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Deepshikha Ghosh in New Delhi
A top leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad has termed the Hindu caste system a vital insurance of social order.
"When the Hindu caste system originated, it was an insurance that was necessary to define the place each caste had in society and its purpose," Acharya Giriraj Kishore, general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, said on Monday.
Kishore, dismissing nonchalantly a ceremony on Sunday where thousands of people belonging to the lower caste Hindu communities embraced Buddhism, said the event was nothing like what the VHP had apprehended.
"We have got reports that many of these people were Christians, egged on by Christian organisations that want to malign the Hindu religion," he said.
He did not deny, however, that several Hindus had also participated in the ceremony.
"According to the Indian Constitution, Hinduism includes Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. So only certain things will be different, but the religion (Buddhism) is essentially Hinduism," he claimed.
Many of the converts on Sunday originally belonged to the community of Dalits, the lowest rung of Hindu religion that has for centuries faced caste-based discrimination.
At Sunday's ceremony held despite a police ban, thousands took the solemn vow of Buddham Sharanam Gachchami (I seek refuge in the Buddha's care).
Reacting to statements by many of the converts who claimed to have renounced Hinduism to get away from the draconian caste order that ostracised and treated them as 'untouchables', Kishore said: "They are lying. These things don't happen any more. Ask them to have a meal with our highest caste members."
He maintained that it was natural for the majority caste in any area to gain an upper hand over the other castes.
The VHP ideologue defended the caste order saying, "Which religion does not have castes? If the system was so bad, it would not have survived for so long."
Kishore conceded that the Hindu religious caste order had developed 'flaws' over the years.
Indo-Asian News Service
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