Meenakshipuram

Meenakshipuram is a village in Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, now called Rahmath Nagar (The Week). According to Wikipedia, a ceremony there on 19 February 1981 took Dalit families of the Pallar community into Islam. They said they were tired of upper-caste atrocities, chiefly from the landed Thevar community. The numbers differ: Wikipedia says 220 families registered and about 180 took part, while an official report on Scheduled Castes and Tribes estimated 1,100 converts and The Week says over 300 families converted in a day.

Reaction. Media reports claimed the conversions were forced and paid for from abroad, which some converts denied. Tamil Nadu set up an inquiry commission that recommended an anti-conversion bill, which the government put on hold. Indira Gandhi was reportedly unhappy, and Wikipedia says the Home Minister, Giani Zail Singh, asked whether "a conspiracy or political motivation" lay behind it. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other Sangh Parivar leaders visited the village and asked the Dalits to return to Hinduism (The Week). Some converts went back within months and, by one account, 900 of the 1,100 had returned by 1991 (Wikipedia), but The Week found converted families who remain Muslim and say they do not wish to leave Islam.

The Sikh connection. In March 2026 Jeevan Singh Tamil, president of the Bahujan Dravida Party and a Tamil Dalit who has taken Sikhism, told ANI that a wave of conversions to Islam in the 1980s came from oppression and lack of self-respect, that those who converted still lack dignity, and that many now look towards Sikhism. He said: "Sikhism is needed in Tamil Nadu."

Key moments

• 19 February 1981: the conversion ceremony at Meenakshipuram.
• 1981: Home Minister Giani Zail Singh questions whether a conspiracy lay behind it.
• 1991: by one account 900 of 1,100 converts have returned to Hinduism.
• 31 March 2026: Jeevan Singh Tamil speaks of the 1980s conversions and of Sikhism (ANI).