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Dalits – Christians – Christian Scheduled Caste Community – People’S War Group Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: IND30604 Country: India Date: 15 September 2006 Keywords: India – Dalits – Christians – Christian Scheduled Caste Community – People’s War Group This response was prepared by the Country Research Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Questions 1. Is there such a thing as a ‘Christian Schedule Caste Community’ in India? 2. If there is such a Community, are the members subject to ill-treatment/discrimination? 3. Are Christians generally subject to ill-treatment/discrimination in India? 4. Is there a group or organisation called the ‘People’s War Group’? RESPONSE 1. Is there such a thing as a ‘Christian Schedule Caste Community’ in India? 2. If there is such a Community, are the members subject to ill- treatment/discrimination? The term “scheduled caste” refers to low caste Hindu groups that are accorded special status by the Indian Constitution. The identified castes suffered, and continue to suffer, severe forms of discrimination within the traditional Hindu social order. In the context of that order, they were unable to participate in the community life of Indian society. The castes notified as “scheduled” comprise 16% of India’s total population and are granted benefits under a system commonly referred to as “protective discrimination”. The benefits include: reserved electoral offices, reserved jobs in central and state governments, and special educational benefits. The scheduled casts are alternatively known as dalits. Previous appellations used to describe them include: untouchable and harijan. An overwhelming body of information indicates that members of the dalit community continue to experience severe forms of discrimination and violence throughout India. The US Department of State’s latest report on human rights practices in India portrays their situation as follows: The 1955 Civil Rights Act made the practice of untouchability, which discriminates against dalits and others defined as scheduled castes, a punishable offense; however, such discrimination remained ubiquitous, stratifying almost every segment of society. Many members of lower castes were relegated to the most menial of jobs and had little social mobility. The widespread belief that dalits and low caste Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs were inferior compounded the discrimination they faced. Despite stated efforts by the government to eliminate the discriminatory aspects of caste, the practice remained, and widespread discrimination based on the caste system occurred throughout the country. Human rights groups asserted that the government was not committed to ending caste-based discrimination, pointing at the government's failure to fill over 50 thousand vacant positions specifically reserved for dalits… Discrimination against dalits covered the entire spectrum of social, economic, and political activities, from withholding of rights to killings and was not solely practiced by high-caste Hindus against the lower castes and dalits. The stratification within the dalit community also resulted in discrimination by higher-level dalits against lower-level dalits. There was also discrimination within the Christian community by older, established ancestral Christians against more recent dalit Christian converts (US Department of State 2006, India: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2005, 8 March – Attachment 1). Technically, there is no such thing as a “Christian Schedule Caste Community”. “Scheduled Caste” is a legal appellation that only applies to groups identified as low caste Hindu. Nonetheless, members of the Scheduled Castes who convert out of Hinduism continue to be regarded within the prism of their form identities and are subject to negative societal attitudes, even from their coreligionists. It may be noted that members of the dalit Christian community often identify themselves as “dalit Christians” and are represented in some parts of India by their own organisations. The literature on Christians of Scheduled Caste origin indicates that they suffer the same disabilities and violence as their Hindu counterparts. It may be observed that the disabilities they suffer are accentuated by the fact that they are not eligible to access government benefits. Vatsala Vedantam provides a characteristic account of their situation: IN THEIR LONG struggle for equality, India’s dalits, or “untouchables,” have often exchanged their Hinduism for Islam, Christianity, Sikhism or Buddhism, believing that they will better their lives by doing so. They have been persuaded that Hinduism, with its vara ashramas (caste distinctions), has been solely responsible for all their ills. But when they switch to other religious faiths and experience the same distinctions-albeit in different forms- they realize that such a change neither improves their social status nor remedies their economic problems of unemployment and poverty-- the real source of their social discrimination. A letter written by M. Mary John, president of the Dalit Christian Liberation Movement, to Pope John Paul II during his 1999 visit to India speaks volumes about the treatment meted out to dalit Christians within the churches of India. The dalits are oppressed and persecuted by ‘the hierarchy, the congregation, the authorities and the institutions of the Catholic Church.’ Despite the condemnation of such practices by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, casteism still persists among Christian communities. A state commission on dalits has pointed out that they are ‘twice discriminated against – in society and within the church. At the time of conversion, they are assured that they are being inducted into a religious fold that is egalitarian and free from the twin curses of caste and untouchability. But the reality is altogether different… At the same time, in breaking away from Hinduism, dalits lose out on the basic safeguards provided to them in the Indian Constitution. In 1981, thousands of dalits in southern India converted to Islam to escape social victimization-only to find that they had forfeited whatever state privileges they enjoyed earlier as Scheduled Caste Hindus. Converted dalits are now fighting for these privileges, having perceived the age-old caste system still dogging their footsteps. The very fact that they still have to label themselves as ‘dalits’ even after conversion in order to seek special privileges exposes the futility of that exercise. Today, India’s dalits are 82 per cent Hindu, 12 per cent Muslims and less than 3 per cent Christian (Vedantam, V. 2002, ‘Still untouchable’, The Christian Century, 19 June – Attachment 2). For more information about the ”Scheduled Castes” and the situation of dalits and “dalit Christians”, see: • ‘India: Inter caste relations’ 1995, Country Data website, September http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-6050.html – Accessed 14 September 2006 – Attachment 3. • ‘Scheduled Castes and Tribes’ 2006, Wikipedia website, 7 September http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheduled_Castes_and_Tribes - Accessed 14 September 2006 – Attachment 4. • Chinnappa, A.M. & Raj, A.P. 2005, ‘Ensuring equal rights to all Dalits’, Opinion, The Hindu online edition, 22 September http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2005092216031000.htm& date=2005/09/22/&prd=th& – Accessed 14 September 2006 – Attachment 5. • ‘Dalit Christians protest against “discrimination”’ 2006, The Hindu, 27 March – Attachment 6. • Human Rights Watch, 2005, Human Rights Watch World Report 2005: India, January – Accessed 23 August 2005 – http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/india9824.htm – Attachment 7. • RRT Country Research 2004, Research Response IND16909, 17 August – Attachment 8. • Bari, P. 2006, ‘Dateline India: Emasculated politically SC Christians seek justice’, The Pakistan Christian Post online edition, 10 September http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/newsviewsdetails.php?newsid=594 – Accessed 14 September 2006 – Attachment 9. • Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2003, IND39529.E – India: Treatment of Christians by Hindus, particularly the treatment of Christians who have converted from Hinduism; and the protection available to them, 12 September – Attachment 10 3. Are Christians generally subject to ill-treatment/discrimination in India? Country information indicates that Christians are generally subject to adverse treatment. The degree may be inferred from the US Department of State’s last report on International Religious Freedom, which indicated that violence against the community was widespread throughout 2005. Similar reportage has been provided over the last few years by BBC News, human rights organisations, and Christian groups. In concert with the reports noted below, the following extracts from recent editions of ‘Notes on Church–State Affairs’ give some indication of the degree to which the recent surge in anti- Christian violence is dispersed across the various states of India. ‘Notes on Church–State Affairs’ is a global monitor of sectarian strife published by Baylor University in the Journal of Church & State. In February [2006], Hindu activists held a rally in Gujurat to encourage Christians to reconvert to Hinduism. About 60,000 attended, listened to popular television religious spokesman, and chanted praise to the god
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