---
layout: default
title: "Full Text: The Dalit Church's Mission — A Dalit Response"
description: "Complete verbatim text of A. M. A. Ayrookuzhiel's essay 'The Dalit Church's Mission - A Dalit Response', first published in the Indian Missiological Review in September 1996."
permalink: /amaa/dalit-church-mission-dalit-response-full-text/
categories: [A. M. A. Ayrookuzhiel, Full text]
date: 1996-09
created: 2026-05-30
---
The **full text of [The Dalit Church's Mission — A Dalit Response](/amaa/dalit-church-mission-dalit-response/)** is reproduced here verbatim from the original paper by [A. M. A. Ayrookuzhiel](/amaa/). This article first appeared in *Indian Missiological Review*, Vol. 18, No. 3, September 1996 (Satprakashan, Indore, for Sacred Heart Theological College, Shillong).
This version preserves the original wording, structure, and formatting as presented in the source document.
## Contents
1. [Who Are the Dalits?](#who-are-the-dalits)
2. [Mission to the Dalit: A Historical Perspective](#historical-perspective)
1. [Nature of the Early Mission to the Dalits](#early-mission)
2. [Nature of Mission to the Dalit in the Pre-Independence Period](#pre-independence)
3. [Nature of Mission to the Dalits in the Post-Independence Period](#post-independence)
3. [The Nature of Mission to the Dalits Today](#mission-today)
1. [Participation in the Economic and Political Empowerment](#economic-political-empowerment)
2. [Churches' Participation in Religious Empowerment](#religious-empowerment)
1. [What is the Nature of the Religious Problem of the Dalits?](#religious-problem)
2. [Quit Hinduism: Answers Ambedkar](#quit-hinduism)
3. [Dalits are Hindus: Says Hindu Renaissance](#dalits-are-hindus)
1. [The Hindu Claim is Political in its Origin](#hindu-claim-political)
2. [Will Hindus Religiously Accept the Dalits as Hindus?](#accept-dalits)
3. [Is Conversion then the Answer?](#conversion-answer)
4. [Two Visible Trends among the Dalits](#two-trends)
4. [Conclusion](#conclusion)
5. [Notes](#notes)
## Who Are the Dalits? {#who-are-the-dalits}
The word 'Dalit' literally means 'broken', 'scattered', 'subjugated', 'oppressed' etc. It is used in India to refer to the traditional 'unseeable, unapproachable and unhearable' people of India who constitute about one-fifth of the 900 million people of the country. In the 1900s this new word 'Dalit' came into currency in the writings of the poets of the community who wanted to focus attention on the raw fact of their broken existence. But in the official documents of the Government of India they are referred to as 'Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.' It means the people who come under a particular schedule which makes them entitled to certain positive constitutional guarantees with regard to political representation, government jobs, and educational benefits as a kind of remedial measures against centuries-old negative discrimination against them.
In the traditional Hindu literature, they are variously called as a group of "Chandalas", "Panchamas," "Adi Sudras," "Adi Dravidas," "Adi Andhras," "Adi Kannadigas," or by their innumerable tribal names like "Malas," "Madigas," "Pulayar," "Kuravar," "Vettavar," "Vedar," etc., all indicating a low-born people outside the organised four castes such as Brahmins (Priestly class), Kshatriyas (Warrior castes), Vysyas (Farming and trading class) and Sudras (Servile Class).
## Mission to the Dalit: A Historical Perspective {#historical-perspective}
The simple fact that 70-80 percent of the Christian population in India are from the Dalit community goes to show that the missionary movement which started from the West in the modern period, ended up in establishing the ministry of the churches in our country largely centred around this group. It may therefore be appropriate on our part to reflect on the mission to the Dalits in the light of the nature of the mission in the past.
### Nature of the Early Mission to the Dalits {#early-mission}
Two broad features characterised the early mission to the Dalits throughout India. In the first place it provided them with a new self-understanding of themselves and of the society around them with a new set of faith concepts, religious symbols and practices which contrasted with their traditional self-images as some sort of inferior human beings. Secondly, there was an element of social empowerment as many missionaries stood by the untouchables in resisting their traditional oppressors and asserting their civil rights. It is not necessary here to narrate the innumerous cases spread all over the country and its circumstances. They were adequate in some ways and inadequate in many other respects.
The response of the Dalits to this form of mission was tremendous and overwhelming. They hoped that at last they were going to be liberated. But the primary concern of the Christian mission seems to have been the establishment of the religious community of Christians or plant the Church as it were and not assisting in an historical process of human liberation of a broken people.
The establishment of the churches attracted a lot of people. It was part of the modernising social process. It provided an opportunity for English education, a more rational approach to life and problems as members of the Church, and a path to social mobility. Brahmins, Vellalas, Kammas, Reddies, Syrian-caste Christians and backward communities like Nadars, Idigas etc., came into the missionary churches in considerable numbers. These groups with their comparatively better-off economic positions, education qualifications and traditional status occupied the second rung of leadership after the foreign missionaries, and monopolised all the positions of power and authority within the churches, both in the priestly ministry and in other forms of ministry, such as schools, colleges and hospitals. There were many instances of denial of opportunities to promising Dalits in these institutions. Again, vast properties of land and other assets were often obtained free of cost by the churches from the Government of the day for social purpose particularly for the uplift of the Dalits. But the actual beneficiaries of this immense wealth turned out to be always non-Dalits.1
### Nature of Mission to the Dalit in the Pre-Independence Period {#pre-independence}
The National struggle for freedom had two streams. The dominant was the one led by Gandhi and the Congress. Though it claimed to be representative of all sections of the society, in fact it represented the well-to-do classes and castes and their interests. A very vocal one that was led by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar struggled for freedom not only from the British but also much more importantly from the economic, political and cultural slavery of the Dalits under the caste Hindus. He wanted the British to ensure that freedom to the Dalits before granting independence to India.
But the churches led by the foreign missionaries were not enthusiastic about providing freedom to the Indians. But there were exceptions in the second level of leadership made up of a few Christians. They extolled Gandhi as a witness to true Christian values and joined the struggle led by him. There was competition among the religious groups for the loyalty of the Dalits. But their aim was to secure political advantage for their religious community rather than the liberation of the Dalits themselves. When Ambedkar threatened that he would quit Hinduism and called upon the Dalits to do the same, several religious leaders approached him including Christians like Dr. Stanley Jones. But otherwise, the Dalit agenda was not part of the Christian mission.
### Nature of Mission to the Dalits in the Post-Independence Period {#post-independence}
Leadership in the churches has now effectively become the monopoly of caste Christians. There was however a need to establish a creative dialogue with the main stream Hindu heritage for the sake of inter-religious community harmony and understanding. In their anxiety to do this exercise, they probed the philosophical, theological and spiritual depth of Brahmanical Hindu heritage; but they ignored the ideological function (power dimension) of this heritage. I suspect that caste Christians do this because they are oblivious of the ideological functions of this heritage in maintaining the iniquitous caste order in the society. They do this because they were never victims of this order as untouchables were in history. They were never robbed of their status in the name of religion and they were never denied power in the name of religion.
In short, while the Dalit Christians were running away from a religious hegemony in search of their liberation, their co-religionists, their religious leaders, were embracing it in an exercise of community building. The religious leadership was thus oblivious to the fact that real community building in terms of promoting social justice activities in the villages, in the States and in the Nation remained outside the religious circles. They ignored the fact that all religions carry with them many feudal and hegemonistic values and practices in the garb of old religious tradition. Unless these religions accept the basic human equality, human dignity of all irrespective of caste, the talk of religious harmony is an attempt to maintain status quo by the people in power.
## The Nature of Mission to the Dalits Today {#mission-today}
### Participation in the Economic and Political Empowerment {#economic-political-empowerment}
The movement for Dalit liberation for which Christianity played a crucial role in the initial stages was taken up by the Dalit leaders, particularly by Baba Saheb Ambedkar in all its aspects, economic, political and religious. The struggle of the community in the last 150 years finally resulted in their gaining a place within the broader framework of a democratic and secular Constitution of India. But the battle to strengthen their economic and political identity is continuing both within the legal framework of the Constitution as well as outside it, since the forces against them attack them outside the legal framework. The electoral battle in the Panchayats of the rural villages, in the State Legislatures and in the Parliament, their increasing self-assertion in economic, political and cultural fields create a lot of resentment and animosity among the non-Dalit castes and there are murderous attacks on the Dalit Community. Men are killed, women are raped, houses are torched and their assets burned. There are thousands of such cases of atrocities against the Dalit community every year as recorded by the Commissioner of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Pipra, Kizhvenmony, Marathwada, Belchi, Karamchedu, Tsundar, etc., which are some of the more barbaric nationally well-known cases.
In other words, the Dalit Community is engaged in a war against the oppressive forces which ruled them for several centuries with the sanction of religion. Though there is a legal framework in support of them, justice is not often done to them in such cases as there is an indirect and often direct and open collusion between the local police, Government bureaucrats, powerful local landlords and local politicians, who generally are from the non-Dalit caste groups. Even the court of law comes out with ridiculous excuses in order to acquit the culprits in most cases.2
The cases which end up in conviction is a very small percentage after years of frustrating experiences for the Dalits wasting much of their time and meagre resources for the purpose.
Though there are individual Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists who joined this struggle of the Dalits for the historical transformation of the Indian society, the churches as a whole do not see it as part of their mission to join the struggle of the broken Dalit people. They do not monitor it nor publicly condemn it, although the Christian Dalits are particularly more vulnerable as they are excluded from the purview of protection of the Civil Rights Act and Prevention of Atrocities Act. But in fact their is a struggle for justice and honourable place in Indian society. But unless the churches understand it as a process of historical struggle for liberation, they cannot talk of Dalit theology of liberation. Therefore the first task of mission for the churches is to publicly witness to the struggle for justice undertaken by the Dalits for eventual harmony and peace.
### Churches' Participation in Religious Empowerment {#religious-empowerment}
This area of mission is least understood by the churches. And there is very little happening in the country in a positive way to the benefit of the Dalits. This is the area of religio-cultural change and renaissance necessary for the Dalits to redeem their sacred human dignity. At present the Hindu religious heritage is playing an ideological role in maintaining the low caste status of the Dalits.
Let me explain this point in some detail in a historical perspective. In the past the economic and political marginalisation of the Dalits corresponded to their old religious identity as untouchables in the Hindu social order. In other words, their economic and political identity was in harmony with their old religious identity. As we have seen earlier their struggle in the last 150 years finally resulted in their gaining economic and political rights. As for their religious rights within the traditional Hindu heritage, the picture is different. As far as the Constitution is concerned it ceases to enforce their old religious identity as in the past. In a way we can even say that it conflicts with their old identity as it has abolished untouchability and promoted human rights in economic, political and social fields. In other words, their old religious identity is in disharmony with their new economic and political status.
But the political acceptance of their equality with the rest of the population does not remove their old religious stigma which is inflicted on them by traditional Hindu scriptures, beliefs and ritual practices. "How can they redeem their religious dignity" is the problem. A secular Constitution can intervene only in matters under its jurisdiction. It cannot intervene and rule in religious matters.
#### What is the Nature of the Religious Problem of the Dalits? {#religious-problem}
The Brahmanical religion which originated in the encounter between Aryan-speaking people and the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilisation began its journey with a hybrid religious ethos. As this religious culture and its priesthood spread across the diverse tribes in the continent, it became more and more complex as it absorbed their god-symbols, religious rites, priesthood and their places of worship. The new god-symbols were either identified with some of their old ones of Vedic times or were subordinated to them as sons, daughters, or vehicles. It means, the god-symbols and rites of the enslaved groups like the Dalits were neither uprooted nor extirpated. Their gods were conceived as lower forms of the gods of their masters, and their religious rites were tolerated as an appropriate form of worship suitable for their low status in life.
This approach was consistent with the Brahmanical philosophy which did not pose a true e gods, but saw all gods and religious symbols as different experiential levels of the Ultimate Truth. *Ekam Sat, Vipra Bahuda Vadanti:* The Ultimate Reality is one, but the wise speak about it differently, a philosophy of religions which shape the religious world-view of millions of Hindus. The net result of this historic religious process on the Dalits as an enslaved group was that they were allowed to carry on worshipping their gods in their own manner.
But the politically enslaved Dalits became economically agricultural slaves and menial workers. As they were brought more and more under the feudal overlordship of the temple, Brahmin priest and their followers, many of the economic and social relations between the two groups (Sarvana and Avarnas) acquired the colour of religious practices and rituals. They were expressed or enacted at the time of agricultural operations, on occasions of temple and village festivals or rituals connected with rites of passage of their feudal masters.
This historical process led to some form of mutual inculturation between the Dalits and the followers of Brahmanical religion (caste Hindus) resulting in a certain commonality of god-symbols, rites and festivals. In this process, the Brahmin priest and their followers appropriated social control of important Dalit shrines, introduced new myths, or reinterpreted old myths and assigned the Dalits' gods subordinate status in the divine hierarchy corresponding to the social hierarchy in real life. On the other hand, the Dalits learned new myths, revised their old myths, and acquired new festivals or re-devised their old festivals, incorporating Brahmanical values and accepted low status assigned to them.
This historical development makes the masses of the Dalits think that they are Hindus. They do not realise that they had been religiously colonised by the Brahmanical priestly tradition as they had been politically and economically colonised by the followers of that religious tradition. However, it would seem that political and economic freedom will not be complete unless it is also accompanied by religious freedom under these circumstances. What should the Dalits do?
#### Quit Hinduism: Answers Ambedkar {#quit-hinduism}
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Dalits Liberation movement, is one among the Dalit intellectuals who had seriously studied the Hindu scriptures, their Dharma Sastras, their religious rites, ceremonies, practices regarding marriage and food3 from the point of view of Dalit liberation. He is the one who agonised over the question whether the Dalits can get a new identity of religious equality within the Hindu tradition.
He is the one who asked, "Does Hinduism recognise equality?" "Does Hinduism recognise fraternity?"4 After quoting extensively from Manu and other Dharma Sastras, the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, to analyse these questions, he comes to the conclusion in his writing on philosophy of Hinduism that 'Inequality is the soul of Hinduism,'5 a statement he repeats in a number of other places exactly in the very same words. In other places he says, "Hinduism! Thy name is inequality."6 "Hindus have a religion which is incompatible with liberty, equality and fraternity"7 and "Hinduism and social union are incompatible."8 etc.
When B.R. Ambedkar says that 'Inequality is the soul of Hinduism' he means, in other words, 'caste order' is the soul of Hinduism. Caste order is an order of unequal relation of power and status religiously legitimated by Hindu scriptures, Dharma Sastras, Hindu religious tradition and practice. The everyday religion of the Hindu corresponds to the unequal relation of power in real life. Brahmins generally exercise all forms of religious authority. They together with other caste Hindus control the wealth of temples, mutts and other religious institutions, while the the Dalits live in their own little religious world with their own little gods and small shrines. In fact each caste group has a religious identity of its own. Even a Dalit who has managed to change his class status is not welcome in the religious circles of other Hindus. Dr. Ambedkar therefore advised the Dalits to quit Hinduism. He followed it up with his own example of embracing Buddhism with thousands of his followers.
Though never articulated in such an intellectual fashion, this is what the Dalits who searched for liberation throughout the centuries felt. A number of Dalit sages over the centuries started their own protest religious movements against Brahmanical Hindu religion. This is also what caused mass exodus of the Dalit into Islam, Sikhism and Christianity.
#### Dalits are Hindus: Says Hindu Renaissance {#dalits-are-hindus}
On the other hand, the leaders of Hindu renaissance from the 19th century onwards claim that Dalits are Hindus. It is the position the Government of India adopted by defining the Scheduled Castes as Hindus and made the various political, economic and educational benefits conditional to the Dalits professing Hindu religion.
##### The Hindu Claim is Political in its Origin {#hindu-claim-political}
Beginning with the second half of the 19th century when the untouchables began to move into Christianity, Hindu leaders understood its political threat. For instance, Swami Vivekananda (1863 - 1902) asked his country men, 'Was there ever a sillier thing before in the world than what I saw in Malabar country? The poor pariah is not allowed to pass through the same street as the high caste men, but if he changes his name to a hodgepodge English name, it is alright - the Mohammedan conquest of India came as a salvation to the downtrodden, to the poor - that is why one fifth of our people become Mohammedans, - and one fifth to one half of your Madras people will become Christians if you do not take care'. He traces the root of this evil to the kind of religion the caste Hindus of the day practised. "You Hindus have no religion, your god is in the kitchen, your Bible is in the cooking pot - People have given up the Vedas, and all your philosophy is in the kitchen. The religion of India at present is a degradation."9
The political implication of the conversion of large sections of the untouchables to Christianity became a real threat to the Hindus, when the colonial power introduced the Government of India Act of 1909. The Act established representation to religious communities in legislatures proportional to their percentage in the total population. This made the caste Hindus, who so far excluded the untouchables from their community, to woo them and show interest in their welfare. For instance, the Gaikwad of Baroda under whose inspiration the Depressed Classes Mission was founded said: "We must purify our religious ideals. Religion must not be allowed to interfere with our progress individually and collectively. Millions have in the past been driven by this treatment to desert Hinduism for the crescent and the cross. Thousands are doing so every year. Can Hindus contemplate without alarm this annually increasing diminution in their number?"10
But even then the Indian National Congress, the main arm of the struggle for independence was against including the issues of social reform like the problem of untouchability in its agenda till 1917. The official stand of the Congress was that questions of reform should be left to each community to decide and act upon.
In 1917, the British Government announced its new policy of 'gradual development of self-government in India as an integral part of the British Empire'. Taking this opportunity, an organisation called 'Depressed Classes Movement' of Dalits met in Bombay and unanimously adopted the following resolutions like 'loyalty to the British Throne, administration of Indians should be largely under the control of the British till all classes and especially the Depressed Class rise up to a condition to effectively participate in the administration of the country', 'representation of the untouchables to the legislative bodies to ensure their civil and political rights', 'free and compulsory education to meet the needs of the Depressed Classes'.11 In other words, the movement of the Congress and the movement of the Depressed Classes for freedom and independence had a different agenda. While the Congress saw the British as their main enemy, the Depressed Classes saw them as an ally to redeem their political and other human rights. They also demonstrated through their resolutions that they would be a party to any political settlement.
The message was clear to the Congress. It dawned on the Congress that unless the cooperation of the Untouchables is assured, the struggle for national independence will not take off. Gandhi wrote in *Young India* in 1921, 'Untouchability cannot be given a secondary place on the programme without the removal of the taint. Swaraj (self-rule) is a meaningless term. I consider the removal of untouchability as a most powerful factor in the process of attainment of Swaraj - the Hindus must realise that, if they wish to offer successful non-cooperation against the government they must make common cause with the Panchamas (the Dalits), even as they have made common cause with the Musselmans.'12
This is how the Hindus claim that the Dalits began as Hindus. It got Constitutional status when the President of India proclaimed the Constitution (Schedule Castes) Order in 1950 which defines Schedule Castes as Hindu by religion. With this order, the Government extends provisions of positive discrimination - political, economical and educational - in favour of the Dalits, only if they profess Hindu religion.
##### Will Hindus Religiously Accept the Dalits as Hindus? {#accept-dalits}
It does not really matter whether it was the political considerations that compelled the Hindus to own the Dalits as Hindus. The real question is: Did this mean religious changes in the Hindu tradition in a way which makes this claim meaningful? Or can such change take place in the near future?
As the need to own the untouchables was aroused out of political necessity - and it is the politicians who felt the need - the reform stopped at the political and the social level. The Government of India abolished the practice of indecubality and allowed the entry of Untouchables into Hindu temples which were earlier out of bounds to them.
But untouchability continues to be observed among the caste Hindus at the religious level as the traditional attitude towards the Dalits as an inferior people worshipping inferior gods through lower forms of rituals persists. This can be changed only (1) if the Dalits are also given priestly religious authority among Hindus which at present is the exclusive preserve of the Brahmins, (2) if the Dalits also share in the temporal administration of the enormous wealth of the temples which is controlled by non-Dalit castes.
In fact these are the two challenges posed to the Hindu leaders by Dr. Ambedkar himself when they claimed that the Dalits are Hindus.
Ambedkar asked them to 'install a depressed class leader into the gaddi (seat) of Sankaracharya. Hundred families of Chitpavan Brahmins should fall at the feet of the new Sankaracharya as a token of their change of heart and acceptance of equal status.' He further challenged, 'will the Devasom Department be placed in the hands of untouchables and Sudras?'
In fact it is unthinkable for the Hindus to have a Dalit Sankaracharya. One of the present Sankaracharyas even publicly defends untouchability.13
As for the Devasom Department, a survey of the Travancore Devassom Board of the State of Kerala gives the following general picture. All the temples under the administration of the Board come under the religious jurisdiction14 of particular Brahmin families who enjoy these rights as hereditary.15 Santhis are16 appointed by the Board in consultation with them. They are invariably Brahmins in fact. Some of these Santhis themselves have hereditary right to perform puja17 in particular temples.
There are many offices other than that of the priest connected with temple worship like that of preparing food articles, making garlands, carrying idols, playing music etc. All those are held by traditional savarna jatis,18 many of which are again hereditary to some families.
The officers in the Board from the Commissioner down to the Sub-group Officers are either forward castes or backward castes. One finds no Dalit employee in the department except an occasional sweeper or a watchman.
In short, there is very little hope for the Dalits to gain an equal religious status within the Brahmanical religious heritage.
##### Is Conversion then the Answer? {#conversion-answer}
It may appear logical and theoretically correct for the Dalits to convert to another religion which professes equality of status to all its members. In fact, it was the way the Dalits thought and acted in history.
But the sad fact is that in India it did not succeed in integrating the converted Dalits with the rest of their co-religionists. In fact as Dr. Wilson had argued, it had only increased their alienation and separation as in the case of Dalits who converted to Christianity.19 A kind of ethnic cultural group identity persists among all castes and sub-castes including those among the Dalits. It is compounded with the general class character of the concerned group. It seems to overcome some of their fears, unless there is a total cultural transcendence as it happened in some instances among those converted to Islam. Marriage takes place only within such sub-caste cultural groups even when they belong to different religions.
Secondly, the vast millions of the Dalits are basically living a religion of their ancestors. Their mother goddesses, goddesses of diseases, spirits of ancestors, heroes and heroines, hill gods, river gods, sacred animals and sacred trees were historically their own and they are deeply attached to these gods and goddesses. Their mythological past is bound up with these gods and religious rites. They do not realise that their political and economic subordination and subjugation in the past within Hindu society was cemented by religiously absorbing and co-opting their gods and goddesses as lower forms in the Hindu Pantheon. This makes the Dalits feel that they are also Hindus. This subjective consciousness is exploited by the caste Hindu dominated government at present by economic, educational and political benefits in the form of reservation only to the Hindu Dalits. Further it is always the 'Hindu' Dalit leaders, never a Christian or a Buddhist Dalit, who are projected and supported as political representative of the Dalits by caste Hindus who dominate all political parties irrespective of their professed ideologies.
In short, the deep-rooted personal attachment of the Dalits to the Hinduised form of their ancestral gods and goddesses, coupled with strong political and economic considerations, make any mass exodus of the Dalits out of Hinduism unlikely. Unless it is a mass movement of the people, its efficacy as a potent anti-caste movement of social liberation looks to be minimal. In other words, religious empowerment of Dalits does not seem to be in religious conversion only. How do we then participate in the religious empowerment of the Dalits?
##### Two Visible Trends among the Dalits {#two-trends}
If we follow the movement of the Dalit people, two currents are seen among them. One is to build their religious identity in anti-caste religious protest movement. Some recent regional examples would be Sat-Namis, Mahima Dharma, movement of Narayana Guru, Poikayil Apachan, Subhananda Guru, Ghasi Das, etc., in different parts of the country.
One comes across such movements both in the ancient folk traditions of the Dalits as well as in their history. In the folk traditions, they appear in the form of gods, goddesses, ancestors who protest against caste system and defy the Brahmanical priesthood. Pottan Teyyam, Neele, Pakkanar, Nandanar, etc., are some of the examples. In the historic tradition, we come across Dalit saints in the movements of Cittar, Lingayat, Varkari, Dasa, Kabir panthis, Dadu panthis, Ravi Dasis, etc.
An interesting common factor in all these traditions and movements is that they came to exist under the influence of Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Sikhism and Christianity.
These movements refused to accept the authority of the Brahmanical books, their priesthood, temple rituals and practices. They generally followed an ascetic devotional form of religion. They had their own priests or elders to conduct worship, though some of them eventually compromised with the Brahmanical ritual religion.
One form of Christian ministry to strengthen the religious identity of the Dalits would be the practice of dialogue and community-building with these religious groups (let us call them protestant 'Hindu' groups), for they stand in some sort of continuity with the gospel message. But the churches have generally ignored them as they do not have the status of Brahmanical religion. We do not realise that what they lacked was political support in their history. The other trend found among the Dalits is the struggle to assert their religious rite within the religion of the caste Hindus. Attempts to enter temples, temple ponds, struggle to join village religious festivals, protest against avoidance of Dalit quarters during the religious processions, refusal to perform demeaning traditional ritual roles, etc., are in this direction. A section among the caste Hindus also support these activities as part of the programme of Hindu political consolidation. Installation of the statues of Nandanar, a Dalit martyr and saint, by the Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti, appointment of a Ravi Dasi (Dalit) priest as the Chief priest of the famous Mahavir Temple in Patna, the slogan of 'one village one well' of the BJP, making a Dalit lay the first brick at the inaugural ceremony of building the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, renovation of Dalit shrines by Hindu Mutts, the decision of Sri. Vijayamahantesh Swamiji of Ilakal Mutt, a leading lingayat monastery in Karnataka, to make a Dalit his successor, attempts to take the Dalits enter caste Hindu temples by Swamy Agnivesh, support to the Dalits to play panchavadyam in Guruvayur temple by Swami Bhootanand Thirth, etc., are steps in this direction.
Though the motives of many of caste Hindus for these activities is the political consolidation of the Hindus with the Dalits, they cannot achieve this consolidation without changes and compromises in their old religious practices and beliefs. The Dalits also will claim a certain amount of power in the administration of temple wealth and institutions. In other words, the attempt to integrate the Dalits within Hinduism can lead to a second Hindu renaissance. As Christianity caused the first renaissance among Hindus, changing their world-view and social understanding, exerting pressure for a second renaissance by supporting "protest" movements within Hinduism will, I consider to be an authentic form of Christian ministry.
## Conclusion {#conclusion}
Failure of the Church to exorcise the demon of caste within the churches point to the fact that change in the caste consciousness of the people can come about only through a civilisation process in the larger society which embraces both religious and material factors. In other words, it calls for wholesale systemic change in the caste-class structure of the society. It can therefore only be accomplished within the larger society.
The two kinds of ministry described above is a path in this direction. The economic and political empowerment of the Dalits is a reasonable possibility as the Dalits are a political force in the making given the egalitarian and secular Constitution which accepts human right as something sacred. As economic and political struggle of this sleeping giant gathers momentum, it will produce its own religio-cultural changes.20
As for the religious empowerment, we should take that the radiational ascetic Hinduism, modern religious movements around Babas and Matajis, attempts to integrate the Dalits within Hinduism, however ambiguous they are, they are not caste movements. They portend a different world-view and change. But in the absence of any public recognition from outside, say for example by the churches, they are captured by traditional caste-class forces as it happened in the case of so many sects of "Protestant" Hinduism.
Therefore dialogue and community-building exercises with these agents of change within the greater tradition will be a part towards strengthening the "protest" movements in Hinduism, which stand in closer spiritual affinity with the Christian world-view as regards sacred human dignity.
## Notes {#notes}
-
For a case study, cf. Stephen Vattapara Junior, History of CMS, Anglican Church, Kottayam: Anglican Diocesan Publication, Kochi.
↩
-
Abraham Ayrookuzhiel, Swami Ananda Thirth: Untouchability-Gandhian Solution on Trial, CISRS, 1987.
↩
-
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar; Collected Works, Vol. 3, 45 ff.
↩
-
Ibid., 25-87.
↩
-
Ibid., 87.
↩
-
Ibid., 87.
↩
-
B.R. Ambedkar, Collected Works, Vol. 9, 429.
↩
-
Ibid., Vol. 9, 187.
↩
-
Swami Vivekananda: Caste, Culture and Socialism.
↩
-
B.R. Ambedkar, What Congress and Gandhi did to the Untouchables.
↩
-
Ibid.
↩
-
Young India, 3 November, 1921.
↩
-
Sankaracharya of Puri.
↩
-
Tantravakasam.
↩
-
Karanma.
↩
-
Priest in Temples who perform worship. See footnote 19.
↩
-
Worship.
↩
-
Castes which are traditionally held as touchable.
↩
-
Wilson: Twice Alienated.
↩
-
On 5 December 1995, a full bench of the High Court of Kerala reinstated a backward caste Izhava as Santhi in a temple in Kerala, which was challenged by his colleague Brahmin Santhi. The Court declared that the traditional usage of appointment of Santhi on the basis of caste cannot be given the sanction of law. The challengers view that it violates his religious rights and it cannot be maintained as it contravenes the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. In fact this historical judgement was welcomed by progressive sections of the Hindu society. The case was fought by the backward and Dalit castes.
↩
{% include navbox-amaa.html %}