ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126
USA
E-mail: assistcomm@cs.com, Web Site: www.assistnews.net
Friday, December 13, 2002
INSIGHTS FROM THE RINGSIDE
The Chennai Dalit Mass Conversions Of Dec 6th, 2002
By Dr. Joseph D'souza, President, All India Christian Council.
Special to ASSIST News Service
CHENNAI, INDIA (ANS) -- The Dalit defiance of the unconstitutional anti-conversion law in Tamilnadu has shaken the State government. The law has begun to backfire as tens of thousands of Dalits have openly declared that they will convert to other faiths in open defiance of the law. Note that there are close to 20 million Dalits in Tamilnadu. (Pictured: Dr. Joseph D'souza).
The law itself is not against forced or fraudulent conversions, as the State government would have us believe. It is actually a law against conversion. This was amply demonstrated by the use of the brute power of the State on December 6th. If the State could use such brute force when the Dalit, Christian, Buddhist and Media leaders were present in abundance how can one expect a Dalit, or a Pastor or a Church or a Monk to be treated by Government officials when he goes to report about a free conversion? Despite the brutal force used by the State hundreds of Dalits still embraced the Christian faith.
The State had not expected the Dalits to accurately interpret the sinister design of the law. But the Dalits know that this law is meant to forever freeze and enslave them in the caste system. They are determined to fight the law tooth and nail. Their revolt will mean open defiance of the law and they have already given their call for the Christian and other faith communities to join them in this defiance. Udit Raj's Confederation was one of the main organizers of this conversion rally. They have announced that they will now continue with the conversions in the villages of Tamilnadu. Udit Raj has been very outspoken against the anti-conversion bill and has stated that the Dalit confederation will challenge the unconstitutional law.
The Dalits in Tamilnadu and across India have been angered by the growth of the inhuman atrocities against them. The lynching of the five Dalits in Haryana (that led to conversions to Christianity, Buddhism and Islam in Haryana), the forcing of Dalits to eat human excrement in Tamilnadu and the statements of the Kanchipuram Shankaracharya that the Dalits should learn to live in the "state" (caste) they were born into has furthered fuelled the Dalit rebellion across the nation.
This rebellion against the caste system is full blown in Tamilnadu and in the last year large number of Dalits have freely and openly come into the Churches through the act of embracing the Christian faith. Some Dalits have gone into Islam and Buddhism. Dalit village after village has consciously decided that they want to enter non-casteist faiths.
This was the reason why the Dalit leaders led by Udit Raj, R. Thirumavalavan and others openly declared that they intended to hold an initial conversion ceremony for 25, 000 Dalits on December 6th. The logistics of bringing Dalits from all over the State prevented them from having a large ceremony. Instead they opted to bring 10,000 people to Chennai and allow the Dalits to choose Christianity and Buddhism. These were the faiths that the Dalits had decided that they would opt for in the first round of public conversions.
More significantly the "Quit Hinduism" movement launched on Nov 17th by about 16 Dalit organizations led by N. Natrajan and others is covering the Tamilnadu countryside. Tirumavalavan and others are arguing forcefully that Dalits are not Hindus since they have no spiritual rights within Hinduism. They follow in the footsteps of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Periyar and others including the influential ideologue of the present time Kancha Ilaiah.
It is crucial to grasp that it is the Dalit people who are leading the conversion movement and not the Christians or anyone else, as some of the pro-rightwing Hindu papers said about the Dec 6th event in their effort to downplay the significance of the ceremony. Similar accusations were raised about Udit Raj's conversion event last year.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS TAKEN BY FORCE:
The single biggest challenge for the Indian Church and in particular the Church in Tamilnadu is whether she will support and join this open aggression shown by the Dalits against the evil caste system that has enslaved them for 3500 years. If the Indian Church seeks to save her life at this time by not coming out into the open and struggle with the Dalits she will lose it. If she loses her life for the Dalits because of Christ she will inherit the soul and heart of India. We have to understand that the 750 million Dalits and Sudras are struggling intensely to create a caste free society. What spiritual ideology will replace the one that they presently have?
Mark these words: One way or another the Dalits and the Backward castes will break out of the dehumanizing caste system in the next decade or two. One way or another they will break out of the socio-religious system that has enslaved them. What role will the Church play? Has the Church publicly offered an alternate socio-spiritual system for the Dalits and the Sudras? This is the time to shout the Gospel truths from the rooftops and demonstrate the Gospel truths through our lives in the open public sphere.
Much of the current missions thought and practice on India is frozen in time. It is way off the track discussing the issue of contextualization to the so-called Hindu religious system when the vast majority of these very people want to replace the socio-religious caste system with another dynamic alternative! We have yet to hear the clear slogan of creating a caste-free Church in India let alone the slogan of a caste-free society from the Church. This will not happen without dissent and prophetic action within caste-plagued Churches and mission organizations in India. Even among evangelical Churches and missions caste is nicely camouflaged.
The Indian Christian community which boasts itself of being a 'peace loving' community is by that very nature known as a docile, passive community incapable of proactive just action and involvement in society. This is the reason that up till recently the Church was not seen as a natural ally by the Dalits in their struggle for socio-spiritual salvation. Instead in the mass conversions of recent years it was Islam that was seen as the natural ally of the Dalits. Further the political alliance in some States between the Dalits and Muslims during the last decade is not a passing phenomenon.
The Church has not been quick enough to speak out and do something when the Dalits have been raped, looted or killed and enslaved and have tried to escape the caste system. The empowerment of Dalits spiritually, socially and economically has not been very high on the agenda of the Church - even though the mistaken notion is propagated that the Church has been concentrating on the Dalits! In pure economic terms the major recipients of the Church's investment have been the privileged castes both within the Church and outside the Church!
It is only after the persecution of the Christians that a large section of the Indian Church has awakened to the fact that the non-Christian Dalits are their natural allies and that the Indian Church is a Dalit Church albeit ruled by a minority group of caste minded Christians! We wish we did not have to comment here the well-known fact that the Dalit Christians are still the most socially and economically deprived section even within the Christian Church.
In the open public mass conversions of Dec 6th some Churches and leaders stayed indoors because of the fear of arrests and harassment. Others promised to pray from the security of their Church parsonages. One Bishop even asked one of his pastors not to open his Church in whose compound distraught Dalits had congregated! Thank God the Dalit pastor did not follow the Bishop's directions and an initiation ceremony took place in the Church. Thank God for leaders like Dr. K. Rajaratnam of the Lutheran World Federation, Bishop M.A. Thomas, Fr. Lourdswamy, Dr. John Dayal and many other Christian leaders who came out knowing that they might be arrested!
The Dalits on the other hand fearlessly moved in the thousands towards the venue until they were stopped and threatened by the police who had picketed all the roads leading to the venue of the conversion ceremony. The Dalits were not bothered by the threats and the fact that 10 Christians had been arrested the previous night. Udit Raj was warned that he would be arrested if he came to Chennai and yet he came!
If the Government had not used brute force thousands would have publicly embraced the Christian faith instead of the many hundreds who accepted Christ in the various locations. Many hundreds of Dalits who were stranded outside Chennai refused to go back till we gave the assurance that we would come to their villages and conduct the Christian initiation ceremony. On December 8th following the persistent request of villagers Bishop MA Thomas baptized a whole village of nearly 100 Dalit families. A large number of such requests are now pouring in from all over the State. In the meantime the Government has announced that it will crack down on the Dalit, Christian and Buddhist activists!
It is clear that the Church has no choice but to respond to the open request of the Dalits to receive them into the faith in the many, many locations in Tamilnadu. If the Church pulls back (which is one of the aims of the anti-conversion law) and does not know how to take the Kingdom of God then the Dalits will move to Islam or Buddhism or any other system that offers them equal human dignity, full spiritual rights and empowerment.
It is important to recognize that the 'macro' extension of the Kingdom
of God is at hand in India. The Church will need to obey and follow the
principles of the Kingdom of God. To continue with our own business in
the Church or missions at this time will mean that once again in history
the Church will have missed the mark, failed the Dalit population of India
and left the gates for other forces to take over the lives and destinies
of hundreds of millions of people.
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Joseph D'souza is the President of the All India Christian Council-an
alliance of over 2000 Christian denominations, organizations and federations.
He is also the current International President of Christian Solidarity
Worldwide. D'souza is one of the foremost evangelical voices speaking out
and acting on behalf of persecuted Christians, minorities and other oppressed
peoples worldwide. D'souza has intervened on behalf of the oppressed and
minorities in the UN and various other hearings in different parts of the
world.
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