Ecumenical Conversation II

Churches Addressing Caste Based Discrimination, Dalit Liberation & Theological Reflection

V Devasahayam, Church of South India

I           Caste Based Discrimination: Dalits, the worst victims

Sherring: “It (Caste system) is the most baneful, hard hearted and cruel social system that could possibly be invented for damning the human race.”

When a child fell into a well in Kaladi (Kerala) an untouchable saved the child after hearing the alarm from the mother. He was thrashed for polluting the waters.

In Kavitha, a Gujarat village, the houses of untouchables were burnt down for sending their children to school.

In Salem in Tamil Nadu, Dhanam, a seven year old untouchable girl was beaten by the teacher, made blind in one eye, for drinking water that was meant for upper caste Children.

The Outcastes, untouchables or Dalits, who are victims of Caste based discrimination is a by product of Caste System, a unique social system, founded by Hindu religion. To Sociologist M.N. Srinivas, “Brahminism, which is the appropriate name for Hinduism is nothing but Caste System. Minus caste system, Hinduism is dead. If and when caste disappears from India, Hinduism will also disappear.” As the soul is connected to the body, so is caste connected with Hinduism. According to Hindu hierarchical cosmology, human beings belonging to different castes have emanated from the different parts of the Body of Brahman: The Brahmin (Priest) was his mouth, of His arms was made the Kshatriya (Warrior); His thighs became the Vaisya (Merchant); of his feet the Sudra (Slave) was born. It is a birth based or inherited discrimination. The main features of Caste System are hierarchy, Segregation, Slavery and denial of human dignity on the basis of ideas of purity and pollution. This is a system that negates liberty, equality, fraternity and the sacred character of human personality.

In the Hindu caste system, the two opposing ends – Brahmin and Dalit - have become rigid with ascending order of reverence and descending degree of contempt. It gives pride and superiority complex to upper castes and inferiority complex to untouchables.  Dalits who number over 250 million share the common stigma of untouchability and are considered a polluting people, unseeable, unapproachable and untouchable. They are forced to live in segregated dwellings assigned most degrading and polluting occupations and are denied access to education, public utility services and to temples. ToParanjpe,the psychological consequences of caste system on untouchables are alarming: lowered self esteem, confusion of self identity, self hate, perception of the world as a hostile place, hypertension, withdrawl and seclusion, anger, hatred, a feeling of nothingness, timidity, cowardice and a loss of identity. Under caste system, Dalit women are victims of threefold alienation due to class, caste and gender.

II            Church and Dalits: A Story of Betrayal

Christian missionaries had a practical interest in understanding caste since it was viewed either as an aid or a hindrance for evangelism. For the Syrian and the Roman Catholics, caste was perceived as a social – cultural institution and hence to be tolerated and preserved in the Church. Robert de Nobili, a Jesuit missionary said “By becoming a Christian, one does not renounce his caste, nobility or usages. The idea that Christianity interfered with them has been impressed upon the people by the devil and it is the greatest obstacle to Christianity.” But for the protestant missionaries, caste was a Hindu religious institution and hence must be renounced at Baptism. Bishop Daniel Wilson wrote, “ The distinction of castes, then must be abandoned, decidedly, immediately, finally and those who profess to belong to Christ must give proof of their having really put off’ the old and having put on the new man in Jesus Christ.”

Missionaries, in spite of differences in perspective on caste, recognising the hierarchical nature of Indian Society, targeted the Brahmins as the focus of evangelism and hoped in the trickle down theory. A Missionary remarked: “I would rather baptise one Brahmin than a thousand Chamars (Dalits).” But the missionaries were disappointed that Brahmins and other upper castes, though availed greatly the educational and health services of missionaries, chose not to be baptised. It was at that time; Dalits took the initiative and joined the churches in hundreds and thousands through ‘mass movements.’ The tiny Christian community became a large community, predominantly rural also poor and of Dalit origins. A permanent Dalit stamp has been marked in the Christian Church. Today two thirds to three fourths of the Indian Church is made up of Dalits. Some factors that motivated the mass movements are: religious conviction, search for education, protection, self respect and dignity and social justice. Gospel was perceived as Good news to the poor and the missionary was seen as a friend of Dalits. Hyde remarked: “It ought to be freely recognised that it may be towards the motherhood of the Church rather than the Fatherhood of the Saviour from sin that the faces of the pariahs and aboriginal races of India are being slowly turned… because the Church presents itself to them as a refuge from oppression and as a power that fosters of hope and makes for betterment”. The Church was seen and experienced as the sign and first fruit of the Kingdom. It was not only an agent of the Gospel but also the locus where the Gospel is incarnated by refusing to harbour oppressive forces within it.

Though Dalits joined the Christian Church in search of spiritual and social equality, they were disappointed at the continued caste discrimination within the church in several ways: admissions, appointments, transfers, development projects, elections, the use of caste names and caste associations and absence of commensality and exogamy. With non Dalit leadership taking over the church, the Dalits ceased to be a mission priority and failed to generate a critical social awareness and support movements for social change. There was unashamed expression of pastoral hypocrisy as a new way of patronising Dalits with taking up the Dalit cause enjoying all privileges of caste. Church refuses to face the contradiction of caste in the church by diverting attention to outside ‘enemy’ who needs to be won through evangelism. This is based on a misunderstanding of the task of mission as making people Christians and not as followers of Christ. Ecumenical discussions in search of church unity were focussing so much on denomination as the source of division overlooking the true dividing factor, the caste. The Christian theologians have generously related to the Brahminic religion and culture in their theologising process. The inter-religious dialogues continued to be dominated with Brahminical bias. The caste system being the unique social system of India, providing the primary identity to all Indians, is yet to be reflected adequately to evolve a Christian perspective on caste. The Dalits feel betrayed by the church.

III            Theological Reflection: Towards Dalit Liberation

i)            Christian perspective on caste:  Need for a Declaration against caste

Caste is a blatant denial of Christian faith: As regards the concept of human identity it denies liberty, equaliy, fraternity, community and is against reason, conscience and emancipation. As regards the efficiousness of Christ’s atoning work, it denies its power over caste and nullifies the work of Christ in breaking the walls of separation. It undermines the reality of the Church as spiritual communion, economic communion and social community. It makes Christian practice of loving ones neighbour as oneself since other is not perceived as one’s own. Caste perverts morality by making sin a virtue and the virtue of community as a great sin and hardens heart against suffering of others due to the doctrine of Karma.

The Protestant consensus on Caste was that Caste was a great evil that must be ruthlessly uprooted from the Church. “Caste is so utterly contrary to the spirit of Christianity …The Holy Spirit most certainly will not dwell in fullness where the Spirit of caste is retained.” said Charles Mead.  Rajahgopaul states, “If you admit caste to be true, the whole fabric of Christianity must come down”. Nehemiah Goreh declared: “Christianity with caste would be no Christianity at all.” Caste in Christianity must be declared a heresy, which needs to be eradicated for the purity of doctrine and the unity of the church. This calls for nothing short of a declaration against the demon of caste.

ii)         The Central theological objective: The Liberation of Dalits

The Liberation of all (sarvodaya) must start from the liberation of the last and the least (antyodaya). Only the resurrection of the lowest castes and strata would blow up the oppressive caste society. Theology should reflect the hopes and aspirations of the Dalits and should inspire them to participate in struggles aimed at Dalit liberation. Theology should become the voice of voiceless Dalits, giving hope for their struggles. Theology should also help save the Dalits from the oppressive power of caste demon and should provide an ideological foundation to create a new humanity based on divine love and justice. Chenchiah’s hope is relevant: “The Christian community has the unique opportunity of rising above caste…I hope it will not surrender this high calling and be caught up in the passing show.”

iii)        The Gospel and Culture: Need for Discernment

Even the protestant missionaries later compromised on caste because they did not want to disturb the culture as it was also costly. Majority of Indian Christians are still conditioned by traditional cultural thought and life. Majority of Indian theologians have uncritically adopted dominant Brahminic philosophy and culture for theologising, inculturation and inter religious dialogue. The interface between the Gospel and culture should be marked by discretion and judgement; divine and demonic elements identified and affirmed and rejected respectively. The Gospel must expose caste as the oppressive cultural element and its proclamation must help Christians to free themselves from it. The “new” that the Gospel could offer must be conceived in this context of caste oppression as one of liberation from caste enslavement and invite people to join in the new community of Christ. Finally, India will be the testing ground for the authenticity and adequacy of the Christian Gospel since the demonic system of caste is challenging not only the wider society but also the Christian church.

iv)        The Church: The Sign and the Agent of the Kingdom

With the mass movements, with large scale migrations of Dalits into the Church, the church became a messianic community of the oppressed; its sociological reality qualifies its theological credibility. Messianic community is constituted of the marginalised and uninvited. When we refuse to accept the church as a movement of the Dalits, we are operating as part of the prevailing caste system that discriminates Dalits. The Church as a body of Christ, draws its identity from the brokenness of the Christ’s body. We need to recover and celebrate the forgotten face of the Indian Church as one of  Dalit Church. It calls for Church’s new direction in ministry geared towards villages, which are marginalised in pastoral care. We need an enlarged conception of ministry as one of making people whole. Worship should recognise and incorporate ‘little traditions’ of Dalits, appropriate to rural people and situations. Preaching should show the incompatibility of caste to the Kingdom of Christ. Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist must be interpreted to enable identification with the oppressed and radical break with unjust caste structure respectively. Above all, we need a new perspective of the Dalits as God’s interlocutors of salvation. The statement of Jon Sobrino is true to Dalits: “The poor have a humanising potential because they offer community against individualism, co operation against selfishness. Simplicity against opulence and openness to transcendence against blatant positivism.”