INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
SOCIAL ISSUES
Novel campaign
'Eppadium' (Anyhow), the most recent novel of Fr Mark Stephen.
WIELDING the pen with power and determination to smash the injustice
and discrimination against Dalit Christians and other oppressed masses
is part of the priestly duties of Fr Mark Stephen.
When he was the parish priest of Ongur, a predominantly Dalit
Christian village in the Chengalpattu diocese, during 1984-1990, he
followed with utmost concern the humiliations meted out to the
oppressed people by the upper castes within the Christian community in
several villages. Close observation and evaluation of the situation
prevailing in certain villages, including Thachur and K.K. Pudur, led
him to conclude that the discriminatory practices could be curbed only
by building a powerful mass movement. As one who had never concealed
his sympathies for the downtrodden, he took part in the Dalit
Christian Movement and supported the cause of the oppressed sections
within the fold of Christianity.
His experiences in Ongur forced the writer in him to record the events
in the form of a novel titled Yaathirai (Pilgrimage). He completed the
work after his transfer from the village and it was published in 1992.
The novel highlighted the paramount need for a people's movement to
end the atrocities against Dalit Christians, such as denial of their
rights in the administration of the church and in the conduct of
festivals, and to a place in the cemetery to bury their dead.
In the epilogue, the author appeals to readers to decide for
themselves on which side they should stand – the oppressed or the
oppressors.
Much ahead of Yaathirai, Fr Mark penned his first novel, Suvargal
(Walls), focussing on the discrimination of Dalits even in burial
grounds. The need to demolish the walls that divide the tombs of Dalit
Christians and upper-caste Christians in cemeteries in different
places, including Tiruchi, was the theme of the novel. The story was
set in an imaginary village.
Eppadium (Anyhow) is his most recent work. The novel deals with the
unpleasant situation prevailing in Vembar, a coastal village in
Tuticorin district, where Christian populations belonging to Nadar,
Paravar and Dalit castes run their own schools and administer separate
parishes. Without hypocrisy, the author takes the bull by the horns.
He narrates the insults heaped on Dalit Christians in the village
through the denial of any role in the parish administration.
S. Dorairaj
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