Catholic initiative for untouchables bears remarkable results in India

Konigstein, May. 17, 2006 (CNA) - A Catholic initiative to give the poorest of the poor in India a fresh start in life is celebrating some ground-breaking achievements, reported Father Rossi Rego, SJ, Mission Procurator of the Karnataka (south west India) Jesuit Province.

Fr. Rossi Rego gave an account of his mission during a recent visit to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), he explained that Jesuit-run ‘Mission’ programs provide kindergartens, schools, self-help centres, hostels, and social support for people in debt – all mainly directed towards the Dalits, India’s down-trodden ‘untouchable’ underclass.

About 25 years ago, the ‘Missions’ were set up across south India, aimed at uplifting the Dalits by freeing youngsters from child labour and enrolling them at rehabilitation schools. Key to the self-help projects are privately-run banks, set up to encourage Dalits to save a little every month and to deter them from taking out loans with hugely-inflated interest rates.

Fr Rego said it showed that the ‘Missions’ had played a key part in enabling Dalits to break free from oppression. Things have changed enormously.” He went on: “Women have grown in asserting themselves. We have been holding a series of talks and now the women are asking questions and really coming forward. This would have been unheard of 10 years ago. They are even going to the government offices to demand their rights – again unthinkable a decade ago.”

Well if you don't like the way Hindu's treat the untouchables, then do something about it. Don't bitch when a Christian does God's work by helping the poor. After all it is Hinduism that created the untouchables situation in the first place.

Looks like you are itching to making ths another Hindu-Christian war. If Christians (or anyone else) is doing good work then I am all for it, but just based on this one article dont assume Hindus are doing nothing for the "untouchables". Afterall the total Christian population is only 1% of India's total population which is close to nothing. The majority Hindus have been working to eradicate castism for quite some time now and have put in place the largest affirmative action plan in the whole world. Go figure!

What "some" Christians are doing is no doubt good but I wont get too euphoric over one vain article indulging in too much self applause. India is too big for a few Christian missionaries to make a difference.

And saying Hinduism created the "untouchables" is as idiotic as saying Christianity created "racism".

I think Genghis more than captures my opinion on this. I will elaborate further. I think more important than hinduism and catholicism is humanism. In India, even Christians have their castes. You can search for "Dalit Christians" online. And to say that the Protestant movement is a different "caste" from Catholicism isn't stretching anyone's imagination. The crux of the problem in India is untouchability which has been removed completely in urban India and largely in suburban and rural India. There are pockets where it is shamefully still rampant. This is where the Christian missionaries come in and tell uneducated people that the problem is with 'hinduism'. They offer a panacea in conversion saying that it will take their untouchable stigma away. But it doesnt. All it does is to serve the number count of catholics. It doesn't add to the quality of catholicism because a large number of these converted people just take away the idol of Krishna or Ganesh from their houses and replace it with a cross. And then they continue with the Hindu rituals that they have practiced all their lives and for many generations before. The catholic missionaries are happy and they go back to their churches. But untouchability stays. I will explain why:

Untouchability is closely related with identities of people in India. In villages it has persisted because of the size of the communities. Everyone knows everyone else. Claiming that one is no more a Hindu doesn't change the mindset of the people around the person. They will denigrate such a family/person as a shameless loser who didn't live out his Karma and they will then add a prefix to 'Dalit' and call him a Christian Dalit. So, as long as the person lives in the same community, the stigma will last whether he is Hindu or Catholic. One might argue that if he migrates, this can be overcome. But if a person could migrate, he would have shed his untouchable tag without needing to convert to christianity. He just has to claim that he is from some other community and the job is done. A lot of people don't do this because they like to avail the affirmative action's benefits like reservation in jobs and educational institutions. Given this, few people convert to christianity to get rid of the untouchable tag. MAny that do convert, convert back to hinduism simply because they are just familiar with the Hindu way of life. The myths and stories of Hinduism, (maybe because it is much older) has a lot more beautiful stories to tell their children, the festivals celebrate far more happier occassions than do other religions, Hinduism doesn't see the world in black and white like other religions do, so one can identify oneself as being part of it. It doesnt judge people as sinners and saints per se without giving ways to redeem ones mistakes. There is no concept of eternal damnation versus paradise so its easier to choose. A lot of people don't want to have only 2 choices - between an expensive Club Med membership and a cheap bed with filth and vermin all around it. A black and white religion gives only 2 such options. Hinduism does not.

A lot of Christian missionaries open schools and feed the kids and do a hell of a lot of good work. But so do secular and Hindu and even Muslim missionary schools. I believe that missionaries must do charity for the sake of doing charity, not to increase the number of believers in their god/s.

It is also important to understand here that untouchability has nothing to do with the religion of the person anymore. Hinduism didnt preach untouchability. Indian society fuelled this in the past. It will be for the Indian society as a whole to ensure that this is removed. It cannot be done by one religion or any religion or all religions together. It is in the hands of the people. In their minds to be more apt. It will be for them to exorcise this demon separating humanism from hinduism or catholicism.

Further to all that I have said, I will comment on the article:
1) Rural India's biggest microfinance initiative is run by a Vikram Akula, a Hindu Indian-American former Fulbright scholar. This initiative has helped many among the rural poor to save money, take out loans at very low interest rates and like the article says, has helped ameliorate the masses, irrespective of their being Hindu/Dalit/Catholic. Thank you America.
2) It is true that education initiatives in rural India have helped people rid society of casteism. Not just by telling poor and backward community-people what their rights are, but by also enabling other Indians to think for themselves instead of blindly following archaic social systems. It isn't an accident that most of the anti-untouchability activists are people from forward communities or what the missionaries would like to call "Upper Castes"

There are Brahmins in yours. Stop being in denial about the culpability of Hinduism in creating untouchables, whose existence, according to your own admission is a necessary pre-condition to the existence of Hinduism.

'Brahmin' simply mean one who is learned. 'Kshatrya' means a warrior. 'Vaishya' means the business class and 'Shudra'-proletariat. In Hinduism one earns this title through his deeds not by birth. And this wasn't supposed to be any kind of hierarchy but just a title. The fact that later on Hindus began using it as a tool to discrimininate and mistreat people is the fault of Hindus and not the fault of the religion.

whose existence, according to your own admission is a necessary pre-condition to the existence of Hinduism.

By my own admission??! What are you talking about chump?

No retard, read the letter of St. Paul, there is neither jew nor gentile in Christianity.

And yet the worst pogrom of Jews all throughout history was carried out by Christians. You deny Christians never persecuted, raped, tortured, burned, killed the Jews, Pagans, carried out inquistions (remember Goa, India ) burned witches and heretics at stakes.......... you forget your own history.

Hinduism never in its history persecuted anybody......................ever! Go figure.

Talking about culpability what Christians did in history would make the worst of Hinduism look like a walk in a park. (Note I hold Christians responsible for those crimes not Christianity.)

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