Indian Christians to celebrate Dalit Liberation Sunday on Nov 11
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| Sixty per cent of India's 28 million Christians are from Dalit and tribal communities.- AFP |
Indian Christians of Dalit origin are still denied
constitutional privileges and benefits because of their religion.
By Robin Gomes
Christians of various denominations in India are joining
hands in jointly observing the Dalit Liberation Sunday (DLS) on
Sunday.
The Office for Scheduled Castes/Backward
Classes (SC/BC) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India(CBCI),
and the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), that
comprises Protestant and Orthodox Churches, are marking the day
on November 11.
The ecumenical observance has as its theme, “As for Me and
My Household, We will serve the Lord”, taken from the Book of Joshua, which was
also the theme of the 10th anniversary of the terrible anti-Christian violence
in Kandhamal District of Odisha state, marked on August 25.
“The celebration of DLS is a clarion call to the whole
Christian community in India to renew our faith and to awaken our consciousness
to be the voice of the voiceless and to stand with the vulnerable Dalits in
society,” Father Devasagayaraj M. Zackarias, the secretary of the
Office of SC/BC told Matters India.
Who are Dalits?
"Dalit", in Sanskrit, means ‘broken or
"trampled upon" and is used to refer to those outside India’s rigid
four-tier Hindu caste system, who were once called
"untouchables." Because Dalits fall outside the
caste systemthey are considered social outcasts, and hence have
been shunned, deprived and exploited socially, economically,
politically or otherwise through centuries.
The Indian Constitution reserves special privileges and
benefits such as quota in government jobs and educational institutions
for Dalit, tribal groups and scheduled castes to help their socio-economic
uplift.
However, the Presidential Order of August 10, 1950,
initially stated that “…no person who professes a religion
different from the Hindu religion shall be deemed to be a
member of a Scheduled Caste.” Subsequently, the
Order was modified twice to include Sikhs (in 1956) and Buddhists (in 1990)
after they protested, but Muslims and Christians of low caste origin
have been excluded despite protests and petitions.
“We are united in the same spirit of God to love and treat
others with brotherly and sisterly concern,” Fr. Zackarias said. “The
Indian Constitution gives us the freedom to profess to practice and to
propagate one’s religion. But in reality, our Dalit sisters and brothers are
denied the Scheduled Castes rights just because they convert to Christianity
thus denying their religious freedom,” he added.
Discrimination within the Church
Father Zackarias lamented that Christians of Dalit origin
“not only experience discrimination within the Church but also by the State and
the society.” “God created all to be His loving children and to
become Christ-like, but in reality we remain strangers to God by
discriminating our own fellow members,” he said.
The CBCI continues to take necessary steps to
eradicate the caste-based discrimination that exists in the Church. In this
regard, a policy for empowering Dalits was released in December 2016 which
declares that ‘Caste discrimination is a grave social sin.’
Dalit Christians still hoping
So far there is hardly any progress with regard to the case
by the CBCI Office for SC/BC in the Supreme Court of India, challenging
the validity of Presidential Order of 1950 that excludes Christians and Muslims
of Scheduled Caste Origin from the Scheduled Caste list thus denying freedom of
religion.
Explaining the theme of DLS 2018, Fr. Zakarias said that the
episode of Prophet Elijah who was sent to the starving widow
whom Jesus praises for her generosity, “gives us the hope that God is
on the side of the poor and the marginalized.”
“Let us come together to take part in creating a peaceful
and harmonious society to live, love and share together,” the priest urged,
adding, “the DLS is an opportunity to give hope, to empower and to uplift the
lives of Dalits.”
“We hope to get justice from the Supreme Court based on the
merit of the case,” Father Zackarias said.
DLS has been celebrated every year since 2007 by the CBCI in
collaboration with the NCCI. Fr. Zackarias said that since 2017,
the annual day is being observed on the second Sunday of November.
Christians form 28 million or just 2.3 percent of
India’s 1.2 billion people but more than 60 percent of them come from
Dalit and tribal communities. (Source: Matters India)
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