24JulAug05CasteAways

CASTE AWAYS! India’s “untouchables” find transformation in the body of Christ

BY DEBBIE MEROFF

Previous page: These smiling children are among 4,000 students who are being given an alternative to slave labor thanks to the new Dalit Education Centers.

Left: At a Good Shepherd Community Church meeting in Northern India, “untouchables” throw off 3,000-year-old chains of religious oppression.

The unprecedented revolt of India’s 250 million “untouchables” is more dramatic than any blockbuster movie plot yet devised. For the first time in history, a quarter of an entire nation is straining to break 3,000-year-old chains of religious oppression.The official turning point came in November 2001, when thousands of “outcastes” or Dalits, as they prefer to call themselves, gathered in Delhi to openly declare their rejection of the Hindu caste system. Most also announced their intention to embrace other faiths.

That first crack of thunder unleashed a storm of controversy. All over India, pockets of Dalits began to turn toward Buddhism, Islam, and Jesus Christ. Extremist Hindus immediately launched a counterattack, particularly against Christians and Christian workers, who are perceived as encouraging the revolt. Church burnings, beatings, and even murders are on the rise.

Even so, tens of thousands of Dalits now recognize a Savior who himself knew hatred and rejection. That this same Jesus also referred to himself as a Shepherd is powerfully significant in India, for shepherds hold a very low position in the caste system. In 2003, when OM, an interdenominational agency with 3,500 staff in 90 countries, began starting fellowships to accommodate the large numbers of new believers, they chose to name them Good Shepherd Community Churches (GSCC). Over 1,000 of these churches have now taken root, mostly in the north where established churches are few.

“OM had tried to do something in Northwest India for a long time, but never succeeded,” notes veteran OM staffer Paothang Haokip.“Now our relationship with Dalit leaders is very strong, and the church is the result of that.”

The pastor of a new fellowship in Haryana, an OM staff member who hails from another Indian state, explains the importance of contextualizing the gospel.“When I came here I never told people to cover their heads, but in Sikhism they do this when reading Holy Scriptures, so now they do it in church. My vision is to see a local person take over. Each Sunday, different believers lead the worship. I am training one fellow to be pastor.”

GSCC pastors are well grounded.Those who come from OM and have worked in teams enroll in a four-year course

A crowd stands under the blazing sun as 280 eager believers—two at a time—declare their desire to follow Christ. In the opposite corner of the courtyard, voices rise in passionate prayers for healing.

A room off to the side is packed with worshipers singing and playing original Christian music.The scene might have come straight from the Book of Acts, but look again. This is not first-century Israel, but 21st-century India!

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never before been treated with dignity.You took our children and cared for them so we could be at this meeting.Your God must be a good God.We want him!’”

Last year OM held eight “Women’s Empowerment” meetings in northern states, each attended by between 400 and 500 Dalit women.As Moses Parmar observes,“When you empower women, they want to come to Christ. And if you reach women successfully, you will reach the next generation.”

India’s revolution may be a quiet one, but it is gathering momentum.And opposition has only served to strengthen it.

Although God’s church has not, to its shame, been innocent of caste prejudice in the past, the situation is slowly changing.

Alongside churches that still refuse entrance to Dalits there are others that are taking a bold stand for equality.

Pray that Christians will be willing to pay the price to see God’s kingdom come to India. Freedom is never free!

But as Mahatma Gandhi once wisely pointed out, “No charter of freedom will be worth looking at which does not ensure the same measure of freedom for the minorities, as for the majority.” ■

leading to a Bachelor of Ministry degree. Many pastors are responsible for several different “flocks.”The goal is to make each one self-supporting within five to seven years.

Dalit leaders were quick to identify education as the key to their people’s future. At their request, OM has already started 35 English-medium schools.These are bringing hope to more than 4,000 students who at one time had little to look forward to besides slave labor. A two-year-old Dalit Education Center (DEC) in the foothills of the Himalayas is typical of these.The first year it taught 40 kindergartners; this year the number has doubled. Subjects include English, Hindi, math, science, sports, and drawing. Children also learn Bible stories, songs, and verses, and are encouraged to take pride in their local culture. Parents contribute the equivalent of $1 to $2 per month if they are able. New grades will be added as more teachers and funding become available.

OM India has committed to a total of 100 DECs in the next few years. Churches and other ministries in the All India Christian Council plan to start 1,000 more. (Those who want to support the effort from other countries may easily do so through the website www.dalitchild.com. ) When OM inquired about further ways to advance the freedom movement, Dalit leaders urged them to address the needs of women. Outcaste women are often subjected to the most appalling abuse—commonly humiliated, raped, sold into prostitution, or murdered. Only 2 or 3 percent of Dalit women are literate.

“We arranged a two-day meeting for Dalit women at our center,” relates OM North India Director Moses Parmar.“About 60 came, and girls on the team took care of their children. We decided not to preach to them; we just invited a female lawyer to explain to the women how they could defend their rights. A doctor shared how they could have better health.

After the two days I asked the group what they thought. One stood up and said, ‘We all want to follow Jesus!’

“I couldn’t believe it! I asked them why, and they said, ‘We have

An American journalist based in London, England, Deborah Meroff has been reporting on the international body of Christ for two decades.

Her most recent book, True Grit:Women Taking on the World, for Christ’s Sake (Authentic Media, 2004), is a powerful guide to women’s issues around the world, recounting the true adventures of nine ordinary women who are making an extraordinary difference in such places as Tajikistan, India, Egypt, and Lebanon.

“We all want to follow Jesus!”

Treated with dignity by Christians for the first time in their lives, Dalit women conclude that the Christian “God must be a good God.” PRISM 2005

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