India

India's Dalit Christians deserve constitutional equality, spiritual inclusion

Easter, Christianity's celebration of liberation and new life, offers a powerful metaphor for their journey

Updated: April 07, 2025 04:52 AM GMT

A file picture of Indian Christian worshippers receiving Holy Communion during Palm Sunday Mass in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP)

In the villages of Tamil Nadu and across India's urban parishes, a profound contradiction unfolds daily.

My faith teaches that all are equal before God, yet I cannot drink from the same communion cup as others in my parish, confides Mariammal, a Dalit Christian from rural Tamil Nadu.

Her experience exemplifies the painful paradox facing millions of India's former untouchables who converted to Christianity seeking dignity, only to find themselves caught between worlds.

For centuries, India's rigid caste system relegated Dalits to society's margins, denying them basic rights and opportunities while imposing ritual impurity that justified their segregation.

When Christianity arrived, promising equality in Christ, many embraced conversion as a path to liberation. Yet colonial rule and indigenous power structures ensured that caste hierarchies infiltrated Christian communities, creating parallel systems of discrimination within church walls.

After independence, India's constitution outlawed untouchability and established reservations for Scheduled Castes to address historical injustices.

However, the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950 created an unprecedented dilemma by restricting these protections to Hindu Dalits, later extending them to Sikhs and Buddhists but continuing to exclude Christians and Muslims.

This policy forces an unconscionable choice: maintain Hindu identity officially to access education and employment opportunities, or embrace the Christian faith openly and forfeit constitutional protections.

As Dr. Sukhadeo Thorat's research consistently demonstrates, conversion does not erase caste stigma in daily life.

Human dignity cannot be parceled out based on religious affiliation, he argues. When the state ties social justice to religious identity, it undermines both secularism and equality.

This contradiction strikes at the heart of India's constitutional promise. The visionary preamble guarantees all citizens justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity. Article 14 ensures equality before the law, Article 15 prohibits discrimination based on religion, and Article 25 protects freedom of conscience.

Yet the 1950 Order creates a system where identical experiences of discrimination receive different responses from the state based solely on religious affiliation.

The Supreme Court's recent decision to hear the appeal from Kottapalayam parish in Tamil Nadu marks a potential turning point, addressing for the first time whether constitutional protections extend into religious spaces when fundamental human dignity is at stake.

The struggle transcends legal categories, speaking to fundamental human dignity — the inherent worth belonging to every person regardless of birth, belief, or background.

Thomas Raja, a Dalit Christian activist from Chennai, articulates this reality: When I am told my offerings would 'pollute' church celebrations, it is not just my constitutional rights being violated — it is my humanity being denied. To be fully human means to participate fully in community life.

This exclusion manifests in numerous ways: separate seating arrangements at Mass, exclusion from parish councils, rejection from leadership roles, and segregated cemeteries. Each practice communicates the same devastating message: some children of God are considered less worthy than others.

While legal battles continue, the Catholic Church holds tremendous potential for social transformation.

The Church could be the most powerful change agent in this struggle, suggests Virginia Saldanha, a Catholic theologian. When St. Paul declared 'there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free,' he established equality as a non-negotiable Christian value. The Church must reclaim this radical vision.

Progressive dioceses have demonstrated that change is possible through deliberate action, including inclusive liturgical practices, representation guarantees for Dalit Christians in leadership positions, integration of church properties, and economic empowerment programs addressing historical disadvantages.

These are not concessions but corrections, explains Father Devasagayaraj, former secretary of the CBCI Office for Scheduled Castes/Backward Classes. They align church practice with church teaching.

Transformation cannot happen overnight. Prejudices embedded over centuries require patient, persistent effort to dismantle. The path forward combines immediate symbolic actions with long-term structural changes.

Immediate steps include formally acknowledging past discrimination, integrating separate facilities, including cemeteries, and equal participation in liturgical services.

Medium-term changes involve comprehensive education programs that address caste prejudice, representation quotas that ensure Dalit Christians are in leadership positions, and economic empowerment initiatives.

Easter, Christianity's celebration of liberation and new life, offers a powerful metaphor for this journey.

Just as Christ broke the bonds of death, Dalit Christians seek to break the bonds of discrimination, reflects a Dalit theology student from Tamil Nadu. Easter reminds us that transformation is possible — that systems of oppression can be overcome.

While the Church must lead by example, the state cannot abdicate its constitutional responsibilities. The Ranganath Misra Commission and the Sachar Committee both recommended removing religious restrictions on Scheduled Caste status, acknowledging that caste discrimination persists regardless of religious affiliation.

Implementing these recommendations would signal the state's commitment to equality over political expediency.

As India celebrates more than 75 years of constitutional democracy, the unresolved status of Dalit Christians reminds the nation that true democracy requires confronting uncomfortable contradictions between principle and practice.

The path forward requires courage from multiple stakeholders: from the Church to implement reforms, from the state to extend constitutional protections without religious qualification, from upper-caste Christians to relinquish privilege, and from Dalit Christians to continue demanding their rightful place.

When Dalit Christians celebrate Easter, they affirm that transformation is possible — that discrimination can give way to dignity, exclusion to embrace, and division to unity. Their faith in this possibility sustains the ongoing struggle for full humanity, one that neither church nor state can ignore if India's constitutional promises are to be fulfilled for all its citizens.

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.