Hindu leaders saw departing Untouchables as lost numbers and future enemies.

Evidence

In 1899, Swami Vivekananda of the Ramakrishna Math—the man who became famous in 1893 when he addressed the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in his sadhu’s robes—said, “Every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more.” — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 146

Categorization

• SHARE: Vivekananda’s candid line about defectors being ‘enemies’ would hit home for anyone interested in Hindu-revivalist politics and its demographic anxieties.
• CANDY: A compact, vivid quote that contrasts the Chicago-world-religions saint with the caste-defender counting defections.