Furqan Ahmad is an e-rickshaw driver in Noida, a Uttar Pradesh urban sprawl contiguous to Delhi. After failing to secure an arms licence from the district administration at Baghpat, where he is from, despite trying for it for six years, Ahmad tonsured his head, kept a choti, applied a tilak to his forehead, and declared before officials that he was now Hindu and that his new name was Phool Singh.

The reason: Ahmad believes he has been denied a licence only because he is Muslim, and that the only way to overcome religious discrimination is to embrace Hinduism.

You could call him crazy, as district officials presumably believe, or you could see him as a rebel who wishes to use conversion to shame the system insensitive to the toiling masses. It is also possible that he has been denied an arms licence because he wasn’t deemed fit to possess one.

Regardless of his motives and the validity of his allegations, Ahmad’s conversion marks a reversal of the trend that had Dalits converting to Islam, or threatening to do so, in protest against perceived injustices or as a bargaining tool for their demands.

Ahmad spoke to Scroll.in in Hindi. His answers show he is mocking the UP administration, labeled as one unduly supportive of Muslims, for discriminating against them.

Have you converted to Hinduism or you have just adopted a Hindu name?
Let me tell you who I am: I am Furqan Ahmad of Kirthal village of Baraut tehsil, Baghpat district, west Uttar Pradesh. I have changed my name from Furqan Ahmad to Phool Singh. I have shaved my head, wear a choti, and apply tilak on my forehead.

Why did you change your religion?
For six years, I tried to my best to secure a gun [arms] licence from the district administration. Since I failed, I adopted Hinduism out of helplessness.

Why do you want an arms licence?
I have six children. I drive e-rickshaw in Jewar qasbah, Noida. I pay Rs 200 a day as rent to the owner and earn Rs 200-Rs 250 a day. It is impossible to raise my children on my meagre earning. With a gun licence, I could become a security guard and earn Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a month. I have also been attacked by goondas at the behest of police officials against whose behaviour I have complained.

When did you apply for a licence?
I applied in 2010. But because I am Muslim I wasn’t issued the gun licence. Between 2010 and 2014, I kept going to the district administration office to follow [up] on my application. In 2014, I was told my file can’t be traced. It was misplaced deliberately. I was asked to file a fresh application, which I did in 2015.

But why do you feel that you haven’t been granted a licence because you are Muslim?
Sir, listen to me, I filed an RTI application and the administration replied saying that from 2010 till now, it has granted 380 gun licences. I have with me the copy of its reply. Out of 380, I think there are just two, maximum three Muslims. Muslims constitute 18% of Baghpat’s population. Sir, tell me, isn’t the district administration discriminating against Muslims?

What happened after you filed a fresh application in 2015?
The file reached the District Magistrate’s office. Whenever I would inquire from his office about my application, officials would say I would be issued a licence in the next 15 days. This has been going on for six years.

When did you take the decision to convert to Hinduism?
To Baghpat was posted District Magistrate Hardev Shankar Tiwari. On March 28, he promised me that what the nine DMs preceding him hadn’t done for me, he would. He promised to issue the gun licence to me in 15 days. Instead of 15 days, I went to him on April 19. I reminded him about his promise. He got very angry and said if the administration were to give licences to a madman like me, then who can tell what they might do.

He got angry with me because I showed him a photocopy of the file in which my application was. He wanted to know how a private citizen has a government file in his possession. It had the notings and signatures of different officials. A few Hindi newspaper journalists were there. They knew of my case. One of them even told the DM, “He is not being given a licence because he is a Muslim.”

(Interviewer’s note: District Magistrate Hardev Shankar Tiwari told the Times of India, “It is not administration’s compulsion to grant an arms licence. It is given only after thorough investigation and ascertaining level of security threat to an aspirant.)

Is it then when you decided to convert?
I told the DM that if I am not granted a licence in the next 24 hours, then, at 12.05 pm, I would take off my skullcap and convert. So the next day I went to the district administration office with my head tonsured. I told the subdivisional magistrate Rakesh Kumar, in the presence of other officials, that in case the administration could not grant me the gun licence, he should help me to become Hindu.

He asked me to wait for another two-three days. I said I have waited for six long years and I couldn’t any longer. So at 12.08 [pm], I declared I had become Hindu. I applied chandan ka tilak on my forehead.

But there is apparently a process of conversion involved.
I am going to Allahabad tonight (April 21) and I will file a petition in the High Court. My plea is that since Hindus have been granted gun licences over the last six years, I want to become Hindu to secure the licence – and that an organisation which converts people should be asked to issue me a certificate saying I am now Hindu, Phool Singh, not Furqan Ahmad.

So, what do your family and friends have to say about your conversion?
They have expressed their opposition. People in the village are coming to me and saying, licence or no licence, I shouldn’t have converted. They are saying they are going to call a meeting of Muslims and ask me to either return to Islam or leave the village with my family. But they are not getting my point – it is my protest against discrimination. I am not going to leave my family. What I will do will depend on what the High Court tells me.

Are you a devout Muslim?
I used to offer the mandatory five times namaz daily.

And now?
I have stopped offering namaz.

What is the logic of leaving Islam?
It is truly a problem to be a Muslim in India. And if you happen to be a poor Muslim, it is even worse.

Don’t you think that your example could have Hindu radicals (kattar Hindus) to intensify discrimination against Muslims in the hope that they could convert?
I understand what you are saying. But I have to overcome my own problems. All doors have been closed to me – and the only way to open them is to become Hindu.

Has your wife converted? What about your children?
As of now, it is only I who has converted.

But what if the High Court tells you that you can’t change your religion for a gun licence?
Then I will ask the court to get me the gun licence.

As I thank him for speaking to me, Ahmad said, “Please wait.” He said he wanted to make a point.

He said: “As long as ministers take money from officials to post them to particular districts, it is only natural they would, in turn, take money. We poor people are victims of the system.”