Social activist and Satyashodhak OBC Parishad activist Hanumant Upare, who was leading a campaign for conducting a mass conversion of five lakh OBCs to Buddhism, passed away here today after a brief illness.
He was 62. The last rites will be conducted tomorrow at his native village Nanalgav Fata in Beed district, Parishad sources said.
The activist told PTI in December last about conducting the mass conversion at Nagpur in October, 2016.
He believed that OBCs were originally not Hindu, but Buddhist.
"We were forced into Hinduism in the 19th century, but the caste system always considered us 'shudras'. The present social set up does not reward us as it should. The only way is to break out of the system," he had said.
