Lucknow, June 15: Over 200 Dalits from three villages in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district embraced Buddhism last evening to protest the arrest of Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad alias Ravan.

Liyaquat Ali, the panchayat chief of Nyamu village in Charthawal block, said the Dalits had assembled on the premises of the Ravidas temple and adopted Buddhism in the presence of Bhante Dhammsagar, a monk from Haridwar.

"Around 200 Dalits from the Nyamu, Akbargarh and Kanhaheri villages took deeksha (spiritual guidance) and then walked in a procession in the village. They chanted Bhim Namo Buddhaya," Ali told reporters in Muzaffarnagar, 560km west of Lucknow.

The slogan is a reference to Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of India's Constitution and a Dalit icon who had adopted Buddhism in protest against untouchability in Hinduism.

"An annual camp of the Buddhists was going on in adjoining Kutesara village. A monk from there was invited to Nyamu to conduct the mass conversion," Ali said.

There have been several mass conversions by Dalits to Buddhism in the past few weeks.

"Our chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, is a mahanth belonging to the Hindu religion, which doesn't accept equality of all human beings. Ambedkar had converted to Buddhism because of the inherent caste oppression in Hinduism," said Ashok Arya, a Dalit thinker.

Arya alleged that the atrocities on Dalits in Saharanpur, neighbouring Muzaffarnagar, were the fallout of "the essential ideology of the current government".

Dalits and Kshatriyas had clashed several times in Saharanpur in May, the violence claiming three lives. The Dalits allege that Adityanath's caste brethren are being protected although they were involved in the violence.

But the Kshatriyas and Uttar Pradesh police accuse the Bhim Army, an outfit of Dalits, and Chandrashekhar of inciting violence.

The Kshatriyas had allegedly set ablaze the houses and farmland of 55 Dalits in Saharanpur's Shabbirpur village on May 5.

Chandrashekhar was arrested on June 8 from Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh, on the charges of inciting violence and spreading hatred on social media.

State government sources said the villagers had given a memorandum to the Muzzaffarnagar district administration last week, announcing that they would convert to Buddhism if Chandrashekhar was not released immediately.

The Dalits organised a dharna at Charthawal police station yesterday against his arrest.

D.K. Tyagi, the officer in charge of the police station, said he did not know of any mass conversions in the area and added that a probe was being conducted.

Chandrashekhar's mother has urged Bhim Army members to assemble at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on June 18 to mount pressure on the central and state governments to withdraw all cases against the members of the organisation.

According to the police, 47 cases of violence took place in Saharanpur between May 5 and 23. The Bhim Army and its members were allegedly involved in 30 of them.

"Speaking for Dalits is not a crime. The governments must stop the atrocities against Dalits and release the members of the Bhim Army. We also demand the immediate arrest of Raghav Lakhanpal, the BJP MP of Saharanpur, who was behind several cases of violence in the district," Chandrashekhar's mother Kamlesh said today in Saharanpur, her home district.