Dalit Christian

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Dalit Christians
Total population
42% of Indian Christians
90% of Pakistani Christians
Regions with significant populations
India and Pakistan (majority)
Bangladesh and Nepal (minority)
Religions
Christianity
Scriptures
Bible

The term Dalit Christian (sometimes Christian Dalit) is used to describe those who have converted to Christianity from Hinduism or Islam and are still categorized as Dalits in Hindu, Christian and Islamic societies in India, Pakistan and other countries. Hindu Dalits are referred to as "Harijans". 90% of Pakistani Christians are Dalits and over 42% of Indian Christians are Dalits, categorized thus by the greater societal practices of the region they live in.[1][2][3][4]

The Caste System[edit]

Punjabi Christians with the Missionary Society of St. Paul (May 2006)

Christian missionaries who were evangelising in colonial India largely fought against the idea of a caste system.[5] However, some people within the different branches of Christianity in South Asia still engage in societal practices with regard to the caste system, along with all its customs and norms, to varying degrees depending on their background. Though other Christians in the Indian subcontinent may not practice a caste culture themselves, they may face societal discrimination outside their Christian community for the caste they belong to.[6] Asif Aqeel and Sama Faruqi documented in Herald Magazine:[6]

In 1947, there were two types of Christians in what was then known as West Pakistan: landless, unskilled, poor labourers and peasants living in villages across central Punjab, and educated Christian professionals, mostly Anglo-Indians and Goans, who lived in big cities such as Karachi and Lahore. The former are generally converts to Christianity from low-caste Hindus and the latter from upper-caste Hindus as well as Muslims. Anglo-Indians and Goans immediately faced discrimination in jobs and business opportunities in the newly created Pakistan. Their rather privileged social status under the Raj – that prized their English language skills and British cultural mannerisms – started waning. Punjabi Christians, on the other hand, were always treated with contempt due to their caste and their dark skin.[6]

Within the three major Christian branches in South Asia, there were historically and are currently different levels of caste acceptance. The Protestant churches have been most consistent among the Christian community in repudiating it as part of the Hindu social order while attempting to establish a caste-less Christian community.[7] The Roman Catholic Church is said to sometimes develop a more culturally consistent view, treating the caste system as part of the Indian social structure and, for much of its history in India; similarly, the Syrian Orthodox Churches have sometimes responded in like fashion, except it has tended to collectively act as one caste within the caste system instead of maintaining different castes within their churches.[4] However, Protestant churches have fared no better than Catholic churches other than the fact that mainly Dalit dioceses have got Dalit Bishops. The other ways where the presence of caste is seen among Indian churches include the non-acceptance of a Dalit priest, maintaining separate entrance for Dalits in churches, separate seating, and other features.[8]

Other major factors affecting dalit Christians and other Christians within India in regard to caste statutes are the regional variances in maintaining the caste system.[4] Rural communities are said to hold more strongly to the caste system than the urban communities and Roman Catholics are the majority of Christians in these communities. The urban areas tend to have the least pressure to maintain caste classes and Protestant churches are aid to be best represented in this background.[4][9][10]

After conversion, people in India lose any privileges they had in their former caste, while those in lower castes often gain more opportunities.[11][4] Although about 42%[1] of Indian Christians are widely reported to be Dalit Christians,[12][13] the Sachar Committee on Muslim Affairs reported that only 9% of Indian Christians have Scheduled Caste status, with a further 32.8% having Scheduled Tribe status, and 24.8% belonging to other disadvantaged groups.[14]

In the 1990s there were protests against those Christian organizations that still practiced some form of the caste system and for discrimination in leadership positions; Dalits saw those practices as contrary to Jesus's egalitarianism.[15] Dalit Christians have frequently criticized the Church for not just tolerating but hiding the discriminatory practices among Dalit Christians.[15]

Leonard Fernando, G. Gispert-Sauch writes that: "Today, no Indian Christian think would approve or speak of tolerating the caste reality. There are many, however, who live in it."[15] Dalits that have become Christians in south India have transformed their position as just spectators in Hindu religious practice to that of leaders and representatives of the Christian religion; they have also become influential promoters of Dalit political aspirations.[16]

Reservation[edit]

Reservation is available to Dalits who follow Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, but Dalit Christians and Muslims are not protected as castes under Indian Reservation policy.[17][18] The Indian constitution in 1950 abolished untouchability, converting those castes to scheduled castes and tribes: in doing so it also provided a system of affirmative action (called the Reservation Policy) whereby 22.5 percent of all government and semi-government jobs including seats in Parliament and state legislatures were reserved for those in those castes; the law also set aside space for admission to schools and colleges. In 1980 the constitutional policy was extended to cover the rest of the 3,743 backward castes in the country. But Christians who claim to belong to no caste are not included in the quotas, meaning those Dalits who convert to Christianity are no longer part of the affirmative action program run by the government. Dalit Christians have now appealed to the government to extend the benefits of reservation policy to Dalit Christians to improve their employment opportunities.[19] In 2008, a study commissioned by the National Commission for Minorities suggested extension of reservation to Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians. According to the study, Indian Muslims and Christians should be brought under the ambit of the constitutional safeguards.[20]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011", Wikipedia, 2019-10-28, retrieved 2019-11-01
  2. ↑ Phan, Peter C. (2011). Christianities in Asia. John Wiley & Sons. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-4443-9260-9. For example, 90 to 95% of Pakistani Christians are Punjabi of the chura (dalit) group converted from Hinduism rather than from Islam or local religious systems.
  3. ↑ Sara, Singha; Ariel, Glucklich (23 April 2015). "Dalit Christians and Caste Consciousness in Pakistan". Retrieved 22 September 2020. This study explores caste discrimination in Pakistan against untouchable (Dalit) converts to Christianity. During the nineteenth century in India, many Dalits converted to Christianity to escape caste persecution. In the 1870s in Punjab, a mass movement to Protestant Christianity flourished among the Dalit Chuhra caste. The Chuhras were the largest menial caste in Punjab and engaged in degrading occupations including sweeping and sanitation work. By the 1930s, almost the entire Chuhra caste converted to Protestant Christianity. In 1947, during the partition of India, the majority of Chuhra converts in Punjab became part of the Protestant community in Pakistan. After Partition, many uneducated Chuhras were confined to menial jobs in the sanitation industry. Today, the stigma of Dalit ancestry is a distinct feature of social discrimination against Chuhra Christians in Pakistan.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Michael, Editor S.M. (2007), Dalits in modern India : vision and values, New Delhi: Sage Publications, p. 82, ISBN 978-0761935711 {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  5. ↑ Satyanarayana, A. (2005). Dalits and Upper Castes. Kanishka Publishers. p. 140. ISBN 978-81-7391-703-5. Protestant missionaries not only to condemn caste but also to eliminate it within the churches. The missionaries aimed at encouraging and strengthening the existing movements against caste oppression and discrimination. ... Especially, the founders of Guntur and Nellore missions were the arch enemies of the spirit and practice of the caste system.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Aqeel, Asif; Faruqi, Sama (26 February 2018). "Caste away: The ongoing struggle of Punjabi Christians". Herald Magazine. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  7. ↑ S. M. Michael; Sebastian Maria Michael (8 May 2007). Dalits in Modern India: Vision and Values. SAGE Publications. pp. 83–. ISBN 978-0-7619-3571-1.
  8. ↑ Peniel Rajkumar (13 May 2016). Dalit Theology and Dalit Liberation: Problems, Paradigms and Possibilities. Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-317-15493-8.
  9. ↑ "Dalit Christians demand equality". The Times Of India. Archived from the original on February 16, 2006.
  10. ↑ Anderson, Edited by Allan; Tang, Edmond; Foreword By Cecil M. Robeck, Jr (2003), Asian and Pentecostal : the charismatic face of Christianity in Asia, Oxford, UK: Regnum Books International, p. 251, ISBN 1-870345-43-6 {{citation}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
  11. ↑ Bauman, Chad M. (2008), Christian identity and Dalit religion in Hindu India, 1868-1947, Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., p. 89, ISBN 978-0-8028-6276-1
  12. ↑ Struggle for justice to Dalit Christians By Brojendra Nath Banerjee, Uiliyāma Kerī Sṭāḍi eyāṇḍ Risārca Seṇṭāra. Page 42: "At stake is the fate of 16 million Christians of SC origin, who form 70-80 percent of the Christians in the country"
  13. ↑ Culture and customs of India By Carol Henderson Garcia, Carol E. Henderson "Today about 70 percent of Christians are Dalits"
  14. ↑ "Sachar Comm" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 4, 2010. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Leonard Fernando; G. Gispert-Sauch (2004). Christianity in India: Two Thousand Years of Faith. Penguin Books India. pp. 188–. ISBN 978-0-670-05769-6.
  16. ↑ Ashok Kumar Mocherla (16 November 2020). Dalit Christians in South India: Caste, Ideology and Lived Religion. Taylor & Francis. pp. 122–. ISBN 978-1-00-022658-4.
  17. ↑ "Should Dalit Christians get reservation?". www.rediff.com. Retrieved 2021-02-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ↑ Dalit Christians: SC or not?
  19. ↑ "FindArticles.com | CBSi". findarticles.com. Retrieved 2021-02-28.
  20. ↑ "Archive News". The Hindu. Retrieved 2021-02-28.

Bibliography[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Dalit Christians: Right To Reservations, by Camil Parkhe. 2007. ISPCK. ISBN 978-81-7214-979-6.
  • India’s ‘lower caste’ Dalit Christians establish media to fight discrimination, by Rita Joseph, 2020. LiCAS.news

External links[edit]

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