This paper examines the persistent gap between the promise and the reality of religious conversion for Dalit communities in India. Its central argument revolves around what the paper terms “the illusion of equality.” Dalits, historically classified as untouchables and subjected to severe caste-based oppression, often leave Hinduism in search of dignity and social freedom. Yet even after conversion, they frequently encounter new and subtler forms of legal, social, and religious marginalisation.

To substantiate this argument, the paper draws on three bodies of evidence. The first is Indian constitutional law: The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950, specifically Paragraph 3, strips Scheduled Caste status from Dalit Christians and Muslims, meaning that legal protections disappear at the moment of conversion while caste-based discrimination does not. The Supreme Court reaffirmed this position as recently as March 2026. The second source of evidence is Imayam’s Tamil novel Beasts of Burden (Koveru Kazhuthaigal, 1994), which portrays Catholic Dalit washermen and women who remain economically bound to their caste occupations long after their conversion. As Imayam observes, “the worst oppression of the caste system is that people are dependent upon it for their living” (156). The third source is G. Kalyana Rao’s Telugu novel Untouchable Spring (Antarani Vasantam, 2000), which traces seven generations of Mala and Madiga Christian families. These communities converted in the belief that Christianity was fundamentally egalitarian, only to discover, as the novel puts it, that “even within Christianity, caste hierarchy is prevalent” (272–274). The novel ultimately argues that genuine liberation can only come through a sustained, collective struggle against the entire ideology of ascriptive hierarchy.