FYI - Two articles on Dalits and the Indian Church Churches in India decry caste system, oppression of 'Dalits' Print This PostPosted on 01 November 2010 A conference of churches in India declared recently that the caste system is a sin, and committed themselves to making churches in India "zero tolerance zones" for discrimination that is based on one's caste. In a joint statement, the National Council of Churches in India, together with the World Council of Churches called casteism a "sin, apostasy and rebellion against God." They noted that while "untouchability" was abolished in 1950 from India's constitution, it nonetheless remains in practice, rendering it a "crime against human beings," Christian Today reported. Leaders from some 31 churches attended the conference, as well as theologians and Dalit (the lowest caste) activists. This was the first time that such a varied group came together to tackle the caste system and commit to work together for Dalit liberation. The joint statement will lend direction towards the churches in moving forward and forming a Churches Policy on Social Inclusion, South Asia Mall said. At the opening of the conference NCCI president, Bishop Dr. Taranath Sagar said the liberation of Dalits is a component of God's work. Sagar noted that casteism affects some 160 million people, largely from rural areas. Dalits are only permitted to perform manual labor including manual removal of human feces from dry latrines, according to Ekklesia. The joint statement said, "Dalit children are shunned, stunted and have their childhood shattered. Dalit women are beaten, raped, and murdered. Dalit men are dispossessed, locked up, and lynched. We are ashamed that we as Christians have remained silent while our brothers and sisters have been violated and killed," Ekklesia reported. The statement also urged Christians worldwide to make Lent 2011 a time to purge castes from church groups and communities, and "to join in solidarity to denounce and resist the 'spiritual forces of evil," Christian Today reported. Rev. Dr Deenabandhu Manchala of the WCC said the conference was "remarkable" for empowering Indian churches to decry casteism. He added, "Equally important, it has moved from building on Dalit suffering to Dalit resistance and determination to dismantle an oppressive social order," according to Christian Today. Also during the conference, a booklet was distributed entitled "Recipes in Resilience," which contained 50 recipes using beef to protest an anti-cow slaughter movement in Karnataka, and to support Dalit and Muslim communities that are affected by it. The booklet was distributed by the NCCI along with posters and other items for Dalit Liberation Sunday which will be held by the NCCI and CBCI on Dec. 5, South Asia Mall said. ==================
Although Christian missionaries of various denominations have been active in India for several centuries, the 1941 Census placed the number of Christians in colonial India at just 1.6 per cent of the population. This clearly indicates that the main objective of the British rulers was colonial domination and economic exploitation, not religious conversion. According to the 2001 Census, Christians constituted 2.3 per cent of India's population. This rise of 0.7 percentage point in their numbers over six decades has been a matter of debate. Starting with the Niyogi Commission (1956) down to a Supreme Court's 1977 ruling, conversion has been a highly contentious issue, sometimes inviting frowns from officialdom and the judiciary. Hence the interest in the question whether the Dalit converts to Christianity have indeed been seduced by proselytising missionaries to "change Gods." Urban artisans and people in the lower middle class have generally turned against their established faiths throughout history. Urbanisation gave these people a "greater access to religious preachers, to literacy, to education and books, to a great variety of personal relations, and to greater riches of urban culture," says David Lorenzen in his introduction to Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action (1995). A distinct feature of the Dalits who embraced Christianity is that a vast majority of them are from the poorest sections in villages, not urbanites. According to John Webster (Religion and Dalit Liberation:1999), changing the religion is one of the 'strategies' the Dalit communities adopted in their struggle to secure social justice and equality. The other four were: acquiring political power; securing as much independence as possible from the dominant castes; initiating reformist measures to reduce prejudices among themselves; and deploying cultural modes of communication, like literature and theatre, for conscientisation. Dalit theology has grown out of this practice of changing religion. We have Christological reflections in M.E. Prabhakar-edited Toward a Dalit Theology (1989), and methodological formulations in Arvind Nirmal'sReader in Dalit Theology (1992), and biblical reinterpretations in V. Devashyam's Frontiers of Dalit Theology (1997). This book presents, in three parts, 16 well-researched essays on different themes by theologians and teachers and is a mine of profound concepts and serious ideas on ecumenical social thought, myths of Dalit origins, and so on. Does the 'Dalit Theology' have anything to do with 'Liberation Theology'? Sadly, the points of convergence/divergence between the Dalit Theology and the South American Liberation Theology are not discussed in this book. One of the reasons could be that Sathianathan Clarke, an editor of this volume, has already authored a tome on the subject titled Dalits and Christianity: Subaltern Religion and Liberation Theology in India (1998). Yet, the omission is a real shortcoming. From Punjab to Tamil Nadu, there have been a lot of conversions for well over a century. What leads the Dalits to Christianity? Does anything change for the better after conversion? It emerges that, despite conversion, the Dalit Christians continue to be denied "land, water and dignity." And the women among them have to bear the double cross of 'lowest caste' and 'womanhood.' Sujatha, a woman tricked into unwed motherhood, is told: "The palm leaf is torn, whether it falls on a thorn or a thorn falls on it." The relevance of the book stands enhanced in the context of the spate of violent attacks by the Hindutva forces as a backlash to religious conversions in recent years. The worst of these were witnessed in 2007 and 2008 in Kandhamal (Orissa), the target being the meek Dalit Christians from the Pana caste. Dalit conversions are not a calamity but they throw up situations of "slippery identities and shrewd identifications," say Clarke and Peacock epigrammatically. Keywords: Dalits and conversion, Christian missionaries |
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