New Delhi (AsiaNews) – More than 200 Christian Dalits from a village near Dindigul (Tamil Nadu) were “reconverted” in a ceremony organised by the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP), sources close to the Hindu extremist organisation said. According to them, a ceremony was held yesterday in Tamaraikulam, ostensibly because of “neglect” by the wider Christian community towards Dalits who had previously embraced Christianity. In reality, Dalits are returning to Hinduism for economic and social reasons that are rooted in Indian law.
“The state is responsible for promoting the VHP’s agenda of discrimination against Dalit Christians on the basis of a constitution that provides scheduled castes certain economic benefits,’ Fr Cosmon Arokiaraj, of the Bishops’ Conference of India, told AsiaNews.
According to Paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, better known as the Presidential Order of 1950, “no person who professes a religion different from Hinduism shall be deemed to be a member of Scheduled Caste.”
Even a cursory reading of the Order reveals its discriminatory nature. “By restricting the benefits to a particular religion, the Order has divided the entire Dalit community on the basis of religion.”
For the clergyman, “instead of caste and socio-economic backwardness being the criteria for reservation (affirmative action), the linkage of caste and religion is treated as the crux of the problem.”
For Father Arokiaraj, “economic development and social oppression cannot go together. [. . .] Excluding a section, Dalits, from the process of development, just because they are Christians, will be a drag on the process of development and a stigma on the whole nation”.
