Save Christianity from the Scourge of Caste - Indian Christians are Indian Christians

On the 10th of March 2016, an organisation, which calls itself the National Coordination Committee for Dalit Christians organised a rally in New Delhi to press for their demand that Scheduled Caste status be extended to both them and the Dalit Muslims. A number of Christian religious heads participated in the rally to lend their support to the demand. The executive heads of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) and the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) also partcipated and spoke in support of the demands.

I remember, a couple of decades back too, a rally with the same demands had been held. It was a very 'un-Christian like' rally. Vir Sanghvi, in an article, had described the rally thus: Quote, "four Christians, claiming to be Dalits, tied themselves on wooden crosses at Jantar Mantar to tell the world how desperately they wanted government jobs to be reserved for them. In a deliberate echo of the crucifixion, one of these women even placed a crown of thorns on her head while a rather unsavoury looking individual kept pointing a spear at her for the benefit of press photographers. I leave it to Christians to judge whether it is correct to parody the crucifixion in an effort to get media attention so that you can squeeze more jobs out of the government. But as far as I know, Jesus Christ did not say, 'Father, forgive them, for they are not giving me my share of the 33 per cent SC/ST quota'." Unquote. Among the prominent personalities who attended and lent their support to that rally was the unofficial Saint of Kolkata, Mother Teresa, shortly to be proclaimed officially a Saint, by Francis. She had, however, later disowned the reservation dharna stating that she had gone along with the others mistakenly believing that it was an all-faith meeting for religious harmony and that she had not realised that the agenda was political.

Christianity is supposed to be a humanist, inclusive, non-discriminatory, caste-less and liberating religion. Unlike the casteist hierarchies in religions such as Hinduism or Sikhism, a person is supposed to be unburdened of his caste baggage the moment he or she embraces Christianity; in the enlightened Christian community there are not supposed to be Dalit Christians or Brahmin Christians; simply - Christians; that person retains his or her nationality only. An Indian Christian is supposed to be simply an Indian Christian.

I find it perplexing that the two influential umbrella organisations of Christian churches are apealing to the government to consider the demands of the 'National Coordination Committee for Dalit Christians' to extend Scheduled Caste status to so-called 'Dalit Christian'. It is wrong on the part of the Churches to take this issue because it introduces the evil of castism in Christianity, by default. This would be a retrograde step and against the ethos of Christianity. Or has the rot of casteim set in Christianity too?. Am I being naive in believing that there are no discrimination in Christianity based on caste and; that contrary to my belief, Christianity does have caste based hierarchy in the manner of Hinduism or Sikhism? Practicing Christians may like to find an answer! I, however, have a disturbing feeling that a section of middle class Christians in position of power in the Church hierarchy - the Closet Dalits i.e. the powerful lobby of Dalits disguised as Christians - are manipulating the poor, illiterate or semi-literate Christians (who were Dalits earlier) from remote villages in order to reap the benefit of reservation.

Vir Sanghvi again. Quote: "There is a second cause for concern. The framers of our Constitution had wanted to create an India in which caste faded away. Reservation was a short-term measure. And yet, nearly 50 years later, we are heading for a situation in which every child will need to know his or her caste. As long as this was true of Hindus, it was bad enough. But now, even Christians want to rediscover the castes they left behind." Unquote. I endorse every word of what is quoted above.

Christian Churches, particularly the Roman Catholic Church do have financial muscle, excellent technical & management institutions, unsurpassed pool of managerial talent. If they sincerely want to make a difference in the life of their fellow underprivileged Christians, they should utilise these vast resources to empower them with technical, managerial, and other useful skills. (To be fair to the Christian institutions, they are already involved in these services, albiet in a limited way.)

(Toss the vexed question of reservation for the so-called 'Dalit Christians' in the court of socio-political organisations and the government.)