Case involving millions of Dalit Christians is delayed in India’s affirmative action process.
Christians in India fear that by appointing a panel with an initial two-year deadline to consider their claims for equal rights, the federal government is trying to further delay a key issue involving affirmative action for millions of Christians who converted from Dalit Hindu homes.
For almost two millennia, Dalits have been stigmatized as “contagiously unclean” in Hindu civilizations, relegating them to the lowest rungs of society where they endure extreme poverty, discrimination, and even violence at the hands of “upper caste” Hindus. They represent 201.4 million people, or 16.6% of the total population.
The Indian Constitution guarantees them a certain percentage of government positions, representation in parliament and state legislatures, and access to higher education, among other privileges, in order to help them rise up.
However, the Presidential Order of 1950 disregards the needs of non-Hindu faiths on the grounds that they lack a caste order. Sikhs and Buddhists of the Dalit caste were eventually included to the Order’s scope, despite the fact that neither faith traditionally recognizes social stratification based on birth.
According to estimates, around 20% of India’s 32 million Christians come from tribal backgrounds, while 70% are Dalits.
The Center for Public Interest Litigation filed a case against the 1950 Order that provides special privileges to Dalit (low caste) Hindus, but excludes Dalits who converted to Christianity and Islam to escape centuries-old caste discrimination.
After being asked to address the concerns of Dalit Christians this week, the federal government instead established a Commission of Inquiry comprised of three members and led by the former Chief Justice of India, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, to investigate the matter and gave it two years to do so, as reported by The Hindu.
Coordinator of the National Council of Dalit Christians Franklin Caesar Thomas and veteran writer and activist John Dayal both feel the government is dragging its feet on the matter.
Dayal told the British charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide that this was “a British-era ploy to prolong a judgment forever,” adding that “caste boundaries don’t collapse with time, as the massacres of Hindu Dalits by higher caste Hindus has proved.”
Thomas told Matter India that affidavits filed in the Supreme Court by the National Commission for Minorities and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes endorsed the socio-educational backwardness arising out of the practice of untouchability with regard to the plight of Christians and Muslims of Dalit origin.
Thomas concurred with Dayal’s assessment that the planned commission was created solely to drag out the debate.
Dayal stated that this view is shared by a number of government-established committees and commissions.
An official government investigation panel headed by Justice Ranganath Misra suggested in May 2007 that the government do away with the 1950 Order and remove any religious considerations from Dalit reservations. The campaign for Dalit Christian rights eventually gained the support of the National Commission for Minorities and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.
There are just 2.3% Christians and 80% Hindus in India, yet almost a dozen states have passed contentious “anti-conversion” legislation based on the false premise that Christians “push” or “pay” Hindus to convert to Christianity.
It is common for anti-conversion legislation to prohibit using the “threat” of “divine displeasure,” meaning Christians are forbidden from discussing Heaven and Hell for fear of being accused of “luring” others to convert.
These statutes have been on the books in certain states for decades. There have been several cases of radical Hindu nationalist organizations using these anti-conversion legislation to falsely accuse Christians of forcible conversion and then launching assaults on them.
According to a fact sheet published by the monitoring organization Open Doors USA, “the persecution of Christians in India is growing as Hindu fanatics strive to purge the nation of their presence and influence.” “Hindutva, an ideology that believes the nation should be cleaned of the presence of Christian and other religious minorities in India on the grounds that their allegiances lay beyond India, is the driving force behind this.”
This, together with the use of social media to propagate misinformation and incite hate, is leading to a “systemic, frequently violent, and deliberately coordinated persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.”
The United Christian Forum recorded 486 acts of Christian persecution in 2021, calling it the “worst violent year” in the country’s history.
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