A crime committed against a Dalit every 18 minute. 6 Dalits kidnapped or abducted every week. 3 Dalit women raped every day. 13 Dalits murdered every week. 27 atrocities against Dalits every day.
Rathna Kumar S.
Introduction: Caste is unique to India and it is the warp and wool of the Indian religious, social and cultural context? The backbone of caste is the graded ritual purity and pollution with its consequent social hierarchy. This has adverse effect on the Dalit communities in general and Dalit Christians in particular. Dalit Christians constitute almost seventy percentage of Christianity in India. But still within Indian Constitutional framework they are not treated as equals along with other Scheduled Caste communities like SC Hindus and so on.
Having this social reality in mind, this article
attempts to read psalm 82 from a sociological perspective to address such
issues. Psalm 82 is one of the prolific psalms which advocate the
administration of justice to the oppressed people. In the collection of
Asaphite psalms this psalm has a prophetic character. The psalmist identifies
himself with social categories, as powerless, poor, and in need, obviously in
pain, but less in a physical way and more in social terms. In this psalm, the
terms like poor, humble, afflicted, lowly and oppressed refers to social
inferiority. The language of human powerlessness and God's transcendent
power in the Psalms is an empowering motivation in oppressed peoples'
struggle for liberation. The narrator of psalm 82 desperately urges God to
intervene in the struggles of marginalized people, to do justice
for them and to liberate them from the hands of oppressors. Therefore, this
article is an attempt to read psalm 82 from a sociological perspective and also
attempts to unveil the plight of Dalit Christians and to empower them to fight
for their equality, justice and human dignity within the Indian Constitutional
framework.
The Plight of Dalits
In Indian social system Dalits are
historically impoverished community. They live at the very bottom of social
stratification. They live in utter poverty due to discrimination in education
and employment. Dalit communities are kept in close proximity of the caste communities
for exploitative purposes. They are not allowed to live
in mainstream society but rather pushed to the periphery of society
in a separate colony or cheri (slum).
Dalits have not been equally placed to compete
with the non-Dalit castes in the market in order to secure their right to
livelihood. In the changing globalized, liberalized economy, non-Dalits are
able to adapt and accordingly respond to market changes because they possess
assets such as land, education and financial capital. Dalits, however, have
been historically excluded from ownership or access to such assets. Hence,
it is the dominant castes who alone are capable of seizing the majority of
benefits of globalization processes. The condition of Dalits
further worsened by misuse or underuse of funds granted for the welfare
schemes for these communities. Maria Arul Raja aptly contends,
The serious issues like misuse or
underuse or lapse of the funds for the welfare schemes for the SCs
and STs by both state and central government, vacant posts of SC/ST
quotas in government institutions, one caste group monopoly on small and big
business, caste group holdings of top level decision making administrative
posts in the government departments, unequal pattern of land holding
according to caste and frequent occurrences of human rights violations against
the SCs and the STs are simply taken for granted as the order of the
day.
This really challenges Dalits' right
to employment, equal opportunity and to enhance their livelihood. In spite
of the Constitutional provision, which gives comprehensive provisions and
impressive amendments, the unwritten social norms are violently promoted
through social practices.
Another struggle before Dalits is the issue of purity-pollution
syndrome. Felix Wilfried argues, “In a society where purity-pollution becomes a
central principle of social organization, purity-centered religiosity becomes a
powerful ideological tactic for the oppression of subalterns such as Dalits in
an attempt to exclude the 'impure'. Such caste discrimination or violence is
not limited to India. Louis points out, “In Britain caste tensions frequently
erupt between high caste Punjabis (Jats) and low-caste Punjabis (Ravidasis).
Needless to say that every day, newspaper
reports one or the other incident of torture or humiliation or discrimination
against Dalits. Due to social oppression in North India (Meerut), hundreds of
Dalits in Rampur had threatened that they would convert to Islam on
Ambedkar Jayanti, April 14, 2015. It was a protest against their deprivation of
their right to worship at the Maheshwarmiki temple in Baghpat. This incident is
a piece of example that even within majority faith the basic rights of Dalits
are in serious threat. Those who seek political power, majority of them (if not
all) consider Dalit communities merely as 'vote bank' but when they come
to power they seek reasons to justify their practice of structural
injustice to these communities. In addition to their long existed social
discrimination, Scheduled Caste Dalits lose their Dalit status if they convert
to Christianity or Islam. They do not receive any benefits neither from the
State nor from the Central government.
The Issue of Human Rights and Dalit Christians
Rights
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
proposes to equate all discrimination based on caste, occupation and origin as
a violation of human rights and has also considered recognizing caste as a
race. Nearly 200 million people worldwide are victims of such discrimination,
of which more than 160 million exist in India. India, which advertises itself
as a true democracy with abundant civil rights, ignores that its 160 million
Dalits, or untouchables, still suffer from deplorable caste discrimination and
are denied even basic rights such as the right to life and security. In Indian
Constitution Article 14 says equality before law. The State shall not deny any
person equality before the law or equal protection of the law in India. Article
15: Discrimination based on religion, race, ethnic origin, gender or place of
birth is prohibited. Article 16: Equality in the civil service.
But the
upper caste elites function as norm-setting groups that deprive the marginal people
of their reservations, subsidies, grants and so on. Therefore, these laws seem
unrealistic in the lives of Dalit Christians. This is the very effort of Dalit
Christians for their equal status as a Scheduled Caste compared to their
counterparts from other faiths.
Ranjan Mani makes the right argument
The tragedy of India is that despite all the
elite changes, the upper castes remain the norm-setting groups (by virtue of
being highly educated, highly manipulative, highly rewarded) and the majority
of Indians - dalit-adivasis, OBCs and Muslims - still face many kinds of overt
and covert discrimination deprivation, disadvantage and exclusion. Irrespective
of reservations, subsidies, grants, cultural tokenism and the rhetoric of
democracy and justice, the basic economics and politics of caste remain
untouched.As we understand, essentially all civil and political rights
immensely contribute and are significantly related to the ability of
individuals and communities to learn about, live in, and to express. But the
dominant groups/castes systematically and structurally exploit, subjugate, and
oppress the Dalit communities in general and Dalit Christians in particular.
They manipulate the State and Central government policies in order to violate
the rights of the marginalized people, reservation policies and the
financial benefits which the marginal communities supposed to receive.
Thus, Indian Dalit Christians strive for
collective efforts to express their concern before the people in power.
They have vision which looks forward to the promotion of life in its fullest
extent. In this collective endeavor their struggle encounters plurality of
oppression. As Maria Arul Raja argues, “Among the vast array of tyrannical
powers the following could be spelt out: imposed pollution resulting in
segregation and self-hatred, impoverishment caused by denial of space for
self
governance."
Cultural Rights Vs. Human Rights, the
Interdependence
In Indian soil, Dalits are considered as
socially outcastes, economically weak, politically powerless and
religiously impure. From time immemorial they are culturally stigmatized. They
were imposed with falsehood about their social status and were forced to think
as if God had created them just as 'slaves' to serve others.
Majhi rightly points out how this cultural sigma
affects the violation of Dalit rights. He argues, As culture
affects all other aspects of human life, it illustrates the indivisibility and
interdependence of all rights in a more comprehensive fashion than do
other rights. Indeed, it is difficult and perhaps impossible to consider
cultural rights alone. Cultural rights are often associated with other rights.
The center argues that only Hinduism recognizes
a "caste system" and "untouchables", leading to the
creation of a special category called the Scheduled Castes, which prevents
converts to Christianity and Islam. decided to oppose the claim of Dalit
status. They argue that since both Christianity and Islam do not recognize the
caste system it is not possible to give SC status to them. When the
Constitution advocates no discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, colour,
religion, region race and gender. Then how one can justify the opinion
that Dalits from minority community cannot be entitled 'Scheduled Caste' status
because they do not follow caste system? We need to understand
the complexity of the entire notion of caste system that it is rooted in
the society where Christianity and Islam existed for several
centuries. Dalit Christians were part and parcel of Indian society
for several centuries. If a Hindu Dalit community had suffered
injustice, torture and humiliation in the hands of dominant caste
people, then such experience is same with Dalit Christians too. When the
experience of dalits are the same irrespective of their faith background, why
then should Dalit Christians be denied of SC Status?
The reality is this, that Dalit Christians are
socially and culturally kept outside and never considered as part of
larger community. In my view, the learned country people are able to understand
the undeniable fact that one of the reasons for India's growth
is due to the contributions of Christians to the society-
in terms of (English) education, health, hygienic awareness,
eradication of social evils, and the list can go on. As it is
affirmed in the Constitution that equality and
non-discrimination are fundamental human rights.
When we respect and uphold the cultural rights of minorities then we
can engage in the protection of their rights. But the
tragedy is that the ethnic, religious and other minorities often
suffer from discrimination in a number of ways in their lives, and Their
culture is rarely given the respect and support that our majority culture has.
In order to see social change in our country we
need to strive for justice, equality and dignity of all citizens. One
needs to envision the emancipatory and egalitarian Son of Phule, Ambedkar,
and Periyar for creating a casteless society which has son conveniently
forgotten. One of the reasons Ranjan Mani gives that, Resistance from below
represented by the likes of Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar through war of positions
and movements against the upper castes as the primary source of injustice and
exploitation- could not evolve into a revolution or counter hegemony."
Having this social reality in mind, let us now interpret psalm 82 to empower,
to enlighten and to engage in creating a just society.
A Sociological Reading of Psalm 82
Now, let us turn to psalm 82. Many commentators
like Gunkel, Kraus, Clifford and others agree that psalm 82 has the elements of
a prophetic speech.18 It is attributed to Asaph, a musician employed by David
and Solomon (1 Chronicles 6:39; 2 Chronicles 5:12). Traditionally it is
interpreted in the context where Yahweh, the God of judgment condemns other
gods for their negligent behavior. They were responsible for injustice on earth
and specifically in Israel. Some scholars claim that although Asaph is credited
for this psalm they argue for post-exilic date for this psalm. Due to time and
space constrain let us not go in-depth discussion on the authorship and date of
psalm 82.19
Keeping the post-exilic context in mind, let us
quickly investigate the social change/reality in the Israelite
society. In Gottwald's view, Israel formed its tribal confederacy on the basis
of social and economic equality. But gradually when the Israelites came in
contact with other nations they adopted some social norms which were not in
line with covenantal norms of Yahweh. Malchow argues, “However, Israel's
monarchy reintroduced social and economic disparity into the land.”20 From then
on, they became greedy for acquiring land, interested in foreign trade and
structural oppression of the marginalized was recognized.
In this period such oppressive social system or
behavior cannot be ignored. The new economic policies
provided much space for the elites to oppress the poor. The eighth
century prophets too depicted the pathetic socio-economic condition of
the marginalized people in the Israelite society. Amos condemns
the elites who enjoy luxury at the cost of poor people (Amos 3:15; 5:11). The
gap between rich and poor was visible and unhealthy. Micah 2:2, says, “If they
covet fields they seize them; if houses, they take them.” The marginalized
people suffered from such burdens. People of God forgot the divine imperatives
(Exodus 22:24-26; 23:6), but Deuteronomy reflects the social conditions of its
period (Deuteronomy 15:7-11; 24:12-13).
The impact of Assyrian and Babylonian exilic experience is very
profound on the lives of the Israelite. In that context, the
powerful and the kings were considered as 'gods' or 'agents of
deity.' They were supposed to maintain law and order of the society. They were
responsible for the administration of justice to the poor and marginalized. But
they failed in their responsibility. In the post-exilic milieu, some Israelites
adopted oppressive behavior from a foreign culture and tried to impose
the same on the weaker section of the society. The observation of the psalmist
reveals the plight of the marginalized people. Thus, he raised
his voice against the oppressive system of the
society. Samuel Terrien observes that, “There is also an unusual number of
synonymous to describe economic destitution. It seems that the psalmist had
suffered, personally, from the venal partiality of those judges.”21 Thus, the
so-called powerful elites indulged in the violation of
human rights of common people. In such context the psalmist portrays Yahweh as
God of justice who actively involves for the protection of marginalized
people.
Psalm 82:2-4 describes that the duties of the
deities are presented in the form of imperatives ("Give justice to the
weak.../maintain the right”). But they did not carry out the duties
of governing the earth entrusted to them. They are
not functioning as agents of justice and not coming to the aid of the
aggrieved innocent. Kraus concludes that, “These gods were realities- realities
of a wicked judicial system that favored the myashr and turned
down the defenseless. The prophetic-visionary message of the psalm penetrates
the background. A hidden reality has Con revealed to it. The prophet sees
Yahweh as judge in the midst of the gods and powers.
Psalm 82 presents the plight of poor in a prolific manner. The
psalmist presents the case in such a way that Yahweh has to take immediate note
of it. Clifford claims 24 As noted, verse 3-4 defines the standard of
justice. The languages of protecting the poor is traditional (e.g. Leviticus
19:15; Deuteronomy 24:14; Isaiah 11:4). These are the “laws” that the gods are
accused of neglecting. No less than six terms are used to describe the poor.
The terms are here virtually synonymous; the accumulation conveys a sense of
gross malfeasance. An “orphan” is the one who lacks the support and protection
of "the house of the father”; the “destitute” and the “needy” are
economically poor; the other terms refer to those afflicted by others without
the means of defending themselves. Sociologically speaking the depiction
of the deplorable condition of the poor in this psalm clearly reveals the
social conflict within a society. The social stratification, discrimination and
rupture between the rich and the poor is explicit. In the post exilic context,
people were eager to become rich, aspiring for well settlement and upward
social mobility. This resulted in the violation of rights of the marginalized
people. The verbs used here (give, maintain, rescue, and deliver in vv. 3-4)
expresses that marginalized people are in terrible situation. God's
intervention is desperately needed for the administration of justice. Dahood
asserts that in v. 5 we find the semantic relationship between “darkness” and “ignorance.”
This metaphor depicted injustice and lawlessness as a sapping of the earth’s
foundation.25 Hence, God of the Bible stands as guardian, protector, and
guarantor of the vulnerable- the weak, the widow, the orphan, the lowly, the
destitute- all those who lack the resources to sustain and protect themselves.
The psalmist imagines that by the destruction of the gods- and by implication
human agents and social practices- God is against those who involve in the
practice of injustice.
The concern of the poor and needy is not
confined to psalm 82. Some passages in the book of Psalms describe the social
injustice that exists in Israel (e.g. psalm 10:3. 6). The rich think in their
heart, “We shall not be moved.” Another motive is found in psalm 49:7 which
says that the rich trust in their wealth.27 In psalm 10:8-10 we find that,
“...they seize the poor and drag them off in their net....” Some psalmists
identify with the needy and call upon God to save them from powerful
enemies.
The Psalmist says:
I am poor and poor. Hurry up, God, you are my
helper and savior. Lord, do not delay (70:6).
Psalm 72:1-4 beautifully depicts Yahweh as the
defender and deliverer of the marginalized people.
May he judge your people... And your poor with
justice... May he defend the cause of the poor among the people.
In brief, as White asserts, psalm 82 indicates
two important things. First, from Israel's viewpoint it is God's own task to
administer justice on earth (Deuteronomy 1:17). Second, justice is the
foundation of social order, and the quality of justice lies in its compassion
toward the vulnerable and the deprived. When these principles are practiced
then we will be able to create a “just society.o28
Implication and Conclusion
The present social reality seems to be similar
with the experience of marginalized people in psalm 82 where the so-called
powerful 'gods' play with the lives of innocent people. Several incidents in
the recent past reveals how the rights of the Dalit Christians have been
violated by the affluent in the society. Bonita Aleaz aptly puts the
feelings of society as “the feeling of shame are evoked when reports of
torture. discrimination and humiliation are reported showing the continuing
derogatory existences to which some Dalits are still exposed.” Even
after knowing the social discrimination and stigma against a particular group
of people if we do not participate in their struggles and fight for their
rights and justice then our theological orientation and articulation will go in
vain. Emancipation of the Dalits and the downtrodden from oppression and
exploitation to become builders of an egalitarian, democratic and pluralistic
social order is the central focus of empowerment today. As 21st March is
commemorated internationally for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, let
us try to create a peaceful co-existence and a just society. A Sociological
reading of psalm 82 motivates, challenges and stimulates us that those who
believe in the God of justice need to practice, propagate and advocate the
biblical principles of equality, justice and dignity for all. Where the rights
of each one needs to be protected, respected and preserved irrespective of
their socio-religious background. In Indian context, as Dalit Christians and
other minority Dalits are part and parcel of Indian social system, they should
be considered as equals with other Dalit community. It is the duty of every
responsible citizen that we respect, uphold and obey the Constitution which
promotes the above mentioned principles for the welfare of all irrespective of
one's background.
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