Dalits Conversion to Christianity: An Analytical Review From Historical to Political (original) (raw)
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In Search of a Touchable Body: Christian Mission and Dalit Conversions
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2019
This paper significantly wishes to unpack the social and cultural impact of the mass religious conversion movements in Rayalaseema society with specific reference to Dalits during the period 1850 to 1880. This paper will use the archival material such as missionary records, magazines, pamphlets, and books written by missionaries; further, it will also utilize oral interviews collected from the field. The mass conversion movements established a relationship between Dalits and missionaries and brought them together. In their efforts to create a new Christian community of Dalit converts, missionaries had interacted with Dalits, shared meal with them, stayed with them and transformed forbidden and "polluted" ghettos into social spaces. The present paper argues that the practices of the missionaries were liberating and humanizing for Dalits. It will examine how these practices led to unintended consequences. It needs to be remembered that the missionaries' aim was not to abolish caste but to develop Christianity. How did the missionaries contribute to social interaction and build a spirit of solidarity among the Dalit converts? Based on specific situations, incidents, and examples recorded in the missionary archives and oral interviews, the article observes that community conversion movements destabilized the caste structure and brought significant changes in the social life of Dalits in colonial Rayalaseema.
Journal of World Christianity, 2016
The persistence of caste hierarchies and discrimination among the Christian faithful is one of the challenges that churches still face in India. While several studies have been devoted to the relation between caste and Christianity since the nineteenth century, the early modern period has attracted very limited attention. This article proposes junc-tures and figures that can illustrate the various approaches toward caste divisions held by the Catholic missionaries in India between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, namely, from the establishment of the Portuguese presence on the subcontinent until the Malabar Rites controversy. In particular, the article will suggest that, if missionary adap-tion (accommodatio) was based primarily on the incorporation of caste structures within the Church, unsuccessful attempts were made to root Christianity in the Indian context while criticizing local social hierarchies contradicting Christian values.
Cosmopolitan Cultures and Oceanic Thought., 2023
The paper primarily attempts to explore Dalit Christian writings as a field of study through an attempt to expand John C.B. Webster’s essay Dalit Christian History as a Field of Study. The paper has four sections that seek to address the fundamental questions related to Dalit Christian identity. The first section, insular identities, applies the oceanic scholarship to look at Christianity in India. It looks at two hybrid and cosmopolitan communities, the Syrian Christians and Dalit Christians. It discusses the hierarchisation of Syrian Christians and Dalit Christians, as a phenomenon developed by the nation-state. The section engages with the question of identity for the Dalit Christian. It draws theoretical arguments from the Presidential (Scheduled Castes) Order issued on 10 August 1950, and interpretation of the first amendment of the Constitution. The former limits SC status to Hindus and the latter allocates reservations based on historical background. The third section deals with conversion narratives of the nineteenth century and the narratives which emerged in the twentieth century as part of Dalit movements and draws a contrast between both the narratives. The former is centred on the Bible and the Church is seen as a source of emancipation, education, and liberation. The latter is in opposition to the Church.
Subaltern counterpublics : Dalits and missionary Christianity in Kerala
Nidan : International Journal for Indian Studies
In this paper I wish to initiate an analysis of certain experiences of nineteenth and twentieth century Kerala particularly in the context of the Protestant missionary Christianity and its interface with Dalits to think through the ways in which a new public sphere emerged creating possibilities for the articulation of new ideas and perspectives of life that could be broadly referred to as social imaginaries, following, Charles Taylor (Taylor, 2003). Such new social imaginaries were significant in their defining of a possible good life that had a decisive effect on the lives of the slave castes in the succeeding decades 1. (Hunt, 1920: 191-206) Articulated in every day context of the exclusive congregations of slaves, the new ideas represented in the Bible became a powerful resource for the oppressed castes. The slave castes began to use the ideas derived from the Bible to organize their everyday life and their congregational gatherings created a public space which was not available to them in their past. Additionally, with the gradual spread of literacy they began to read the scriptures and subsequently print their own texts although that happened only in the twentieth century. In fact, such endeavors created an oppositional subaltern counterpublics in Kerala.
Dalit Movement in the Telugu Region: A Critique From Christian Dalit Perspective
Bhava Veena, 2021
The present article critiques the contemporary Dalit Movement in the Telugu region of South India from a Christian Dalit perspective. Dalits were historically disadvantaged and discriminated section by the caste-ridden society. Since Dalit is a heterogeneous section, uniform discriminatory practices are not observable across South Asia. For instance, discrimination against the Dalits is more heinous in North India than in South India. To escape caste rigidity, Dalits have been experimenting with various options. One prominent option is to convert from Hinduism to other religions like Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, etc. However, even after conversion from Hinduism, Dalits were unable to escape discriminatory practices against them. In this scenario, the present article throws light into the Dalit movement in Telugu region, how and why it lacks a Christian Dalit dimension.