Grave lapse of Christian leadership
D. DAVID, ADVOCATE, 25-BATTAI ST., VELAPADI, VELLORE, TN – 632 001
| have just read the book, Struggle for Justice to Dalit Christians, by Rajendra Nath Banerjee, who is working with the Christian institute for the Study of Religion and Society, New Delhi. (DV May 16, 1997 p.20). He has used materials furnished by Prof. Saral K. Chatteris, its director. The author chronologically narrates the struggle launched by the All-India Christian People’s Forum (AICPF) from 1990. This book is in- formative in nature and may serve as guide for future struggles of Dalit Christians. However, there is one fundamental error and some omissions.
Both in Prof. Chatterji’s foreword and in some places in the book, it is mentioned “that the discrimination against the Dalit Christians is clearly based on religion”. This is a fundamental mistake. .
The Union Welfare Ministry has laid down the criteria for inclusion of any community in the list “Scheduled Castes” which suffers from “extreme social, educational and economic backwardness arising out of the traditional practice of untouchability”. The govt. has thus identified the SCs on the ground of untouchability and not on the phasis of religion. The SCs among “Hindu”, Sikh and Buddhist religions were included in the SC list only after their leaders effectively represented that the SCs among their religions were subjected to the practice of untouchability.
The Christian religious leaders hesitated to represent that Dalit Christians were also subjected to the practice of untouchability. And to cover up their grave lapse, they began to tell that Dalit Christians are discriminated against on the basis of religion.
Now that the govt. itself has decided to include the Dalit Christians in the SC list, such statement made in the book under review is irrelevant.
The author has failed to mention the origin of the Dalit Christian struggle and the various organisations which laid the foundation for the Dalit Christian movement. The author has taken care 1o mention only the struggle launched by AICPF under the leadership of Prof. Saral Chatterji.
The author refers to the objections raised by the National Commission for SC/ STs that well-educated Dalit Christians will corner most of the reservation benefits in inter-competitive examinations and highly and covetable posts in govt. services if the Dalit Christians get reservations. The author is, however, silent about the objections of the Planning Commission which demanded, however, cutoff dates of conversion for fixing financial amount and that of Home Ministry that there would be *communal riots if Dalit Muslims are included in the SC list along with Dalit Christians.”
The book also says that the demand for proportional reservation to Dalit Christians will cause harm. The National Commission for SC/STs also says that the X educated Dalit Christians will corner most of the benefits of the reservation.
