Churches back Buddhist conversions of Dalits

Christian Century, Dec 5, 2001

In an attempt to escape a rigid caste system that has made them social misfits, thousands of Hindu Dalits embraced Buddhism at a recent mass conversion ceremony in New Delhi--with support from churches and Christian groups. In a three-hour initiation ceremony, the Dalits formally rejected the social category along with their Hindu faith. Buddhist monks shaved the heads of ceremony leaders, while many other Dalits arrived having already tonsured their heads.

Some churches and Christian organizations publicly backed the November 4 ceremony, seen as an exercise of the Dalits' right to choose their religion. The status of Dalits, who number about 200 million in India, is considered so low that they are outside the caste hierarchy. Along with tribal people, Dalits are officially referred to as members of "scheduled castes and scheduled tribes," and have long been treated as "untouchable."

Udit Raj, convener of the meeting, led the crowd in reciting 22 "essential" pledges promising to follow in Buddha's path. "As long as Dalits continue to support Hinduism, they and the country will continue to suffer," said Raj, chairperson of the All India Confederation of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Organizations (AICSC/STO). He shed his Hindu first name, Ram, during the ceremony. "Caste-based religion theoretically and openly justifies lifelong inequality and discrimination," he said.

Although the caste system is Hindu in origin, it has become part of Indian social life and is also followed by many Christians and others, especially in rural areas. Under the system, society is divided into Brahmins (priestly class), Kshatriyas (warrior class), Vaishyas (trading class) and Sudras (serving class) in descending order of superiority and social status. Dalits are duty bound under the caste system to carry out menial, often degrading jobs for the upper castes while, in many areas, living in segregation from them.

"I will never enter a [Hindu] temple again," Surinder Kumar, another fresh convert, from the

northern state of Haryana. "I do not want to belong to a religion that perpetuates discrimination and oppression."

Estimates of Dalits attending the conversion ceremony ranged from 50,000 to 100,000, rally organizers said. Had police not stopped hundreds of buses carrying Dalits from other parts of India at the perimeter of the capital, the number would have been higher. In a move that drew widespread criticism, the Delhi government administration and police withdrew permission for the ceremony at the last moment, and cordoned off the site where it was originally scheduled to take place.

In response, Dalit activists changed the venue to the large, open-air grounds of the Ambedkar Bhavan Dalit center, a compound named after B. R. Ambedkar, considered to be father of the Dalit movement in India. In 1956 Ambedkar led a half-million Hindu Dalits to convert to Buddhism in Nagpur, central India.

"The whole church is behind the Dalits of the country," said Joseph D'Souza, president of the All India Christian Council, a lay ecumenical forum, toward the end of the ceremony. "We are supporting the cause of [the] Dalits."

Both D'Souza and Archbishop Oswald Gracias, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), categorically denied a World Hindu Council charge that the event was a Christian conspiracy. Both the CBCI and the National Council of Churches in India issued statements endorsing the Dalits' right to convert to Buddhism. The NCCI is a forum of 29 Orthodox and Protestant churches.

Richard Howell, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, said: "Christians do not have any hidden agenda in supporting [the Dalits]." The EFI had made a worldwide appeal for special prayers for the success of the Dalit conversion ceremony. "They made a request to us for support," Howell said. "We are in solidarity with them."

Claiming that the November 4 conversion ceremony in Delhi "marks the beginning of a movement to assert Dalit dignity," Raj, the convener, said that similar conversion rallies would be held soon in the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu and later in other states. --ENI