This document discusses moving from a culture of casteism and fragmentation to a culture of communion in the church. It critiques how the church has been under the grip of casteism, with the majority of bishops and priests coming from upper castes while Dalits make up most of the population. It calls for credible accompaniment with Dalits, including recognizing their autonomy in religious decisions, listening to their prophetic voices, and showing repentance through actions that promote human dignity and egalitarianism. The goal is building community that overcomes casteism through dialogue between the Dalit worldview and eucharistic teachings.

1. From the Culture
of Fragmentation
To the Culture
of Communion
A. Maria Arul Raja, SJ

2. From the Culture
of
Fragmentation
A. Maria Arul Raja, SJ
To the Culture
of
Communion

3. 1.0 Caste Discrimination in South Asia
2.0 Church under the Grip of Casteism
3.0 Admonition from Within and Without
3.1 Critique From Within
3.2 Critique From Without
4.0 Casteism Vs. Communion
5.0 Dialogue Between Dalit World and Eucharistic
World

4. 6.0 Credible Accompaniment with the Dalits
6.1 Vibrations under the Dalit Soil
6.1.1 Images of God
6.1.2 Materiality as the Site of Salvation
6.1.3 Promotion of Human Dignity as the Good
News
6.2 Walking with Dalits
6.2.1 Autonomy for Decision for Conversion
6.2.2 Prophetism from the Soil
6.2.3 Repentance in Action

5. • 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

6. 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.

7. 1.0 Caste Discrimination in
South Asia
• 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.

8. 1.0 Caste Discrimination in
South Asia
• 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.

9. 2.0 Church under the Grip of
Casteism

10. 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.

11. 2.0 Church under the Grip of
Casteism
• 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.

12. 2.0 Church under the Grip of
Casteism
• 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.

13. 3.0 Admonition from
Within and Without

14. 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).

15. 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:

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 4.0 Casteism Vs. Communion

21. Culture of
Casteism
• Hierarchization
of persons,
things, space,
and time
Culture of
Communion
Egalitarianization
of every one and
every thing

22. Culture of
Casteism
• Thrives on
exclusion of
others to be
dismissed as
deplorably
impure
unworthy of
human dignity
Culture of
Communion
Struggles for
inclusion of
others to be
embraced as co-
humans worthy
of human dignity

23. Culture of
Casteism
• Attributed
purity based on
one’s birth
Culture of
Communion
Achieved purity
based on one’s
ethical
performance

24. Culture of
Casteism
• Obsession with
not getting
contaminated
with permanent
pollution
Culture of
Communion
Gradual
construction of
purity from
below

25. Culture of
Casteism
• Construction of
institutions of
graded inequality
as an inevitable
necessity upheld
by arbitrary,
metaphysical and
unethical
principles
Culture of
Communion
Construction of
practical ways of
democratization of
power as an ethical
necessity upheld by
rational, practical and
moral principles

26. Culture of
Casteism
• Tendencies of
absolutizing the
divine aspects
and relativizing
the human
dignity
Culture of
Communion
Tendencies of
relatizing the
divine aspects
and absolutizing
the human
dignity

27. Culture of
Casteism
• Salvation as an
individualistic
process though
community is
needed for
accumulation
of power
Culture of
Communion
Salvation as a
communitarian
process and
community is
needed for
democratization
of power

28. 5.0 Dialogue Between Dalit
World and Eucharistic World

29. 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

30. Challenging
Aspects of
Salvation/
Transformation
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

31. Challenging
Aspects of
Salvation/
Transformation
Eucharistic World Dalit World
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

32. Challenging
Aspects of
Salvation/
Transformation
Eucharistic World Dalit World
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)

33. 6.0 Credible Accompaniment
with the Dalits
• Vibrations under the Dalit Soil
• Walking with Dalits
• Rereading with Dalits

34. 6.1 Vibrations under the Dalit
Soil
6.1.1 Images of God

35. • 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).

36. • 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.

37. • 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.

38. • 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).

39. • 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.

40. • 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’.

41. • 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

42. 6.1 Vibrations under the Dalit
Soil
• 6.1.2 Materiality as the Site of
Salvation

43. • 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.
•

44. • 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.

45. • 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.

46. 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.

47. 6.1.3 Promotion of Human
Dignity as the Good News
• 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.

48. 6.1.3 Promotion of Human
Dignity as the Good News
• 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.

49. 6.2 Walking with Dalits

50. 6.2.1 Autonomy for
Decision for
Conversion

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

52. • 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.
6.2.1 Autonomy for Decision
for Conversion

53. • 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.
6.2.1 Autonomy for Decision
for Conversion

54. • 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.
6.2.1 Autonomy for Decision
for Conversion

55. • 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?
6.2.1 Autonomy for Decision
for Conversion

56. 6.2.2 Prophetism
from the Soil

57. 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.

58. 6.2.2 Prophetism
from the Soil
• 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?

59. 6.2.3 Repentance
in Action

60. 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.

61. 6.2.3 Repentance in Action
• 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.

62. 6.2.3 Repentance in Action
• 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.

63. 6.3 Rereading with Dalits

64. 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.

65. 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.

66. 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)

67. 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).

68. 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.

69. • 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.
6.3.3 Proclamation only
After Listening

70. • 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.
6.3.3 Proclamation only
After Listening

71. 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.

72. 7.0 Community-building against
the Culture of Casteism
• 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).

73. 7.0 Community-building against
the Culture of Casteism
• 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).

74. 7.0 Community-building against
the Culture of Casteism
• 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.

75. 7.0 Community-building against
the Culture of Casteism
• 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.

76. • 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
7.0 Community-building against
the Culture of Casteism

77. • It is through these despised lots the inclusive
culture of embracing every human as the co-
human is manifestly expressed by the divine.
7.0 Community-building against
the Culture of Casteism

78. • 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.

79. Thank you