appeal was rejected.
Rajagopal and Arumugam returned to contest from Kolar in the 1972 Assembly
election. Rajagopal?s nomination papers were rejected on the ground that
his Adi Dravida status, lost because of his conversion to Christianity, had
not been recovered on his reconversion to Hinduism. The Mysore High Court
set aside the election, saying Rajagopal had been wrongly disqualified as
he had indeed recovered the Adi Dravida Hindu status.
Arumugam went in appeal to the Supreme Court, which now said, ?If a person
who has embraced another religion can be reconverted to Hinduism, there is
no rational principle why he should not be able to come back to his caste.?
Since Rajagopal had given evidence of being readmitted into the Adi Dravida
Hindu fold, the Supreme Court rejected Arumugam?s petition. This judgment,
in effect, said the Scheduled Caste status of persons merely gets eclipsed
on their conversion to Christianity or Islam. The eclipse disappears on
their reconversion, qualifying them for benefits to which the Scheduled
Castes are statutorily entitled.
Rajagopal was, at least, born into the Adi Dravida Hindu caste, converted
to Christianity, and then returned to Hinduism to recover his Scheduled
Castes status. But the presumed precondition of being born into a Scheduled
Caste to reclaim this status was gradually dispensed with by the Supreme
Court.
Through a series of cases?for instance, *Guntur Medical College vs Y. Mohan
Rao*,* S. **Anbalangan** vs B. Devarajan, Kailash Sonkar vs Maya Devi*?the
Supreme Court said it wasn?t necessary for a person to be born in a
Scheduled Caste to reclaim this status on reconversion. Thus, children of
Schedule Caste members who embraced Christianity or Islam could claim the
original caste status of their parents on converting to, say, Hinduism.
The timescale for reclaiming the Scheduled Caste status was astonishingly
expanded in 2015, with the Supreme Court ruling, in K.P. Manu vs Chairman,
Scrutiny Committee, that a person born to Christian parents could claim
through reconversion the Scheduled Caste status of his grandfather?and even
of his great-grandfather and beyond. He only has to prove that his
forefathers had once belonged to a Scheduled Caste community, which has
agreed to admit their descendant into its fold.
Even more scandalous was the Supreme Court, in 2016, allowing Mohammad
Sadique to claim Scheduled Caste status for himself. Sadique had won from a
reserved Assembly constituency of Punjab, from where, his rival argued, he
should not have contested as he was Muslim. Sadique?s argument was that
though he had been born into a Scheduled Caste community, he had embraced
Sikhism, and consequently recovered his caste identity. Given that Muslims
are deemed not to have caste and Sadique?s ancestors could never have been
categorised as Scheduled Caste, how could the Supreme Court allow Sadique
to reclaim an identity he did not lose in the first place?
The Supreme Court?s rulings on K.P. Manu and Mohammad Sadique decidedly
incentivise Christian and Muslim Dalits to reconvert to the three faiths
born in India. This should please the Hindutvawadi progenitors of the ?Ghar
Wapsi? project, which seeks to bring back into Hinduism descendants of
those who converted to Christianity and Islam centuries ago. The politics
of conversion and reconversion apart, it is unjust of the state to deny
statutory entitlements meant for the Scheduled Castes to Muslim and
Christian Dalits, for they lag behind their counterparts among Hindus,
Sikhs, and Buddhists on most social and economic indicators.
Ajaz Ashraf is a senior journalist from Delhi and the author of Bhima
Koregaon: Challenging Caste.
End of Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 168
***************************************