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Christians
and the caste system by Devant Maharaj
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Devant Maharaj (Trinidad, West Indies)
Christians and the caste system
CASTE is not an Indian word but a derogatory epithet introduced in
India by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century to describe
the Hindu society. They assumed that the Brahmins commanded the
same authority and power as the Christian clergy did in their own
time in Europe. The reality is that the Brahmins in India never
commanded the authority and power of the Christian clergy. They
controlled neither the economy nor the army, both of which the
clergy did in Medieval Europe.
It is a serious mistake to view caste from the European Christian
and imperialistic viewpoints. These were hostile to Hindu
civilisation and society which they were trying to undermine to
serve their own interests. They also lacked the historical
perspective necessary to understand it.
To properly study the role of caste, we must look at it from the
perspective of Indian history and culture. The Indian word for
what is called caste is varna. The clearest definition of
varnashrama or duties of different sections of society was given
by Sri Krishna in the Bhagvadgita. He says: "caturvarnyam
maya srishtam guna-karma vibhagashah." This simply means:
"The four varnas (castes) were created by me based on guna
(character) and karma (duty)." It was a social order meant to
ensure stability and proper functioning of society.
A Brahmin was needed for education and cultivation of scholarship.
But he could not exist without the support of Kshatriya, the
Vaishya or the Shudra. The Kshatriya was the political leader and
warrior. The Vaishya was the trader and Shudra was engaged in
productive activities like farming and labour. There is no mention
of one caste being superior to another. Every one of them is
equally important for the proper functioning of society.
Churches in India and world-wide claim that they do not
discriminate on caste lines and they criticise Hindu society for
caste discrimination day in and day out. But the fact remains that
churches practice discrimination based on caste. This is a paradox
of which one must be aware. The Catholic Bishop's Conference of
India itself mentions that caste discrimination prevails inside
the church. This is the observation of their General Body Meeting
held in Varansi, India from March 21 to 28, 1998 and the minutes
of the meeting were published in a special issue of Catholic
India: Here are some excerpts:
"Christianity is not a caste religion. Church is the people
of God and all the people are equal before God. The various
churches are also equal. There may be elder sisters and younger
sisters among the churches but no superior and inferior. But it is
a sad fact that the caste system on which social organisation has
been built, has entered into the Church of India.
"The depressed classes of people belonging to the lowest
level of the caste hierarchy were known harjans. Today the term
Dalits is used to denote them. Literally, the word means the weak,
the broken, the oppressed. In the Church today the name 'Dalit
Christians' is used to denote Christians of scheduled caste
origin. The problem of the Dalit Christians has come to focus
today. The Dalit Christians are in fact discriminated against by
the government and the churches.
"The rights and privileges given to the Dalits by the
government are denied to the Christian Dalits because they were
converted to Christianity. It is a pity that in the Church also
the Dalit Christians are discriminated against because they are
low caste or out castes.
"It seems that the Church has not offered opportunities to
the Dalit members to come up educationally and socially. As a
result even after hundreds of years of their existence in the
church, they remain on the periphery of the community. There are
few priests and leaders of the Church from the Dalit section. In
the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar where
majority of the Christians are Dalits and this problem is
seriously felt. "
According to the reports 70 per cent of the Tamil Catholics are
Dalits. It is reported that out of 14 Bishops in Tamil Nadu only
one is a Dalit. The percentage of Tamil priests is only four per
cent. There were no significant steps taken by the church until
recently to lift the socio-economic condition of the Dalits.
Vocation from Dalit Christians have not been encouraged. A Dalit
priest's feelings have been expressed in the following words: 'We
do understand that vocation is from God, but it boggles our mind
why He should choose His priests from non-Dalit only. Is God too
casteist? Does He also practise untouchability?'"
In March of this year Communities United to Fight Underdevelopment
(CUFU) headed by Arthur Sanderson, a Christian, brought to
Trinidad a United States Dalit Dr Birwa to lecture about
discrimination of Dalits by Hindus and the caste system. It is
unfortunate that Sanderson did not focus on discrimination and the
caste system that exists in his own churches.
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