While caste discrimination against Dalit Hindus continues to cause outrage in Tamil Nadu, the deep penetration of caste in Christianity has also become a point of concern.
In recent years, the State has been witnessing a battle within Christianity for recognising Dalits as equals in the diocese. The issue gained political traction with the recent release of writer Nivedita Louis’s book Christhuvathil Jathi (Caste in Christianity) by Lok Sabha MP Thol Thirumavalavan, who heads the Dalit party, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi. Mr. Thirumavalavan underlined the “strange phenomenon” in India where Christianity had established itself without any fundamental change to society. “The roots of caste have nourished Christianity (in India)” and it does not possess the “roots of Christian values,” he said.
Literary works have been a tool to expose the sharp caste-based divisions within Christianity. The acclaimed autobiographical work, Karukku, explored Dalit Christian author Bama’s disillusionment with caste oppression within the church and its institutions. Likewise, Yaathirai (Pilgrimage), a novel by Fr Mark Stephen, vividly portrayed the denial of rights to Dalit Christians, including in the administration of the church and in the organisation of festivals. The novel was an outcome of his observations as the parish priest in Ongur, between 1984 and 1990, of the humiliations meted out to Dalit Christians. His first novel, Suvargal (Walls), highlighted the need to demolish the walls that divide the tombs of Dalit and upper caste Christians.
Beyond literary works, the fight against caste discrimination in Christianity has been going on for some decades. In the 1990s, the Arockiya Matha Church (established in 1922) in Thachur village in Kancheepuram, where the first Christians had arrived in 1836, was shut down for over 10 years following a legal battle between the upper caste Reddiar Christians and the Dalit Christians. It was reopened in late 2006 following a tripartite agreement involving the Reddiars and two groups of Dalits. Yet, five years later, Thachur witnessed a tense face-off and heavy police deployment over the burial of two Dalits in the church cemetery.
The Dalit Christian Liberation Movement of Tamil Nadu-Pondicherry had even sought an audience with Pope John Paul II ahead of his visit to India in November 1999, to highlight the “oppression and persecution of the Dalits within the Church”.
Despite constituting a majority in the Catholic order, Dalits are rarely appointed priests or Bishops. The Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front had contended that the practice of caste can be found in the formation of parishes, the denial to Dalit Christians to participate in the administration of the parish, and the construction of separate chapels in the same village for Dalits and other caste Christians. In fact, the Policy of Dalit Empowerment in the Catholic Church in India, adopted at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India in 2016, acknowledged that the participation of Dalit Christians at the leadership level in the diocesan administration and in religious orders is minimum, while at the higher levels, it is nearly nil.
Nearly nine years ago, M. Prakash, who was then the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Minorities Commission, publicly admitted that there was discrimination against Dalit Christians in churches. However, neither the Commission nor the government could interfere in it “as it was like a fight among members of a family” and must be sorted from within, he said.
Courts too have been approached seeking adequate representation for Dalits in the Roman Catholic Church. Contending that out of the 18 Archdiocese in Tamil Nadu, only one Dalit Bishop was consecrated, a Srivilliputtur resident, M. Anbarasan, had moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, seeking direction to the governments to end this discrimination. In August 2021, the court had ordered notice to the Centre and State and also to the Apostolic Nuncio to India and the Tamil Nadu Bishops Council. The matter remains sub judice.
Politically, Mr. Thirumavalavan has taken the line that this is not a weakness of Christianity but “only proves the power of the caste system, which has swallowed Christianity”. Nonetheless, religiously speaking, the right thing for the church would be to walk the talk to ensure “caste Christian” does not become an acceptable term.
