All Dalit Christians who came into the Christian fold in the whole of the 20th century were fooled by the fake promise of a spiritual Achha Din. – Aleena
For as long as I can remember, We and They were always different. “I knew I would lose my umbrella when these Pulaya women were standing here … what a bad omen they are,” exclaimed someone in church.
I was in Grade VIII when I heard this. It was all a pompous lie, the tale of the Holy Blood of Christ “healing” our discrimination. It was into deaf ears of the churches that the voice of Poykayil Yohannan made his point about this years ago. Our church has a striking majority of Dalits. The earnings of Protestant church priests are just a tenth of what their believers make in my church. But they can’t ever imagine a Syrian Christian priest living off the offerings of the majority Pulaya and Paraya members of this diocese. No way. That is how strong caste works within the community.
They are liars, as there is no text or manuscript that endorse or validates any racial or caste discrimination in the Bible [1] as in the Manusmriti or cultural history of Hinduism. They lie that they are free of such inhumane practices. They lie that their theological texts are epitomes of equality. All Dalit Christians who came into the fold in the whole of the 20th century were fooled by this fake promise of a spiritual Achha Din. Yes, the sense of caste or notion of caste was absent from the minds of the Dalits, but never had the Syrian Christians given up their pride over their Brahmin and Roman ancestry or their claim of purity of blood.
Just fact check how the Church shamed Dalits for their open support to the Dalit hartal that happened. They forgot that we were the same as how we were when we left the Hindu fold. We were always silenced from speaking up, all our rebellions inside the religion crushed. But not a pinch of this Church wrath was towards the pure blood theories and claims of pride of the Syrians, all that was perfectly Christian. Their pride in their Namboothiri (Hindu) origins were a thing of constant celebration, both for the Syrian Christians and for the Church. No theologist or good Samaritan would raise even a question against this pure blood and royal claims of these great families of the Syrian Christians.[2]
There is discrimination and exclusion right from the choir to the Holy Chairs of the Church. There are even separate prayer services and functions that would even put apartheid to shame. Even in death we are apart, away and outcast.
Very recently a reputed college in Kerala University, which was under the Christian management, rejected a thesis on Poykayil Appachan who was a great Dalit poet and philosopher reformist. They forced the student to edit out the attacks Appachan had launched on the Church. They were too weak to address the truth that he spoke out. The liberal ones who always spoke about caste in Hinduism were also rendered silent. Even Dalit organisations seldom addressed our needs as such.
Kerala government has included the Dalit Christians under Other Eligible Communities (OEC) category which excludes us from the direct benefits of the SC/ST reservation, rendering the whole community into social and economic backwardness. Dalits who constitute the majority of about 70 per cent of the Indian Christian population is given only less than seven per cent in the seats of power at the Church.[3] My mother always wanted to be a nun, but when someone who became one told her about the bad treatment and discrimination one would face, she backed off. But even now she says that she should have been a nun and she adds: “It will always be dreadful thing … aren’t our people already in a dreadful state anyway.” – The Indian Express, 1 June 2008
Notes
- For St. Paul on slavery see Ephesians 6:5-9, Colossians 3:22-25 & 4:1, 1 Timothy 6:1-2, and Philemon. See also 1 Peter 2:18-25, which begins: “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward.”
- The Syrian Christian claim of Namboodiri or Brahmin ancestry is fraudulent, an historical error at best. St Thomas did not come to Kerala and evangelise the Brahmins. He did not get further east that Parthia (Persia) where he established a church at Fars. The first record of Christian immigrants in Kerala is 345 CE, not earlier. And the first record of Namboodiris in Kerala is for Mezhathol Agnihothri, born in 342 CE. Marxist historians place Namboodiri Brahmins in Kerala not earlier that 6th century CE (they apparently migrated south from the Himalayan foothills). That a Vedic Namboodiri would convert to the Syrian Thomas cult is an absurdity!
- Pope Gregory XV (1621-1623) sanctioned caste divisions within the Indian Church and his edict has never been rescinded. Earlier in 1599 the Council of Diamper and again in 1606 the Council of Goa had sanctioned the same. These edicts have governed Catholic practice ever since―though Christians piously maintain that caste is contrary to Christ’s teachings.
See also
- St. Thomas and Caste – Ishwar Sharan
- St. Thomas and Anti-Brahminism – Koenraad Elst
- Syrian Bishop Doubts St. Thomas Visited South India – TNN
- Christian Churches threaten Dalit rights – Leela Tampi
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