Problems for ex-Untouchable Christians in India

In post-independence India, caste is a major controversy. Officially, the caste system and all it entails is illegal. However, the Indian government defines “Scheduled Castes” in specific terms and provides for the reservation of seats in government services, schools, and jobs. This is India’s version of Affirmative Action. The term “Scheduled Castes” is actually a grouping of the lowest castes in the hierarchy, and is more commonly referred to as dalits, a derogatory term for these people. The debate surrounding these affirmative-action-type laws are similar to the debate in the United States. People question whether the creation of diverse institutions is worth the lowering of standards. Others claim that standards are met, and people of disadvantaged birth are given opportunities equal to those born to higher caste members.
There is another side to this debate, however, and one not seen in the United States: religion. Caste is a specifically Hindu system. Many dalits convert to Christianity in an attempt to avoid the persecution which comes with the ‘untouchable’ lower caste. Now, Hindu nationalists are fighting to revoke affirmative action privileges of those dalits who converted. The major Hindu nationalist party in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), argues that removing the rights of ex-untouchables preserves the purity of the tribal culture from the negative influence of the church. The BJP is supported my millions of Indians nation-wide and has also teamed up with another influential movement, the Sangh Parivar, under the leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, another Hindu nationalist group.
In support of this movement, Karia Munda re-released Kartik Oraon’s book Bees Varsh Ki Kaali Raat (A Twenty-Year Black Night), which originally was published in the late 1960s, which condems Christian converts for benefiting from their new religion while their tribes suffered.