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India’s untouchables leaving Hinduism

By Deborah Meroff
New Delhi, India

On a historic move to liberate themselves from more than 3,000 years of Hindu caste oppression, some 100,000 of India’s “Dalits-once known as “untouchables”-converged on the capital November 4 to renounce Hinduism.

But false news publicized by some Christian groups in the United States that 300 million Dalits were on the verge of converting to Christianity caused a backlash. Extremist Hindus threatened a bloodbath if the rally took place.

In an October 27 letter, rally organizer Ram Raj demanded a halt to claims that hundreds of millions of Dalits were about to convert and would be baptized at the rally. He also demanded that Christians stop raising funds to build baptism tents and buy Bibles and literature for distribution. Raj stressed that Christian leaders had merely been invited to take part as guests and show solidarity. They did not have permission to hold evangelistic activities during the rally itself.

Christians, then, in consultation with rally leaders, planned a November 4 alternative service for Dalits who wished to embrace Christianity. At the service, Christian leaders agreed; no baptisms, Bible or literature distribution or attempts at proselytizing would be done among those who wished to embrace Buddhism. Dalit leaders, however, decided they could not risk violence and scrapped all plans to hold the separate service.

India’s outcaste Dalits comprise nearly one-third of the nation’s population, a staggering 300 million men, women and children who are condemned to jobs such as cleaning latrines. For centuries, Hinduism has held that even an outcaste’s shadow contaminates others. Dalits were required to wear bells around their necks to warn people of their presence. Mahatma Gandhi gave these untouchables the name harijans-children of God. In the 1970s, however, the outcastes themselves rejected the term for one better descriptive of their plight. “Dalit” comes from the Sanskrit word meaning “crushed” or “downtrodden.”

Although India’s constitution outlaws discrimination on the basis of caste or creed, Dalits are still commonly refused entry to public parks, temples and barbershops. Use of public wells is denied them, and many hotels keep separate glasses for their use. Even finding a place to bury their dead can be a problem. Only 2 to 3 percent of Dalit women can read and write, while 70 percent of Dalits live below the poverty line.

Raj calls mistreatment under the caste system “worse than apartheid” because fellow Indians of the same race inflict it. “Dalits are suffering because they are told it’s their karma, their punishment for sins in a past life, so it’s good for them,” he said. “Caste is the soul of Hinduism. Unless caste is destroyed, untouchability cannot vanish.”

In what rally organizers called an attempt to block the rally, authorities withdrew permission to use the planned venue and reportedly detained 350,000 Dalits traveling to the city. Organizers, however, refused to be thwarted and moved the event to an alternate site. Raj declared that nothing would stop this event-not even bullets. On November 4, despite threats by radical Hindu groups and the presence of heavily armed police, Ram Raj led thousands of Dalits in a mass conversion to Buddhism. He allowed his head to be shaved and changed his name from Ram, a Hindu god, to Udit.

New converts are expected to destroy any idols in their homes. As one Dalit woman said, “Millions of gods did not do us any good, so why should we have them at home?”

Even so, a number of Indian Christian leaders considered their presence at the rally an essential expression of solidarity with the Dalits’ cry for dignity and equality. Joseph D’Souza, president of the All India Christian Council, was one of three leaders given time to speak to the Dalits. He later commented, “What happened was incredible-a frontal assault on the Hindu caste system and on those who would crush the Dalits’ rights…. This is a human rights issue, and one of the things the church must ensure is fundamental human rights. The very fact that the Indian church and some parts of the world church have stood with the Dalits means that a signal has gone to the nation that Christians stand for certain values.”

Raj said he believes that in the future, Dalits will follow faiths other than Hinduism. Buddhism was the preferred choice on this occasion because Buddhism has no caste-ism, and it is considered an Asian religion-thus a shorter step from Hinduism. Buddhists are also covered by the government’s reservation system that guarantees them a certain amount of jobs, places in parliament and educational institutions. Since Christians are not included in this system, there is an obvious economic disadvantage. Dalits were also influenced by the example of their champion, statesman B.R. Ambedkar, who more than 50 years ago turned to Buddhism after being repulsed by the Christian church. About 500,000 Dalits followed him.

Unfortunately, the caste system has infected India’s church since its earliest days. The country’s first Protestant church building contained a wall that separated upper and lower castes. Untouchables who came to Christ remained untouchable.

“It’s a very sad phenomenon that converts bring their caste with them into the church,” Richard Howell, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), told World Pulse. “There are high caste and low caste churches, and some segments of Christian society still practice caste.” He made it clear that EFI rejects caste discrimination and pointed out that some 80 percent of the church in India is comprised of Dalits. “There has already been a recent movement of low caste and Dalits to Jesus Christ, especially in North India. And that is of significance. The problem comes when church leadership is not in the hands of Dalits.”

“India as a whole never really rejected Christ,” said K.P. Yohannen, president of Gospel for Asia, who also spoke at the rally. “They rejected the Christ the church has presented to them. My hope is that the church will come to a deeper understanding of Christ, so it will become a way of life-allowing Christians to respond correctly to Dalits.”

D’Souza says Dalit leaders have appealed to the church for help with education. “The best resources have gone into empowering the upper castes. They have asked us to build new schools in Dalit areas, to provide quality education to their children in the English language.” The council will start 10,000 new community education and discipleship centers for Dalits in the next few years. Principals of existing schools are planning to enroll more Dalits in their institutions. Principals of already existing schools are planning to expand the enrollment of Dalits in their respective institutions.

“If the church said only one thing, that Jesus Christ loves them, it’s the message the Dalit community most needs to hear,” D’Souza said. “They have been told for 3,500 years that God doesn’t love them.”

He says Christians won’t manipulate Dalits to covert. “I have told Ram Raj that we will talk about salvation, but we will not force anyone. If some Dalits choose not to accept Christ, we are still going to love them unconditionally.”

He added that both Dalits and Christians can expect hard times ahead. “The upper caste elite, especially some of the religious leaders and extremist groups, are frightened to death of Dalits leaving Hinduism. If there is a mass exodus of Dalits and backward castes-and I believe there will be-suddenly there is a new social scenario in India.” We know the extremists will attack the Dalits. We need to pray for them … that the Christian Church will stay together and respond.”

December 7, 2001