dalit spirituality maria arul raja, sj

From the Culture of Fragmentation To the Culture

of Communion

A. Maria Arul Raja, SJ

From the Culture of Fragmentation

A. Maria Arul Raja, SJ

To the Culture of Communion

1.0 Caste Discrimination in South Asia 2.0 Church under the Grip of Casteism3.0 Admonition from Within and Without3.1 Critique From Within3.2 Critique From Without4.0 Casteism Vs. Communion5.0 Dialogue Between Dalit World and Eucharistic World

6.0 Credible Accompaniment with the Dalits6.1 Vibrations under the Dalit Soil6.1.1 Images of God6.1.2 Materiality as the Site of Salvation6.1.3 Promotion of Human Dignity as the Good News6.2 Walking with Dalits6.2.1 Autonomy for Decision for Conversion6.2.2 Prophetism from the Soil6.2.3 Repentance in Action

• 6.3 Rereading with Dalits• 6.3.1 Encountering Suffering with Dalits• 6.3.2 Ethical Purity against Ritual Purity• 6.3.3 Proclamation only After Listening• 7.0 Community-building against the

Culture of Casteism

1.0 Caste Discrimination in South Asia

• About 250 people (16 percent) of the total Indian population are relegated to the margins of Indian caste-ridden society. This figure does not include those Dalits who are Christians and Muslims, who could be approximately 25 million.


• Though the Constitution of India has outlawed the practice of untouchability in any form as a criminal offence, the disadvantaged Dalits are ostracised from and even persecuted in the day-to-day life of Indian society. Even the remedial measures of reservation of the jobs and the educational privileges did not suffice to undo the injustice done to the Dalits.


• The Dalits are despised with by the caste-minded majority as the untouchable people. They are sought to be ill-treated as the untouchables to the extent of robbing of their self-worth with the caste belief that they are despicably condemned to be abused at all levels.

2.0 Church under the Grip of Casteism


• In the Indian scenario, caste discrimination and practice of untouchability take multiple forms. Though claiming to be one in Christ, there are some churches built for separate caste groups retaining their caste identity. Allotment of separate places in some of the common worship centers is another eye-sore.


• The Dalit Christians are supposed to occupy the place distanced from the church and excluded by the caste-minded Christians. Even the dead of the Dalit communities are buried in separate cemeteries.


• Out of 156 Catholic bishops in India, 150 bishops belong to the upper castes. Only six bishops are Dalits. Out of 12,500 Catholic priests, only 600 are from Dalit community. Though Dalits constitute 75 per cent of the Indian Christian community, the control over church is in the hands of 25 per cent upper caste Christians.

3.0 Admonition from Within and Without

3.1 Critique From Within

• While critically introspecting on its life and mission the Indian Church through the official body of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) has strongly come out on the incompatibility of the caste system and Christ-centred community repeatedly (CBCI 1982, 1988, 1998).

Critique of the Holy Father

• Pope John Paul II challenged the Indian Bishops from the state of Tamil Nadu on November 17, 2003 during their ad limina visit in the following manner:

Critique of the Holy Father• At all times, you must continue to make

certain that special attention is given to those belonging to the lowest castes, especially the Dalits. They should never be segregated from other members of society. A semblance of a caste-based prejudice in relations between Christians is a counter sign to authentic human solidarity, a threat to genuine spirituality and a serious hindrance to the church’s mission of evangelization.

Critique of the Holy Father

• Therefore, customs or traditions that perpetuate or reinforce caste division should be sensitively reformed so that they may become an expression of the solidarity of the whole Christian Community.

3.2 Critique From Without

• Social reformers of the 19-20 centuries like Mahatma Phule and M.K. Gandhi and revolutionaries like Ambedkar and Iyotheedass Pandithar identified the dynamic energies of the teachings of Jesus in breaking the caste system fragmenting people.

3.2 Critique From Without

• But the actual life-witnesses of the Christians were under fire with the ruthless critique of these non-Christians for having miserably betrayed Jesus and shamelessly upholding the caste system.

4.0 Casteism Vs. Communion

Culture of Casteism

• Hierarchization of persons, things, space, and time

Culture of Communion

Egalitarianization of every one and every thing

Culture of Casteism

• Thrives on exclusion of others to be dismissed as deplorably impure unworthy of human dignity


Struggles for inclusion of others to be embraced as co-humans worthy of human dignity

Culture of Casteism

• Attributed purity based on one’s birth


Achieved purity based on one’s ethical performance

Culture of Casteism

• Obsession with not getting contaminated with permanent pollution


Gradual construction of purity from below

Culture of Casteism

• Construction of institutions of graded inequality as an inevitable necessity upheld by arbitrary, metaphysical and unethical principles


Construction of practical ways of democratization of power as an ethical necessity upheld by rational, practical and moral principles

Culture of Casteism

• Tendencies of absolutizing the divine aspects and relativizing the human dignity


Tendencies of relatizing the divine aspects and absolutizing the human dignity

Culture of Casteism

• Salvation as an individualistic process though community is needed for accumulation of power


Salvation as a communitarian process and community is needed for democratization of power

5.0 Dialogue Between Dalit World and Eucharistic World

Challenging Aspects of Salvation/ Transformation

Eucharistic World

Dalit World

Memory Movement from centralized dictatorship to autonomous self-governance (Exodus-event)

Movement from self-styled exclusion of the ochlos to communion with them as co-humans (Jesus-event)

Being elevated from the grip of the forces of death into energies of Resurrection (Church-event)

Dissenting against the caste hegemony and dreaming of becoming self-assertive humans Moving from the reality of horizontal and vertical hierarchy towards becoming co-humans with equal footing Wriggling out of the caste-based atrocities towards harmony with other humans


Eucharistic World Dalit World

Sacrifice The blood of the sacrificed animal as the shield for protecting the voiceless (Exodus-event)

The kenosis for defending the defenseless (Jesus-event) The culture of democratizing the God-given resources freed from the grip of the monopolizing power-centers (Church-event)

The murdered ancestors are counted as the accompanying protectors of the living Dalits Continuing with the imposed humiliation for serving the rest of the community through menial jobs ensuring health and hygiene for all The native culture of democratic sharing of food materials and other resources



Presence Unwavering accompaniment of the divine with the migrants through the thick and the thin of the wilderness (Exodus-event) Abiding presence to sustain the little flock till the end of the times (Jesus-event) Persistent commitment for good-news-ing the last and the lost through the personal investment of oneself (Church-event)

Loyal accompaniment with any ideology or religion in the midst of disadvantages Never shying away from the defeated co-Dalits even amidst defeat Involvement through manual labour and scavenging for promoting health and hygiene makes Dalit presence physically intense on the material plane



Egalitarianism From power accumulation to power distribution (Exodus-event)

From the monopolizing the divine to democratization the divine (Jesus-event)

From the old heaven of waiting for the wealthy to the new earth of waiting on the wretched (Church-event)

Negating every form of discriminatory hierarchy and opting for egalitarianism Revolting through struggles of temple entries against the monopoly of God by the caste-minded people Growing as co-humans with others as the foundation of the inclusive ideology of the Dalits to build inclusive communities leading the humanity towards a casteless to egalitarian society (Wilfred 2011: 70)

6.0 Credible Accompaniment with the Dalits

• Vibrations under the Dalit Soil• Walking with Dalits• Rereading with Dalits

6.1 Vibrations under the Dalit Soil

6.1.1 Images of God

• By and large, the Hebraic- European versions of the interpretations of the revelation of God are predominantly expressed through the mediation of the male voice with androcentric outlook of life. The images of the divine from the Dalit world seem to have an insistence on the female voice with maternal care (breast goddesses) and correction (tooth goddesses).

• The autonomy of these female faces of the divine is quite in contrast with the domesticated goddesses under the repressive male gods of the classical religions.

• The extreme distanciation of the inaccessibly transcendental God (Elohististic tradition) with the terrific consequences of the direct encounter may not be attuned to the Dalit expectation of the immediate accessibility with the divine.

• Such a reach-out to the divine, for the Dalits, has to be free from the excesses of the intermediaries like the priestly class people or the religious pundits known for their culture of hierarchisation of every thing and every one (people, time, objects, gods, or goddesses).

• Dalit brand of the mutuality-of- easy-access (Imma-nu-el) between the divine and the human has to be seen from the point of view of gradual evolution of the divine from the down-to-earth historical reality of day-to-day struggles of concrete life situations.

• In other words, the concept of the evolution of the divine from the murder (kolaiyil uditha deivangal) could creatively vibrate with the ‘ascending Christology’ rather than the ‘descending Christology’.

• One could identify the incompatibility of the need for imitating the kenosis (voluntary self-emptying) imposed on the Dalits who are already ‘forced to empty themselves’ as the historical necessity for their survival in the caste-ridden society. What we need is the ‘Gospel of Assertion’ in the face of ‘Demonic Oppression’ of casteism

6.1 Vibrations under the Dalit Soil

• 6.1.2 Materiality as the Site of Salvation

• The sensibilities emerging out of wilderness identify the movement of life from the stellar bodies and heaven-related divinity leading to the emphasis of the transcendental dimensions of God. The Jewish- Christian world has received this heritage in its discourses on the divine.

•

• But on the other hand, the sensibilities emerging from the agrarian foliage identify the movement of life through the flora and fauna throbbing on the earth-bound realities. And hence they tend to emphasize the immanent dimensions while grappling with the divine. The Dalits have been inheritors of such a patrimony.

• And hence their way of constructing salvation history tends to be along the lines of proceeding from the immanence to the transcendence, from here-and-now to the eschatological future. With their wounded history of being deprived of the resources and powers for dignified life here-and-now, they cannot construct an a priori heaven out there.

6.1.3 Promotion of Human Dignity as the Good News

• The Dalits have been craving for being gripped by the good news of being treated as dignified human persons worthy of becoming co-humans with others.


• In the face of being deceived against such valid expectations, they have been experimenting with floor-crossing between various groups, religions, ideologies, and political parties.


• What matters to them is the good news of the human dignity in their day to day life. If this good news is denied them, then they would not mind closing down the channels of further dialogue with any one.

6.2 Walking with Dalits

6.2.1 Autonomy for Decision for Conversion

• The Dalits have been experimenting on associating themselves with various groups, ideologies, religions, and political parties by way of attempting at humanizing themselves.


• This is how the history of Dalit conversion to other religions is to be interpreted. But the leisurely class ideologues or religious pundits, have been interpreting the Dalit conversion from native religion to other religions as their immaturity, disloyalty, unsteadiness, uprootedness, or unreliability.


• What they forget is that the human agency of the Dalits has been actively engaged in the autonomous option of choosing a religion of their choice in tune with the historical agenda of humanizing themselves.


• The Christians intending to engage themselves in a significant dialogue with the Dalits have to congratulate them for consciously and deliberately activating their autonomy in the choosing their religion of their choices.


• Even if they decide to stage a mass exodus from Christianity, will the Christians applaud them for having taken a decision on their own without any dependence on the Christian missionaries?


6.2.2 Prophetism from the Soil


• The Christians have to be trained to listen to the seismic movements beneath such ordinary words of the Dalits to listen to the extraordinary Word of God.


• Dalit deprivations may not be dramatically represented with brilliant illustrations from the media house establishments. Will such prophetic voices from the Dalit soil be listened to by the Eucharist-centered communities?

6.2.3 Repentance in Action


• As part of credibly walking with the Dalits, the Christians have to come out with public apology for having offended them down the centuries. The mass conversion movements from among the Dalits to Christianity have been their expression of having taken a definite stand against the sinful system of caste hierarchy.


• And even after such conversions, the Dalits have been stigmatized with the practice of untouchability, separate graveyards, separate churches, and of refusal to take them as partners for sacred offices.


• For all these excesses heaped upon the Dalits by the caste-minded people, the caste-ridden Church and the caste-ridden South Asia have to ask for forgiveness from them.

6.3 Rereading with Dalits

6.3.1 Encountering Suffering with Dalits

• The ways of treating the problem of evil in the classical religions are along the lines of blaming the victims as illustrated in the doctrines of original sin, ignorance (avidya), or passion of avarice (trishna) of the so-called sinners.

6.3.1 Encountering Suffering with Dalits

• But the suffering caused to Dalits by the systems of casteism and untouchability are not at all caused by the Dalit brand of sins, anomalies and moral failures.

6.3.2 Ethical Purity against Ritual Purity

• Construction of Holiness• Appropriation of the Sacred• Claim of Spiritual Legitimacy• The construction of holiness may run the risk

of creating a spiritual hierarchy leading to a political hierarchy along the following lines:

More Consecrated Less Consecrated

(Power & Privilege) (Curse &Condemnation)

6.3.2 Ethical Purity against Ritual Purity

• Against these trends of constructing holiness leading to power hierarchy with the culture of competition, spiritual warfare, or showcasing of piety, Jesus of Nazareth stands one amidst the men and women counted as sinners and publicans seeking the ‘baptism of conversion’ in front of the John the Baptizer in the wilderness (Mt 3:13-17; Mt 1:9-11; Lk 3:21-22).

6.3.3 Proclamation only After Listening

• Both the Exodus-event and Jesus-event emerged as the good news in the topography of wilderness which entails the mode of proclamation as the communicational model.

• But the Dalit-event emerges as the good news in the topography of the agrarian soil entailing the mode of enlightenment as its communicational model.


• On this count, listening has to be the prime necessity before proclaiming some thing (Maliekal 2012: 6-31). Any proclamation without listening cannot appeal to the Dalits.


7.0 Community-building against the Culture of Casteism

• If the claim of the Church that she is the extension of the very broken body and the spilled over blood of the same Eucharistic Lord is a credible one, then she can never shy away from her mission of ever becoming a community-building communities with inclusive orientations challenging every brand of human-made barriers of fragmentation.


• Entering into every lanes and by-lanes of the conflict-ridden society, she will identify the broken people and join hands with people of good will to empower the marginalized including the Dalits (Soares-Prabhu 1992: 140-159).


• Empowered by the Eucharistic culture, the Church cannot have the luxury of ghettoizing herself into an intra-ecclesial organization with her own little world of cultic idioms and functions (Kudilil 2010: 183-190).


• The actual worship of the demonic caste system will be replaced by the worship of the egalitarian Lord of History. The prevailing culture of touch-me-not-ism will be replaced by her energetic and innovative interventions in the civil space enabling the marginalized to lead and create history.


• In the following manner the Church can very well Eucharistise the broken world of Dalits as well as the broken world of the anti-Dalit humans.

• All those who have been counted as untouchable and polluted by the mind-sets of the power centres are the privileged medium of divine revelation


• It is through these despised lots the inclusive culture of embracing every human as the co-human is manifestly expressed by the divine.


• If the Indian church is awakened to this, then she could proceed with the rare courage and confidence of exorcising the Indian soil from the scourge of casteism.

• Excluding the realization of the emancipation of the Dalits and the Tribals, India can never become the people of God.

Thank you

dalit spirituality maria arul raja, sj

Spiritual

caste discrimination

indian church

caste identity

caste belief

casteminded christians

culture of casteism

grip of casteism

disadvantaged dalits