HVK Archives: Dalit Christians Vested Interests are at Work
Dalit Christians Vested Interests are at Work - Statesman
Chandra Bhal Tripathi
()
2 August 1996
Title : Dalit Christians Vested Interests are at Work
Author : Chandra Bhal Tripathi
Publication : Statesman
Date : August 2, 1996
The demand for declaring the so-called Dalit Christians
Scheduled Castes is a manifestation of the vested
interests of two groups, the current votaries of the so-
called social justice (a euphemism for caste-based
politics) and some Christian missionaries and leaders
from South India. Interestingly, there is no such demand
for calling Hindu Scheduled Caste converts to Islam Dalit
Muslims and declaring them to be Scheduled Castes. To
any Muslim theologian any such idea will be abhorrent.
Neither Islam nor Christianity recognizes Varnashrama or
the caste system. Any Muslim or Christian demanding
Scheduled Caste status for a section of his community has
obviously an ulterior motive.
The term Dalit is being misinterpreted and misused by
vested interests in furtherance of their electoral
politics. The population of the so-called Dalit
Christians runs into several lakhs in Tamil Nadu and
Andhra Pradesh and the demand for declaring them
Scheduled Castes is pronounced in or in respect of these
States.
IN KERALA
Christian missionaries from Kerala are in the forefront
of this demand, though in Kerala itself or in Karnataka
it is not a very popular demand. On the other hand,
organizations of the Scheduled Castes in Kerala have
submitted representations to the Government of India and
the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes strongly opposing the proposal to
declare the so-called Dalit Christians Scheduled Castes.
It is common knowledge that Dalit Varga has been the
Hindi equivalent of Depressed Classes - the term for
untouchables used by the Government and society before
the Government of India Act, 1935, which used the term
Scheduled Castes for the first time.
Though the expression Depressed Classes had been in, use
before 1931,, the Census Report of 1931 Volume 1, Part 1
(Appendix I), page 472 mentioned some tests for
classifying certain castes as Depressed Classes. Those
criteria, which actually mean discrimination based on the
obnoxious practice of untouchability, appear to hold good
for purposes of specifying the Scheduled Castes. The
Government of India (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1936, was
issued on April 30, 1936 in respect of nine Provinces,
viz, Madras, Bombay, Bengal, United Provinces, Punjab,
Bihar, Central Provinces and Berar, Assam and Orissa.
Para 3 of that Order provided that "(a) no
Indian Christian shall be deemed to be a member of a
Scheduled Caste; (b) in Bengal no person who professes
Buddhism or a tribal religion shall be deemed to be a
member of any Scheduled Caste".
A reference at this stage to Article 25(2)(b) included in
Part III of the Constitution relating to Fundamental
Right will be in order. Clause (1) of this Article
provides that "subject to public order, morality and
health and to the other provision of this Part, all
persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and
the right freely to profess, practise and propagate
religion". Clause (2) adds; "Nothing in this Article
shall affect the operation of any existing law or prevent
the State from making any law." Subclause (b) of this
Clause 2 says such laws should provide for "social
welfare and reform or the throwing open of Hindu
religious institutions of a public character to all
classes and sections of Hindus". Explanation II under
this Article states that "in sub-clause (b) of Clause
(2), the reference to Hindus shall be construed as
including a reference to persons professing the Sikh,
Jaina or Buddhist religion, and the reference to Hindu
religious institutions shall be construed accordingly".
This explanation does not include Islam or Christianity.
In October 1984 the Ministry of Home Affairs, the then
nodal Ministry for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes, brought out a brochure containing the lists of
S.C. and S.T. and guidelines for verification of claims
for issuing S.C. and S.T. certificates. One of the
guidelines related to Scheduled Castes claims through
conversion and reconversion. It stated; "Where a
Scheduled Caste person gets converted to a religion other
than Hinduism or Sikhism and then reconverts himself back
to Hinduism or Sikhism, he will be deemed to have
reverted to his original Scheduled Caste, if he is
accepted by the members of that particular caste as one
among them".
This guideline does not indicate as to how it is to be
determined whether the reconverted person has been
accepted by the members of the original caste (Scheduled
Caste) as one of them. Suppose a Harijan Christian from
Tamil Nadu, whose parents continue to live in Tamil Nadu
and continue to be Christians, has been residing in Delhi
for a long time and decides to reconvert himself to
Hinduism through the Arya Samaj.
CLAIMS
How will the authorities concerned decide his claim to
the Scheduled Caste status? Will it be necessary for him
to return to his native village in Tamil Nadu and
persuade the Hindu Scheduled Castes of that village to
accept him as one of them while his parents continue to
be Christians? And do we presume that a Revenue official
will visit that village to verify his claim? Or will the
Revenue officials accepts the claim on the basis of a
joint statement by some Hindu Scheduled Caste persons of
that village? When it is not uncommon to obtain a false
S.C./S.T. certificate from some of the "competent
authorities" on some consideration, it should not be at
all difficult to obtain the joint statement. These
questions remain unanswered.
The Home Ministry guideline suffers from another serious
lacuna. It does not indicate any cut-off date regarding
the older generation of the candidate which had converted
itself, say, to Christianity or Islam. My view is that
the Government of India should clearly lay down that
January 26, 1950, the date on which the Constitution of
India came into effect, should be deemed to be the cut-
off date for this purpose. In other words, if a
Scheduled Caste family had been converted to Christianity
or Islam before that date and continued to profess
Christianity or Islam on that date, the descendants of
that family should not be allowed to claim the Scheduled
Caste status by reconverting to Hinduism.
OBC LISTS
In several States reservation in services, educational
institutions, etc, was already provided for Harijan
Christians who were included among the Most Backward
Classes or OBC. On September 10, 1993 the Ministry of
Welfare issued the lists of OBC in respect of various
States and provided for reservation of 27 per cent of
vacancies in civil posts and services under the
Government of India in favour of the Other Backward
Classes. Thus, even in the Central posts and services
the so-called Dalit Christians today are beneficiaries of
the reserved quota for OBC.
In view of these facts there is. little justification for
demanding the Scheduled Caste status for the so-called
Dalit Christians. The Scheduled Castes have only a 15
per cent reserved quota in Central posts and services
whereas the OBC quota is 27 per cent. The Christian
converts from the Scheduled Castes can easily avail
themselves of the Central reserved quota under the OBC
category instead of trying to cut into the lower quota
for the Scheduled Castes.
One wonders why some Christian leaders and missionaries
are only now demanding the Scheduled Caste status for the
so-called Dalit Christians. Why did they not raise this
demand when the British rulers, who were Christians,
issued the Government of India (Scheduled Castes) Order,
1936, and notified that no Indian Christian would be
deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste?
They have now found the support of the protagonists of
social justice handy. Some of the latter have even asked
for reservation for certain religions minority groups
like Muslims and Christians. It is noteworthy that they
conveniently forget in this context smaller religious
minority groups like Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Jews
since they do not constitute vote-bank. A demand for
reservation of seats for religious minorities could also
lead to a demand for separate electorates which will undo
the goals and ideals of our freedom movement. No sane
person will support such an anti-national approach.
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