Felix Wilfred
The 2005 Surjit Singh Lecture in Comparative Religious Thought and Culture

Dr. Felix Wilfred is chair of the department of Christian studies at the University of Madras in India, where he has taught since 1993. He focuses on the relationship between Christianity and contemporary socio-political issues in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Following a multi-disciplinary approach in sociology, history, anthropology, philosophy, and religious studies, Dr. Wilfred examines interreligious issues in the context of justice and human rights. He has also taught at St. Paul’s Seminary in Tiruchirapalli, India, and has been a visiting professor at Boston College, the University of Frankfurt, the University of Nijmegen, and the East Asian Pastoral Institute. Dr. Wilfred is a member of countless professional societies, including several high-ranking academic bodies at the University of Madras, the Catholic Center for UNESCO, and the editorial board of the international theological review Concilium. He also served on the International Theological Commission of the Vatican from 1986 to1991, was a member and executive secretary of the Theological Commission advising the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conference (FABC) from 1987 to 1997, and was president of the Indian Theological Association from 1983 to 1986.

Dr. Wilfred has published widely, and his works have appeared in many languages, including Tamil, English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. His works include Asian Dreams and Christian Hope – At the Dawn of the Millennium (2000, 2003) and On the Banks of the Ganges (2002). He has also recently edited Higher Education and Christian Identity (2003) and The Struggle for the Past: Historiography Today (2002).

In his 2005 Surjit Singh Lecture at the GTU, delivered on November 2, Dr. Wilfred discusses the complex position of the untouchables in the context of the Christian faith, and the changes currently underway in the population, as well as possibilities for the future.

At the time of Jesus, Galilee was a region viewed as bordering on impurity because of the presence of numerous Gentiles who were by definition polluted, and deserved rejection. The untouchables of India are considered as polluted, and they suffer alienation and social exclusion, and live on the fringes of a highly stratified society. Though their life is carried on in a completely different cultural and historic setting, the untouchables share at least some of the traits of the Gentile Galileans of Jesus’ time. On the other hand, the untouchables’ experience of extreme marginality could serve as a lens to see and understand better Galilee and the Galileans.

In the first part of this lecture I shall try to briefly describe and characterize the marginality and exclusion of the untouchables and some of the theories trying to explain their social and cultural position. The second part will examine critically the various attempts undertaken in favour of their emancipation, and highlight their own struggles to overcome the situation of exclusion and marginality. The third and final part will reflect on Galileans of the South in relation to Christianity.

Part I: An Excluded People

The idea of margins may conjure up the thought that we are dealing with a small group of people or a minority group. The fact is that the untouchables of India are no small group at all. They constitute 14.6% of the Indian population, that is about 150 million people. Very few countries in the world will have this much of population. To realize the magnitude of the people about whose marginality we speak, we need to put together the population of a few large countries of the European Union.

Outcaste and Untouchable
It is important to direct our attention briefly to the inhumanity to which the untouchables have been subjected.¹ Worst of all is the ascription of untouchability they inherit at their very birth on the basis of the principle of purity and pollution. This is at the root of the social marginalization and discrimination they suffer in every day life.

The untouchables are the ones who are outside the pale of the Hindu caste hierarchy. They have no place in the traditional order of society which is constituted of four castes – the Brahmins (the priestly caste, the Kshatryas (royal and warrior castes) , the Vaishyas (the trading and artisan castes) and the Shudras ( the serving castes). The untouchables belong to none of these groups, and therefore they are truly out-castes, and socially outcasts. . This social marginalization is glaring in the very physical set-up of their hamlets at the periphery of the village, scornfully referred to as “Cheri”. It stands in contrast to the place of inhabitation by the upper caste people, called “uur”.² The untouchables are to carry out in the strictest fashion the most impure works – cleaning human excreta, removing the carcasses of animals, washing clothes, working with leather, beating drums to ward off the evil spirits, and so on.

In the religious realm, untouchability disqualifies anyone from entering into the temple. This is true even today, in spite of abolition of untouchability through the Indian Constitution. It may be observed here that the struggle for temple entry of the untouchables is an important page in the social history of India.

An Economically Exploited People
The social and educational marginalization of the untouchables is compounded by their condition of abject poverty and the resultant powerlessness. It suits the interests of the upper castes to keep the untouchables subjugated with the stigma of untouchability, because the labour of the untouchables is indispensable for their (upper caste) growth and prosperity.

Most of the untouchables – about 90% - live in villages, and the rest in the slums of the burgeoning Indian cities and towns. Economically they belong to the lowest strata of the society. If 40% of the Indian population lives below poverty line, 80% of the untouchables belong to this category. In villages and countryside, the overwhelming majority of them are landless agricultural labourers, ruthlessly exploited by the land-owning castes and classes who hold many of them as bonded labourers. The condition of these bonded-labourers is not very different from that of slaves. In the cities, they struggle to survive in the midst of the odds placed in their way. While the powerful are engaged in violently controlling more and more space, the untouchables are increasingly forced to over-crowded slums or to eke out their existence at side-walks and pavements.

Through their hard labour, blood and sweat the untouchables have contributed to build up the land more than any other segment of the population. And yet they are the ones most vulnerable to all kinds of physical illness owing to malnutrition, lack of proper hygienic living condition and medical care.

How About Globalisation?
Has not the globalisation of today helped the untouchables to move ahead and improve their lot? Contrary to the general impression and imagination, Globalisation is a new actor that has aggravated the economic condition of the untouchables, instead of helping them. This is the simple truth. Experience shows that globalisation is not anything indifferent; it creates winners and losers in every part of the world, and this is true as much of India.³ To put it simply, the untouchables belong to the losers, to the victims, whereas the upper castes - their traditional oppressors - belong to the winners. In effect it means that globalisation has empowered the oppressors that results in greater suffering and deprivation for the untouchables.

Let me illustrate what all this means concretely. Globalisation offers opportunities for fast communication, trade, specialized education, etc. But these are availed by the upper castes whereas it is the untouchables who constitute the physical labour force in a country which is still by and large agrarian and has the overwhelming majority of its population living in countryside and villages. Every bit of power enjoyed by the higher castes with their integration into the global market goes against the untouchables at home. These Indian acolytes at the altar of globalisation in fact exploit the resources of the poor untouchables to derive advantages for themselves in the market. The elites in the country, identified with Brahmins and the upper commercial castes, are the avid supporters of privatisation. This however goes diametrically against the interests of the untouchables who are very much dependent on state interventions and state enterprises. In fact, the opportunities offered within the state-run enterprises and establishments have been an important avenue at least for a small segment of the untouchables to improve their living condition and gain dignity and respectability. To this we must add the reduction, if not abolition of state- subsidies (which corresponds to social security and welfare measures in the West) for education and health-care. Abolition of state intervention and its subsidies may promote privatisation of which the upper castes are the enthusiastic supporters, whereas for the untouchables it spells hunger, starvation and lack of protection from illness.

Violence Against a Defenceless People
All along the history, the untouchables were subjected to violence whenever they dared to defy or challenge the caste-rules and injunctions which degraded them and kept them in continuous bondage. The fury of the upper caste was most violent whenever an untouchable boy dared to love a girl from the upper caste. Not in few cases death was the punishment. Citing such a violent case in which the people killed brutally both the lovers, Robert Deliege comments:

It is easy for us in the West to see nothing but pure savagery in such revolting violence, and condemn it accordingly. Yet those who committed these atrocious acts were not professional killers, but no doubt peaceable farmers who were normally no more violent than any of us. No doubt too, they were upstanding men, good husbands and most certainly devoted fathers, who were hard-working and not out to make trouble. Moreover, most of them probably never had any previous dealings with the law. And if, in this case, they behaved with such cruelty, it was because, from their point of view, they had good reason for doing so.⁴

What is important is to note the extent to which the prejudices and discriminations against the untouchables have got entrenched in the minds of ordinary people so as to think of violence against the untouchables as a matter of course.

Instances of atrocities done to the untouchables is on the increase. This is also due to the new consciousness on the part of the untouchables about their dignity and their efforts to forge a new identity for themselves. For example, if they were denied lands in the past and were forced to be simply landless agricultural labourers, today in many parts of the country, the untouchables are determined to claim some land of their own. Many of the atrocities are connected with the agricultural issues. They dare to defy today the age-old taboos and interdiction in the process of their self-assertion as a people with dignity and rights. As many studies on ethnic violence show, in the case of the outcastes too, the anger of the upper castes against the untouchables is expressed by humiliating and raping their women. The women untouchables are then the most affected in all respects, and they bear the brunt of violence too.

Theoretical Explanations
What the experience of the untouchables and the violence they undergo tell us is that they are victims of a deeply entrenched system of caste, which could be named as “casteism”. There may be few subjects debated in the field of anthropology and sociology in Asia as the origin of the unique caste-system with millennial history. Going into those theories will lead us too far afield. We are concerned here more directly on the various theoretical interpretations of the plight of the untouchables.

There are two major sets of theories. The first set of theories view the untouchables as integral part of a system of mutual dependence. The society is so organized that it needs the mutual dependence of the Brahmins on the one extreme and the untouchables on the other extreme to perform their respective duties. The fulcrum of this hierarchically organized and mutually dependent society is the principle of purity and pollution, which determines also the relative position of castes within the hierarchy. The major exponent of this theoretical orientation is Louis Dumont, who is followed by Michael Moffat and others.⁵ Basically this theory of explanation espouses the view of the Brahmins and other upper castes who would like to see the untouchables in the most inferior position, nevertheless integrated within the system. To put it differently, this set of theories assume that there is a tacit consensus on the part of the untouchables to the system and acceptance of their role within it.⁶ This is something important to note, especially in differentiating caste from class. The relationship, in the integralist view of caste, is not competition as in the case of classes, but cooperation so as to create an integral whole inspired by the principle of hierarchy.

A second set of theories views the untouchables as excluded from the system but availed for the functioning of the system. In other words, these theories reflect the actual reality of the untouchables and their experience which is not of integration but exclusion. The explanation of untouchability within the scheme of integration fails to see that the situation of the outcastes is not a matter of ritual pollution alone but has also to do with economic and political power. The ritual status almost inevitably leads to economic and political marginalization.

How the untouchables are viewed - in terms of integration or exclusion - has its serious practical consequences. Basically, we are confronted with the question of identity. The theories which interpret their position in terms of integration would acknowledge no separate identity for the untouchables, since they are part and parcel of one single homogenous cultural and social world. On the other hand, to interpret the plight of the untouchables as the excluded is to claim a separate identity for them. In plain words, the untouchables have their own culture, their own religious world, distinct from the world of the upper castes who have marginalized them ritually and socially.

A very important consequence is in the area of religion and its manifold expressions. It is obvious that the untouchables have a different kind of religious worship and a different type of religious experience, as numerous micro studies and researches have shown.⁷ Now the theorists who see the untouchables as integral part of the system, see also their religious expressions as part of a single Hindu religious universe. But with greater affirmation of the social and cultural identity of the untouchables, there is a growing tendency on the part of the untouchables to claim a separate religious identity too.⁸

Recognition of the distinct identity of the untouchables is very crucial today, for it serves as a very important means in their struggle against upper castes and in their search for human dignity and rights. In fact, the carving out of an identity of their own has cemented the unity among the untouchables who, are dispersed – a dispersal that has immobilized in the past any possible protest or revolt to the oppressive caste system. The affirmation of a separate identity has been the beginning of their unfinished journey towards liberation.

Part II: Ways of Emancipation

What we have seen about the appalling condition of the untouchables becomes all the more serious when we note what it has done to their psychological make-up. It has been deeply impaired through the infusion of a sense of imposed shame. The spirit of the untouchables has been bruised and mortified, and their self-confidence has been deeply eroded. The words of a modern poet from the untouchable community reflects the deep inner pain in the face of poverty, destitution and the humiliation he and his like suffer, He writes, “God, make me a beast or a bird but not a Mahar [untouchable] at all”.⁹

Who will really come to the aid of the outcastes thrown into the abyss of misery?” How could the untouchables themselves work out their own emancipation?

Initiatives from the Outside
The struggles of the untouchables have been taking place for the past two centuries with growing momentum. Voluntarily, and often under pressure. Certain measures have been taken up in favour of the untouchables, but they fall short of the real aspirations of this oppressed community. Let us briefly examine some of these initiatives.

Integration within a Reformed Hinduism
Religiously inspired reformers saw untouchablility as an aberration or deviation from genuine Hinduism and its vision of society.¹⁰ Historically seen, the efforts of reform movements to accord the untouchables a place within Hinduism was also a pragmatic strategy to arrest the mass exodus of the outcastes from Hinduism to other religions – Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.

Symbolic of the reformist and integrative approach was the new name Harijan (children of God) given to the untouchables by Gandhi. It was intended to elevate their religious and social position and give them the sense of a new identity. For many, like Gandhi, to opt for the poor meant recognizing and accepting the untouchables as integral part of the Hindu society. Unfortunately, the option, though well meant, has left unchallenged the deep rooted caste-structure which even Gandhi accepted as the foundational Hindu social order.

Here precisely is one of the points of conflict between Gandhi and his younger contemporary Ambedkar, the foremost leader of the untouchable community. If the efforts of Gandhi to integrate the untouchables within a reformed Hinduism were well-meant , Ambedkar saw in this a paternalist attitude that inhibited their legitimate self-assertion. Besides, efforts like integrating the outcastes within Hinduism or appealing to the upper castes to mend their way, as Gandhi did, could not bring about any lasting solution to the plight of the untouchables. While Gandhi saw in the radical movement of the untouchables the threat of a diversion in his struggle against the British colonial rulers, for Ambedkar the social agenda in terms of radical reformation of the Indian society by achieving justice and equality for the untouchables was of primary importance. The movement of the untouchables spearheaded by Ambedkar delivered the blunt message to Gandhi that his interest and strategies does not take the cause of the untouchables any far, since it is a position that fails to recognize that the first and most insidious enemy of the untouchables is within, namely the elites and the upper caste of the country.

Upward Social Mobility
A fundamental reason that accounts for the powerlessness and inequality suffered by the untouchables is the very structure of the social order; it did not permit any social mobility. The lowliest status and the occupational roles were fixed by birth. But in recent decades “Sanskritization” was introduced as a process enabling social change among the untouchables and other lower castes. According to the anthropologist, M. N. Srinivas, who coined this expression,

Sanskritization is the process by which a ‘low’ Hindu caste, or tribal or other group, changes its customs, rituals, ideology and way of life in the direction of a high, and frequently ‘twice-born’ caste. Generally such changes are followed by claim to a higher position in the caste hierarchy than the traditionally conceded to the claimant caste by the local community.

What is to be noted is that “sanskritization” is not a free and spontaneous move on the part of the untouchables, but an induced process. The values, ideals and ways of life of the upper castes are projected as the ideals which are then internalised by the lower castes and the untouchables. They are led to believe that following the ways of the upper castes, they would reach a higher status. As a social process, sanskritization may account to some extent for change in the Indian society. However, viewed in itself, this process is nothing but another variation within the walls of the caste-prison. It alienates the untouchables from their authentic self, and leads them to assume a false identity. The stigma of untouchability is so deep that any upward mobility achieved through sanskritization is incapable of eradicating it; at the most it can temporarily cover it up.¹¹

Marxism and the Untouchables
Since the ideals and vision of Marxism and socialism resolutely move around the axis of justice, equality and the liberation of the downtrodden, we shall examine to what extent they have been able to respond to the aspirations of the untouchables.

In spite of the sharp social consciousness it has brought about among the oppressed, Marxism has tended to interpret caste in terms of class, and therefore primarily in economic terms. It may be added here that Marx’s own analysis of the Indian society was a biased one, as it based itself on the British colonial picture of India as a static society. Indian society and its caste were approached with a pre-conceived theoretical framework of Western class, and consequently, Marxist interpretation could not come to grips with the situation of the poorest of the poor of India – the untouchables – arising out of the caste reality peculiar to India and South Asia.

The heart of the question is to view caste as a socio-religious and cultural reality with serious economic implications, and not to explain it as something secondary and derivative from the material base of economic relations. Ambedkar, while confessing his faith in the egalitarian ideal professed by socialism, nevertheless, took pains to underline the necessity of considering the caste reality in itself. There can be no revolution in India, according to him, without doing away with caste. As he observed,

[I]f the Socialists wish to make Socialism a definite reality then they must recognize that the problem of social reform is fundamental and that for them there is no escape from it. That the social order prevalent in India is a matter which a Socialist must deal with…He will be compelled to take account of caste after revolution if he does not take account of it before revolution. This is only another way of saying that, turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path. You cannot have political reform, you cannot have economic reform, unless you kill this monster.¹²

In India, without relating to the caste-matrix, the formation of class itself remains unexplainable. Analysis in terms of economic processes could not come to terms with the reality of the untouchables whose poverty is inextricably bound up with social marginalization and untouchability in a system governed by caste. The extraction of labour, the appropriation of surplus value, accumulation of wealth and the ideological justification of all these invariably relate to the ideology of caste and its functioning. Further, the Marxists have, by and large, concentrated their attention on the industrial working class, and have found themselves in a rather unfamiliar terrain with regard to the untouchables who are mostly rural poor and belonging to unorganised sector of workers. All this is confirmed by experience. In fact, attempts to organize the untouchables on the basis of class and along with upper castes of the same class have not yielded any appreciable results.

Measures Adopted in Favour of the Untouchables
Modern constitutional and legal means is yet another way open to remove the stigma of untouchability and eradicate the situation of discrimination and inequality connected with it. That is precisely what the Indian Constitution did through its article 17, which declared : “Untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden”. This and other subsequent laws abolishing untouchability have remained, by and large, a revolution on paper. In short, the package of modern Constitutional and legal instruments, unfortunately, have not delivered the goods. Caste has survived with its extraordinary capacity to adapt itself to re-appear in ever new avatars.

Caste has endured over the ages to its great resilience: like the proverbial cat, it has nine lives. In fact no scheme of social organization can survive for long unless it keeps adjusting with changes in society and is able to produce effective answers to the contemporary problems. It was its basic resilience that enabled the caste system to survive the challenges of Buddhism and Islam, the shock of the alien British culture and administration, and crusades of Gandhi, Ambedkar and Lohia.¹³

More practical measures were adopted for the uplift of the untouchables. Among these we must include what is known as reservation policy in India, and elsewhere known as affirmative action or protective discrimination. The Indian Constitution admitted the necessity of the principle of reservation. For, in an unequal society, it is not enough that one acknowledged the general principle of equal rights. Effective social justice can be realized only through protective discrimination or preferential option for the powerless. It is a small step towards balancing of power, particularly in a hierarchical society.

The Agency of the Untouchables
All the above measures are a far cry compared to the new sign of hope that is emerging: The untouchables are taking into their hands the project of their own liberation, and are becoming the agents and actors of their own future. When we look at the complexity of the problem and the millions involved, this can be characterized only as a small beginning. Yet in its import and transformative power, it simply surpasses all the ideologies and measures adopted from the outside in their favour.

The basic ambiguity characteristic in the life of the untouchables tells us also about the difficulty in the emergence of the subjecthood of the untouchables. What is this ambiguity? The need for survival and a sense of pragmatism forces them to conform to a system of hierarchy and discrimination. They are not able to extricate themselves from a system that has chained them for many centuries and generations. On the other hand, they resist the system and are not prepared to accept hierarchy and inequality as the natural order of things. The various expressions of life among the untouchables is characterized by the interplay of these two poles. This ambiguity could also, perhaps, explain the absence of armed revolt, revolution and violence on the part of the untouchables in spite of the millennial oppression they have suffered.

The resistance today begins with the refusal to a constructed and imposed identity on them by the upper castes.¹⁴ As many studies in the dynamics of oppression, specially feminist studies show, the obstacle for liberation is the internalisation of a given and imposed identity. In the case of the untouchables, they have never accepted such an image and identity-construal by the upper castes. They see their own position in a very different way. Often they attribute their present plight as a sheer accident, as illustrated by many myths they narrate about their origins. Today with greater activation of their agency and the urge for liberation, they challenge the very caste ideology which creates such an identity for them.

The awakening of the untouchables in the nineteenth century took on a political form and found social and cultural expressions. They refused to form part of any political process which denied them identity and agency. This was exemplified in the conflict between Gandhi and Ambedkar. Thanks to Ambedkar, for the first time in history, the untouchables could rally together to struggle against their oppression. Disillusioned with reforms Gandhi and others wanted to create for them, they carved out for themselves a path of struggle which continues even today. The radical movement of the untouchables is the greatest challenge the caste-system has ever faced, surpassing even the one posed by Gautama Buddha more than two thousand and five hundred years ago.

The untouchables realize the importance of education in their contemporary struggle against their oppression. During three millennia they were deprived of the right to knowledge and education. The illiteracy among the untouchables, especially among untouchable women, is appallingly high, compared to the national average. The empowerment education can play in their liberation was realized by them when the modern educational system was introduced.

Their struggle is supported also by other factors and forces. Since they have been denied any history of their own, and since whatever history is there has been distorted in favour of the upper castes, the untouchables today try to rewrite their history, reversing in the processes the interpretations of the upper castes. To this we must add also the growing body of writings by the untouchables which reflect their suffering, pain and anguish, and their hopes and dreams for a different order of society. The untouchables’ literature has acquired a profile of its own.¹⁵

Modernity is one of the most important forces that have triggered the liberative process of the untouchables. This is understandable against the background we have seen above. The advent of modernity, in general, represented a threat to the traditional system of control by the Brahmins and other upper castes, whereas it was a force of liberation for the untouchables. It helped them break loose of the traditional strangleholds of casteism. Ambedkar and other leaders of the untouchables are known for their love for modernity in contrast to the traditional Brahminical ways. Besides education, and freedom from tradition, modernity also brought a new legal system which helped the untouchables challenge the traditional legal practices of the caste-system as laid down by Manu, the Hindu law-giver.¹⁶

Part III: Christian Theology and the Untouchables

It may appear as most obvious that Christianity which stands for the dignity of every human person and for equality of all will be diametrically opposed to untouchability and caste. Unfortunately, the reality is different. The matter has been much more complex in practice than expectations on the basis of principles. The missionaries and the Indian Christian communities have been divided on this issue, and this is true of the situation even of today. The question has been raised to what extent really the Christian message has been able to influence the society by infusing the value of equality so very essential for overcoming the plight of millions of the untouchables in the country. There has been certainly some influence; however, not to the extent one may tend to imagine. We will be led to a sombre realization about the extent of the influence, if we note a curious irony: More than perhaps the Christian message affecting and changing the situation of untouchability, Christian communities of India have been infected by caste and by the practice of some kind of untouchability. This means that Christian communities have reproduced the caste-system and its practices among themselves.

Yet another problem that is specific to Dalit Christians is the fact that they are deprived of the reservation (protective discrimination or affirmative action) guaranteed for the dalits, because of their Christian identity. The chief argument to deny these advantages to the Christian dalits is the claim that there is no caste in Christianity, and therefore Christian Dalits may not claim on the basis of caste discriminations which belongs to Hinduism.

Christians of untouchable origin, have found different ways of responding to this situation. Some of them have reverted to Hinduism to escape the caste-discrimination within Christian communities, and to avail the benefits of reservation meant for the Hindu untouchables. A second response is that of exiting from the mainline Churches and to found independent Churches where they feel at home and do not suffer humiliating discrimination. In fact, there is a fast growth of independent Churches which attracts the Christian untouchables. There is also another important reason: the experiential approach to religion these Christian groups present vibrates with the ethos of the untouchables who find solace and comfort and spirit of community in these independent Churches.

To deal with these issues in detail will take us far afield. What may be of interest here is to enquire into the approach and attitude to untouchability, and caste in general, which is coloured by the difference in theologies.¹⁷

At the risk of oversimplifying a very complex issue, t me present three basic theological orientations that have shaped the Christian attitude and praxis towards untouchability.

1. A theology of Accommodation:
   The missionaries were puzzled with the unique system of caste in the Indian society. In trying to make sense of it some of them concluded that this is something that is part of the social reality. One should not interfere with it, also because it endangers the possibility of saving more souls. In other words, one should work for the salvation and redemption of the people without disturbing the caste-system that creates untouchability. This theology of accommodation went to such an extent that some missionaries like Roberto de Nobili (1577–1656 ) who worked exclusively among the Brahmins and upper castes, and refused to mingle with the untouchables and other lower caste people, fearing that he would not find acceptance among the Brahmins and other upper castes. Such a theology and accommodative methodology has its consequences till our day. Many Christian communities are divided on caste-basis and the untouchables are refused equal rights in the Christian Churches. Till recently in many places the untouchable Christians could not mingle with Christians of higher caste, but were segregated and assigned separate sitting-place during Church-services.
2. A Theology of Equality:
   The approach to untouchability on the basis of a theology of accommodation did not go unchallenged. From the very beginning there were other missionaries and Christians who found untouchability diametrically opposed to the Gospel, and found it contradicting the Christian belief in the dignity of human persons. In fact, it is this kind of theology which accepted the untouchables as equals. This openness attracted them in large numbers, and created mass movements of conversion to Christianity starting from the nineteenth century. This theology of equality besides finding its basis in the Gospels and the practice of Jesus of Galilee, was supported by the European Enlightenment ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity, and by the movement of the social Gospel. The theology of equality was often couched in evangelical spirit. That explains why the missionaries who stood for equality were also the ones who argued against caste because it is an expression of Hinduism, which is a pagan religion, and therefore unacceptable. Without generalizing, it may be stated that the ideal of dignity and equality to the untouchables was strongly upheld by missionaries who hailed from the northern parts of Europe, more strongly under the influence of the Enlightenment, than their counterparts (mostly Roman Catholics) from the southern parts of Europe.
3. A Prophetic Theology by the Untouchables
   Thanks to the many forces that have been at work, the untouchables are becoming themselves the actors of their own liberation. The growing agency of the untouchables in the political, cultural and social fields has found expression also in the area of theology. The untouchables are developing a theology of their own, which is called “Dalit Theology”. It is a theology that is developed from the perspective and experiences of the untouchables. It reflects the experiences of their suffering, humiliation. I may point out here that one of my students, an untouchable himself, has written an excellent doctoral dissertation working exegetically on the text of the passion narrative in the Gospel (Mk 15: 1-47), reading it from the perspective of the experience of the suffering and humiliation being undergone collectively by the untouchables.¹⁸ This prophetic theology of the untouchables distinguished itself from other types of theologies done for their cause, also because of its great transformative character. What is perhaps most characteristic of the theology of the untouchables is the political dimension it brings into theology. In short, it is a theology whose purpose is not primarily to explain, but to transform prophetically the order of things, for which it is highly important to be political.

It is instructive to note that certain of the themes which liberation theology would take up in the 1970s have already been gone into by some of the Christian untouchables reflecting upon their situation of oppression already in 1930’s. The social and political consciousness with which the prophetic theology of the untouchables vibrated was a challenge to the theology of missionaries cantered on the theme of redemption and salvation from sin and interpretation of Jesus’ death on the cross from this perspective. By way of example let me cite here from the address of John Subhah speaking to the leaders of the untouchables at the All-Religions Conference at Lucknow in 1936, wherein he gives a fresh interpretation of the cross of Jesus.

For this is what the death of Jesus on the Cross reveals: it reveals the Love of God who suffers because of the suffering of humanity. It reveals God identifying Himself with men and women who are suffering under the tyranny and oppression of the so-called upper classes in society. …He reveals the very heart of God bleeding for suffering men and women. He from the Cross is proclaiming that He is on the side of those who are oppressed, the victims of the tyrannies of an unjust social system. Christ on the Cross is God’s answer to the question “Does God care for the out caste …who are under the cruel and humiliating domination of the so-called high class people.¹⁹

The political consciousness with which this theology of the untouchables is imbued provides it the cutting edge. It is therefore important for this theology to be closely associated with the new movements of the untouchables fighting for their dignity and rights.

The character of this prophetic theology of the untouchables stands out in bold relief when it is contrasted with other types of theologies developed in India. The most common form of Indian theology, in the name of inculturation, tried to employ and interpret Christian faith through cultural and religious categories of classical Hinduism. This is something the untouchables reject: Here Christianity is getting closer to the culture and tradition of upper caste Hinduism which, in the view of most untouchables, has been the cause of their oppression, and hence they could not agree to the kind of theology of inculturation followed by the upper castes and classes within the Christian community. They would like to draw from the marginal and subaltern religious and cultural tradition which bespeak to their aspirations and hopes, rather than from the dominant culture and tradition. The theology of the untouchables is developing its own hermeneutics and approach to the reading of the Bible.²⁰

The prophetic theology of the untouchables tends to be more political and radical than other type of theologies. This is important in view of the fact that the Christian untouchables share the same condition of oppression and humiliation with the rest of the untouchables. If the Christian untouchables are to contribute theologically, this should come about in the context of a political process in which the masses of the dalit people across religious differences are involved. A theology responding to this situation of a common engagement across religious affiliation, as the theology of untouchables seeks to be, will also be credible and more effective. This theology is a prophetic and radical critique of the Christian community which it challenges to mould itself after the Gospel and the vision of Jesus. It helps us to rethink theology close to the vision of Jesus. The critique relates to the continued discrimination of the untouchables in the Christian community, the refusal by the upper caste Christians to allow them equal participation. In fact it took a long time before it was accepted that an untouchable could be ordained a priest or a minister in the Church.²¹

The Gospel of the Galilean
The developing theology of the untouchables finds in the Gospels and in the practice of Jesus the source and inspiration. Speaking from his experience as a pastor and now a bishop, V. Devashayam, himself an untouchable, observes:

In most Dalits [untouchables’] homes in the villages, the only valuable thing is the Bible, which they cherish and value greatly. They are familiar with the narrative sections of the Bible. It has been our experience, that given this devotion to the Bible, theologising through Bible studies will facilitate understanding and acceptance of even new ideas.²²

It is the attraction of the Good News of the Galilean Jesus that brought about mass conversions of the untouchables to Christianity. They embraced this path as the one that will lead them to dignity and personhood. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the majority of the Indian Christians belong to the untouchables. They were not only the ones who responded most generously to the call of the Gospel, but have been also important actors in making the Gospel known to others. This is a point which has been neglected in the writing of the history of Indian Christianity. There are numerous untouchable Christians – some of them known, and many of them unknown or forgotten – who have been very active in the work of mission. But for them, many missionaries practically could not have functioned.

The theology of the outcasts draws inspiration from the Gospel to overcome the stigma of untouchability. Finding himself in a geographical location in which there was mixing and mingling of many cultures and ways of life, Jesus could not subscribe to an ideology that divided people on the basis of purity and pollution. There are numerous passages in the Gospels wherein Jesus comes down heavily with his critique on purity pollution which is divisive and which undermines the dignity of men and women. He highlights Naman the leper, the Samaritan and the Syro-Phoenician woman - all considered impure. What Jesus did was to unmask and challenge the socially constructed purity-pollution practices, and recognize the dignity of the victims of this social construction.

Another important aspect which the untouchables find in the message of Jesus is the hope. It is in a way an extension of the self-respect and dignity they find in the Good News. The negation of dignity and respect meant for the untouchables that they were never thought of in terms of their future. This was of no interest to the upper castes for whom the untouchables were important in terms of the “impure” jobs they have to perform and the hard labour they were expected to do. The untouchables were not entitled to a future. The sense of hope the Gospel of the Galilean inspires is an important source of empowerment.

Yet another question is the way the untouchables understand and interpret their own sufferings in a different light. It is a universal practice that the victims are blamed for their situation of suffering – be it the poor, women or the untouchables. For the untouchables the explanation of their abysmal poverty, humiliation, suffering and pain had an immobilizing effect on their spirit. The suffering they undergo has been viewed in a new light by the untouchables in the light of the suffering of the Galilean Jesus and his cross.

Conclusion
The plight of the untouchables is a unique story of oppression. But their continuing struggle for liberation has much wider connotation and significance. From a global perspective it could be viewed as a new social movement for justice and equality, or as a human rights movement with unique characteristics. Seen from the context of India, the liberation movement of the untouchables is a radical anti-caste movement, and as such it is an important process in the struggle for democracy. If every society has its own historic path to democratic ideals, a very crucial instrument of the democratisation of the Indian society is being carried out by the movement of the untouchables for their emancipation. It is the same movement of the untouchables which is bringing about a secular character to the Indian society – a very different path from what the West has followed. From a Christian perspective, this movement embodies some of the most important ideals, values and vision which are associated with the image of the “Kingdom of God” - the message of Jesus of Galilee. “After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the gospel from God saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is close at hand..” (Mk 1:14).

Obviously theology does not solve all human problems. But it can contribute to strengthen the forces and movements that work towards total liberation of human beings. This is true of the theology of the untouchables. What is most significant is the dignity and self-worth and the sense of hope the Gospel of the Galilean Jesus can offer to a people who have been degraded and humiliated for too long. It is this conviction which underlies the theology of the untouchables, and hence its importance compared to all other forms of theology being pursued in India.

This theology poses challenges to the Christian community itself. However much the Church community may try to sympathize with the plight of the untouchables, increase their opportunities in life, and engage itself in developmental, educational, health-care works in their favour, it may not respond adequately to the aspirations of the untouchables. There are two important things to be fulfilled for the liberation of the untouchables: First, a proper environment needs to be created in which the active agency of the untouchables comes to expression. This is true also of the Christian community, its leadership, and of theology. For a people who have been dependent on others generation after generation, liberation begins to appear on their horizon by the process of strengthening their own subjecthood and agency. Part of this process is the highlighting of the cultural and symbolic resources of the untouchables.

The second condition is the sharpening of political consciousness. This is what is often found wanting in the initiatives on the part of the Christian community.²³ This is also the reason why not a few among the untouchables look with scepticism at the effective contribution the Church community could make, in spite of all that it has done to highlight their plight and try to elevate them through education and other means.²⁴ The more the prophetic theology of the untouchables is imbued with political consciousness and is in relationship with various movements initiated by the untouchables themselves at various levels, this theology will acquire increasingly the transformative power and radical character. It will be a theology of the marginalized in the spirit of the Galilean Jesus.

Top of Page ^

1. The untouchables of India refuse to accept names imposed on them. They define themselves as “Dalits”, which signifies their condition of “brokenness” as a people, as a community. Since the Westerners are more familiar with the word “Untouchables”, I am employing throughout the lecture this term. I know that some may take exception to the use of the word “untouchable”. However, I wish to assure that in all my writings in India as well as in lectures I have been consistently using “Dalits” to refer to this marginalized community. The significance of the transition from one nomenclature to the other is well brought out in a an important contribution by E. Zelliot, From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on Ambedkar Movement, Manohar, Delhi 1992. For want of space I am restricting to bare minimum my references in this essay.
2. Here I am using the terminology as in vogue in Tamilnadu, South India. In other parts of India, there are other local names. However, the pattern of differentiation is the same.
3. J.Sobrino – F. Wilfred (eds) “Globalisation and Its Victims”, Concilium 2001/5
4. Robert Deliege, The Untouchables of India, Berg Publishers, New York, 1999, p. 1. ID., The World of the Untouchables: Paraiyars of Tamil Nadu, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997.
5. Louis Dumont advanced this position in his classical work Homo Hierarchicus. Caste System and Its Implications, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1970; See also Michael Moffat, An Untouchable Community in South India: Structure and Consensus, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1979.
6. One of the evidence adduced in support of integration explanation is to say that the untouchables themselves replicate among themselves the hierarchical system, in such a way that there is a whole sub-system of discrimination and hierarchy. But in fact, this may not be interpreted as consensus to the system.
7. On the subaltern religious experience, see. Felix Wilfred, The Sling of Utopia. The Struggles for a Different Society, ISPCK, Delhi, 2005, pp. 137 – 163.
8. There have been several studies investigating into the religious world of the untouchables and other lower castes. To cite two unpublished dissertations written under my direction, A.L. Sebastian has gone into the study of Parayiar [ a particular group of untouchables in Tamilnadu, India] religiosity, and James Ponniah into the study of the popular cutalaimatan cult in the district of Tirunelveli. A. L. Sebastian, Indian Culture and Christianity. An Interpretative Study of the Cultural Continuity in the Life of the Christian Converts of Uthiramerur Taluk, Kancheepurm District, Tamilnadu ( unpublished dissertation , University of Madras, 2004); K. James Ponniah, Folk Religion and Ritual Power in Society. A Study on Cutalaimatan Cult (unpublished dissertation, University of Madras, 2005).
9. These are words of Kisan Phagu Bansode. See Ghansyam Sha, “Dalit Movement and the Search for Identity:”, in Social Action 40 (1990), p. 321.
10. There came into existence many associations and societies with the idea of promoting the welfare of the untouchables. Such was the case , for example with India Sudhhi Sabha and Depressed Class Mission which appeared at the turn of the twentieth century. A few decades later the Harijan Sevak Sangh came into existence.
11. The humiliation and shame to which the untouchables are exposed in the public is such, that a section of them, specially, in the urban areas vexingly conceal their identity and pretend to belong to a higher caste.
12. Ambedkar, “Annihilation of Caste”, in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, vol.. I, Education Department, Government of Maharashtra, Bombay, 1989, p. 47.
13. Reservations for Backward Classes. Mandal Commission Report of the Backward Classes Commission, 1980, Akalank Publications, Delhi, 1991, p. 23.
14. What this means is expressed by Steven M. Parish after a study among the Newars in the Kathmandu valley of Nepal. See Steven M. Parish, Hierarchy and Its Discontents. Culture and the Politics of Consciousness in Caste Society, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997.
15. We could form some of idea of the literature by going through a brief anthology by Arjun Dangle (ed.), Poisoned Bread (Translation from Modern Dalit Literature), Orient Longman, Bombay, 1994.
16. It may be interesting to draw a parallel between the relationship of modernity in India in the case of the untouchables and the experience of modernity in East Asia – China, Korea and Japan. The untouchables of India welcomed modernity for its liberative potential, but did not necessarily relate modernity to Christianity. In the case of East Asia, Christianity was welcomed back (after rejection and persecution) when it was perceived to provide the entry-point to modernity. See Felix Wilfred, “Asian Christianity and Modernity: Forty Years after Vatican II”, in East Asian Pastoral Review, vol. 42 (2005), nos 1 / 2
17. Cf. Felix Wilfred, On the Banks of Ganges. Doing Contextual Theology, ISPCK, Delhi, 2002, pp. 113 – 137.
18. Maria Arul Raja, Dalit Encounter with Their Suffering: An Emancipatory Interpretation of Mark 15: 1-47 from a Dalit Perspective (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Madras, 2000).
19. As quoted in John C.B. Webster, The Dalit Christians. A History, ISPCK, Delhi, 1994, p. 221.
20. Maria Arul Raja, “Some Reflections on a Dalit Reading of the Bible”, in V. Devashayam (ed.), Frontiers of Dalit Theology, ISPCK/Gurukul, 1997, pp. 336 – 345.
21. Many missionaries – both in the Catholic Church and in Protestant Churches – were not willing to ordain the untouchables for fear of the violent reaction and threat from the upper castes. There are numerous instances. To cite only one instance, Rajanaiken, an untouchable who was very actively collaborating with the Danish mission at Tranquebar in 18th century, though was in every way qualified for ordination, was refused simply because he was an outcaste; instead another catechist by name Diogo was ordained. This is what the missionaries wrote to the principal at Halle, in Germany. It reads like a lesson in diplomacy! “Nor you only, but several of us desired to ordain Rajanaiken to the office of priest. This might be done if he were to confine his labour to the pariahs [untouchables]. It is true there are several honest and respectable persons among them, like Rajaniken himself; still , from the low character of those people, the Christians of higher caste avoid coming in contact with any of them. We take great pains to lessen these prejudices among our Christians, still to a certain degree they must be taken into consideration. Rajanaiken is very useful and successful in his labour as a catechist in his four districts. But we should greatly hesitate to have the Lord’s Supper administered by him, lest it should diminish the regard of Christians of higher caste for that sacrament itself”. As quoted in James Massey, “History and Dalit Theology”, in V. Devashayam (ed.), Op.cit. pp. 162-163.
22. V. Devashayam, Doing Dalit Theology in Biblical Key, Department of Research and Publications, Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Madras, 1997, p. 4.
23. A dissertation written under my guidance, comes to this conclusion after a field study among the Madigas (an untouchable community in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh). See Jose Maliekal, Political Economy and Religion in the Encounter of the Dalit Madigas of Konaseema with Catholicism (Unpublished dissertation submitted for Ph.D. in the university of Madras) . The same conclusion is arrived at in another study conducted in the district of Kancheepuram., See the dissertation of A.L. Sebastian, referred above.
24. Ambedkar faulted the Christian community for the lack of political consciousness. It is worth recalling his words here: “The Indian Christians are living in sheltered waters. They are at any rate, a large majority of them , are living in the laps of the missionaries. For their education, for their medical care, for religious ministration and for most of their petty needs they do not look to the Government. They look to the Missions. If they were dependent upon government they would be required to mobilize, to agitate, educate and organise their masses for effective political action. For without such organization, no Government would care to attend to their needs and their requirements. They are not in the current and not being in the current, they care not for public life, and therefore no recognized place in the public. ” in Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, Op.cit. vol. V, p. 475.

Top of Page ^