(DRAFT for Discussion only) Local histories of Christians: A multiverse of meanings and contestations

By Dominic. D Email: dd64@in.com zg JAzAz Gg, Qz Czg d Pg, D v F v Jzzg g 1 - U zU lPAz... Dear Reader, My suggestion to you is that you should take a few minutes from your busy day-to-day life to walk with me for sharing three or four models of local histories of Christians that I have lived with, and still living. But, dont expect grand designs and objective rhetoric with universal claims [Universal Truth] from my sharing! These models are of lowly origins, crawling to make both ends meet. To be frank with you, even today, in spite of my tall claims of mastery in English and local language idioms, I still, believe that there is no one master narrative to document like the great kingdoms of the past. But, I have a rather cornered and marginalized motif that still survives in spite of the onslaught of modern [or shall I call it postmodern] grandeur of giant projects of development that demand only my labour and not my intellect. By now, you must be suspecting me of jeopardizing or sabotaging the very notion of history of real space and time. Yes, your doubts are correct; to be frank with you, even I distrust the native Kagakka Gubbakka stories (Literally the idiom denotes a crow and a sparrow that try to convince a story) or simply put it cock and bull story. But yet, that story, I promise you, may open up a different possibility of theorizing Some years ago, when I was into the game of theologizing the local Dalit Christian experiences in and around Anekal Taluk of South Bangalore district, though that was denied as shit in the well versed domains of the upper-caste-Jesuit institutions, one Old man named Chinnappa (localized version for the proper name Paul) who was welcoming his long awaited another journey, said, If there is Almighty God, my only prayer is to give enough strength in my arms so that I can work for my survival. I fully agree with his hard earned wisdom of his life. Most probably he and his ancestors only knew how not to depend on the present day progeny that has betrayed their ancestral calling for well promised city-venture with its many hues. You should rather be sympathetic not for the old man but for his great progeny who, bitten by the caste, had no hope in their ancestral callings but to move to new avenues of the modern spaces. Oh! Well, I too remember, how I used to go with my mother to the K. R. Market (Krishna Rajendra Market named after one of the great princes of the Wodeyars of Mysore) in the Unified cosmopolitan Bangalore. Though my mothers intention was to sell few vegetables to get a pie that would feed her three sons of a bonded labourer husband who still tries to recover
1

The translation of the above runs like this: God is a trap; human beings are caught in that trap; that view or this view is all its shadow- from the drama the bride in the hills by Kuvempu, the Writer.

his self - but my only intention was to get a good meal in Shanbog Hotel. Well, this was my reconstructed journey into modernity. A few months ago, my younger brother had narrated a different story. Once, he too went along with our mother to the market and had demanded that he should get a new pair of slippers to go to school (You see, how the school has been standardized!). But my mother not knowing the demands of the modern school literally dragged him to the police station to punish his stubbornness. Well, these were the musings of many of us, who try to reconstruct our social histories of new horizons of enlightened knowledge histories of today. Let me not waste your precious time in my personalized stories Rather let me take you to a remote town called Anekal. Its a Taluk centre of Bangalore South district. Here, the Catholic Church gives us a glimpse of the second model of social history that I had promised you earlier. In order to capture the context of rural realities and how caste operates among the Catholics, lets listen to the words of a Jesuit priest, Fr. Sebastian S.J of Karnataka Province, Fr. Mariaraj S. J and Fr. Patrick Dmello came to Anekal in 1974 and started their activities. At that time, the exploitation of the Dalits were rampant. The Upper caste Christians never made any difference between the Hindu Dalits and the Christian Dalits. Yet there was little respect and dignity because they were going to the Church; whereas, the Hindu Dalits never had any entry to the Chruch. But, in the church the seating arrangement was settled according to their castes. The middle of the Church was occupied first by the Banagigas, and next the Tigalas. In one corner Mr. Anthonappa who died recently, Mr. Papanna, Chikka Chinnappa, Chowramma and other Dalit Christian women would sit. The Men would sit separately 2 From Fr. Sebastians narration we clearly see the discriminatory practices in the Church itself. Why not? Even the Church also had to adhere to the caste institution! Yet, we often hear that there is no caste in Christian faith! You call it a dichotomy in what was preached and what was practiced. Fr. Mararaj3 was very cordial and supportive to Dalit Christians in the Parish. During his tenure in Anekal, food for work4 scheme was initiated among the Christians. First, the work was started at Chikkakere (Small Tank in Anekal) in the farm belonging to the Banajiga Christian. Fr. Mariaraj had offered rice, Maize, wheat and oil for work. The work was to dig the well. The Banjiga Christians wanted money for their work. But, Fr. Mariaraj did not do that, instead he offered them oil; whereas, the Dalit Christians took what was given. Due to this, Fr. Mariaraj was called as a Holeya Swamy (the Dalit priest). Fr. Mariaraj was looking blackish and was speaking Tamil.5 This only highlights the socio-economic conditions of Various Caste Christians in the Catholic Church. Moreover, even during famine rehabilitation work, the caste relations were at their best to mock the Dalit Christians. We also see the efforts of the Banajiga Christians, who wanted to maintain their caste superiority in relation to the Dalit Christians. These are further highlighted during the parish festivities, inter-dining and inter marriages. On
2

This was the information that Ms. Rani got from Fr. Sebastian during the interview. He had come to Anekal Parish in 1983. During his time there was a little change in the Church seating arrangements. 3 Fr. Mariaraj was from Chengalpet in Tamil Nadu. Though there was Tamil Nadu Jesuit Province he had not joined there. Simply because he was Dalit Christian! Karnataka Jesuit Province with its liberal attitude let this kind of persons to become preists to look into the needs of the lower castes in the Church in Karnataka. 4 The Scheme was due to the rampant famine that had struck across India during the decades of sixties and seventies. 5 Interview with Fr. Sabatian

the occasion of the Vana Chinnappa festival in Anekal the discriminatory practices are seen so openly. Lets listen to the narration of Fr. Sebastian SJ, again.
That was the first year of my stay, on January 15 th during the feast of Vana Chinnappa (St. Paul, the Hermit) there was conflict. The Dalit Christians were called in to split the dry wood for cooking the meal (a Common Festival meal for all the devotees). But they were not allowed to cook the food. Neither they were allowed to come near the cooking place and cut the vegetables . I told them in the meeting that this is not good at all. They were not called as Dalits but Holeyas, Madigas and the Villagers. I said are these villagers are not humans? Not Christians? Why not they come to cook food? That time Mechanic Rayappa was looking Handsome. Then he was not waste everything in drinking. Thondekayee Chinnappas daughter Sagaya and Rayappa were in love. She was still studying in 10 th Std. I said, look, you still young. They were all in Choir. I told Rayappa not to do this. Its not going to take place. The Banajigas will throw you out. The Banajigas are strong and Closed minded Just now the Banajigas marry the Tigalas. There is no problem at all. There is the youth community in Vanakanahalli, Thelagarahalli. Youth like Chinnappa (A Dalit Youth) who are mixing with the Banajiga and Tigala youth like Rajamma. So they are all young and colourful. Yet they are slow in changing thier attitudes. On the following year 1984-85 during the Vana Chinnappas festival these Dalit Youth along the Cooks come and cut the vegetables and all had meals together. That was good. A real Revolution! That was the time through the Choir group many activites were organized and took them for retreat at Mount St. Joseph (A Jesuit retreat house on Banneghatta Road, Bangalore). So slowly, a barrier was removed then the youth would come and eat together during the Banajiga weddings. There was only one Bhuvaneswari Marriage Hall near Bust Stop at Anekal. The Dalits Christians would eat at their own houses. They would not eat here. But they would go there to clean. For instance, Telagarahalli Chowramma I told her, why she is going there. She said that they are calling and giving us money. But they were not inviting us for meals. If I ask them whether they had meals they say yes we had. When asked when, they just say they had! The attitudes are hard to change. The only way for change is that the Dalits should be educated. The Dalits never had any education as such. I tried to give importance for their education. But after me Fr. Francis Guntipalli came and he never gave any importance to the Dalits but only for the Banajigas.(Italics is mine)

The above narration only asserts that there is caste that discriminates against the Christians from the Dalit Communities. But, you should also see that caste is benevolent to the non-Dalits! Further, Fr. Sabastian is from Mangalore and was belonging to the Brahmin Christian Community. Hence, he was accepted among the Banagigas. His narrative style is also of the same liberal slot! He identifies the Christians by their caste but he never wants to identify his caste. Some sort of blaming game is evident all through his sharing. His paternalistic attitude only reinforces the caste hierarchy that puts the burden of change on the Dalit Christians only. He says that if the Dalit Christians are educated the caste discrimination goes off. This is the age old argument that says that there is discrimination because the Dalits are not educated like the Upper caste people! Though Fr. Sebastian himself was a Brahmin by caste, he thinks that the caste discrimination is due to the difference between the educated and the uneducated. For instance, he says, Because you ( Rani, the interviewee, who is a Dalit Christian, and myself) are educated, the Banajigas are not confronting you. You argue with them logically. If they call you

today a Holeya, you tell them yes, I am a Holeya, so what is your problem? It means that today you have got self respect though you are a Holey. But, you didnt decide to be born in a Holeya family there is caste discrimination in the villages. In the urban areas people are aware. So, the urbanites tell what is the problem of being born in Kalanayakanahalli? Whether you are a Holeya boy or a girl makes little difference to them. For, their culture has undergone change. The dress pattern has to change. We should stop eating the leftovers. The way you speak, one can easily make out to what caste you belong may be another century has to go before change has to take place the main thing is that of mental outlook. It has to be from both sides! The happy thing is that you are educated. Rani is a Dalit. Rani is qualified, has wonderful qualities. So, I have no difficulty expecting Rani to be in my house. We can sit together and talk Hence, an upper caste boy has no problem in marrying Rani, for she can be a good wife thats why I said it is a mental outlook.6 This way of theorizing caste only standardizes ones upper caste life style and makes the other to imitate upper caste life style. This is the socio-anthropological theory that was given by M. N. Srinivas. He calls this as Sanskritisation. He is an excellent example of a well-educated upper caste and who has become a Jesuit priest! His model is worth the while for all to follow. All through his interview this tone of liberal attitude, fixes the lower castes back into their birth and at the same time, he hopes that modern education and urbanization will undo the age old caste practices. But, he doesnt think that his very rationalization reproduces caste that differentiates the Dalits and the upper caste Banajigas. This is a glimpse that throws light on the social realities at Anekal Catholic Church. Looking into the above narration, we clearly see how the Jesuits managed the Christians who belonged to lower castes. Though Jnana Jyothi was started as a social work centre, it only catered to the non-Christians than the Christians. Its activities largely supported the upper castes. Last decade, the Jesuits along with the support of the Canocian sisters started a St. Josephs High School and a Pre-University College at Anekal. Though many Dalit Christian Children are admitted in this school, yet one has no clue whether they are growing out of their caste discrimination. All the teaching staff in this institution are Non-Dalits. Only about 4 Dalit Christians three Dalit Christian ladies and Dalit Christian male work as office peons. In 1996 the Jesuits of Karnataka started their regional theology centre at Jnanajyothi. But, doing theology means putting the lower castes candidates out of their contexts and training them to fit into the upper caste life styles than doing justice to the Dalit Christians. (My own 13 years experience among the Jesuits of Karnatka has much to say in this regard). So my dear reader, let me not burden you with further information. This is sufficient to have a glimpse of the poor Dalit Christians! Due to the mercy of the Jesus Christ they are saved from hell. This is how the institutionalized Church believes. But you know that the real hell is the caste and the institutionalized Church that only assures heaven provided they only serve and wait! The third model of the event I would like focus on is the issue of Dalit Christians struggle both within the church and outside the Church - the state. As you read this, you also
6

Interview with Fr. Sabastian SJ

interface this movement with the struggle of the Catholic Christians for Kannada language as the medium of worship in Bangalore Diocese. Some of the Jesuit priests like Fr. Claude and institutions like Indian Social Institute though their contribution to the Dalit Christian is not suspected, yet I warn you to be cautious about their positions. Look at the following statement - The Church in India has played an important role in the lives of the SCs and STs. It is their schools and colleges that have admitted all classes of people including the untouchables. Many untouchables embraced Christianity and many others have become Dalit leaders. Conversion attempts were intended to raise their social status and free them from the clutches of caste.7 These statements are nothing but tall claims of universalism that is rather paternalistic. I know who the culprit of these statements is! The upper castes who wield power in the church always looked down upon the Dalit Christians benevolently. May be, this was not their fault but the greed for their labour that was cheap. During 1991-92 a survey was carried out by young Jesuit scholastics regarding the socioeconomic conditions of the Dalit Catholic Christians in Bangalore Diocese. The survey revealed that about 487 households intensely experienced caste discrimination within the Catholic Church. It is astonishing but true that the living conditions of Dalit Catholic Christians are no different from the Dalit non-Catholics in the general population. Girls marry early, even before 18 and males after 20 years The Dalit Catholics live in separate colonies away from the caste Catholic communities. Around 25% of them live in hutsBut over 30% do not own their homestead land. Over 32% live in single rooms More than 75% earn their livelihood as coolies. Their lives are governed by land lords who belong to the upper castes. Their occupation tells us about the place they occupy in society and the income they earn.8 When the situation of the Dalit Christians was like this, inspired by the Dalit Movement in the state, the Dalit Christians9 too started mobilizing themselves and launched a state wide struggle against their continued woes both within the Church as well as in the caste Hindu society. Some of us are aware of Dr. Japhet Shanthappa and Rev. Manohar Chandra Prasad who came out of the DSS and formed their own platform called The Dalitha Christara Okkuta. Mind you, these individuals were active participants in the DSS movement in the state. Some attribute the involvement of NGOs for the rise of Dalit Christian movement in Karnataka. 10 Fr. Ambrose Pinto S.J. calls the Dalit Christian Movement self-proclaimed movement. More to our surprise even people like Prof. Valerain Rodrigues speaks in a similar tone that the Church and the Church NGOs created some sort of a Dalit Christian movement. But, this is not the story. It is under the leadership of Dr. Japhat Shanthappa11 the movement emerged as a force to reckon with in 1987. In 1994 the struggle succeeded in forcing the state govt. to issue an order to consider the converted Christians in category I for education and job reservations in the state. But, due to
7 8

See, Fr. Ambrose Pinto S.J., Dalit Christians:A Socio-Economic Survey, Ashirvad, Bangalore, 1992. P.2 Ibid, p.27 9 The word Dalit Christian is generally used to denote the Christian converts from the Dalit communities. Persons like Fr. Anthony raj call these converts as Christian Dalits. See, Fr. Anthony Raj. S.J, Betraying the hope of the poor, DCM Publication, Madurai, p.2. But, I would like to use the name Dalit Christian because the Christian converts are Dalits in the Hindu Society. 10 For instance, in an interview Prof. Valerain Rodriques speaks of this. Interviewer is Prof. David Mosse. Date, June, 24th 2010. 11 Prof. Japhet did his PH. D on the Socio-Economic conditions of the Dalit Christians in Harobele Parish situated in Kanakapura Taluk of Bangalore Rural District. At present he is teaching in the Nationa School of Law University, Bangalore.

the apathy of the church as well as the govt. machinery nothing much is achieved in delivering this to the Dalit Christians. To the shock of many, the church itself called this struggle as the struggle of the self-claimed leaders movement. The Churchs approach to the Dalit Catholics development has been patriarchal and paternalistic the benefits of the development have not trickled downwards. In many cases what the Church gave was already lost. The reason is that Dalit Catholics were not made participants. They remained objects of development when they should have been the subjects.. the interviews with the people and the attitudes of the priests of the parishes and the Archdiocese in general, expose the real existence of prejudices and bias against the Dalits. Stereotypes used about them are: dull, lazy, liars, irresponsible, drunkards, fighters and dirty.12 In Karnataka these responses are nothing but caste prejudices against Dalit Christians. Till recently our positions were suspected. Thanks to the Justice Ranganath Mistra committee at the national level that has come out with a clear direction to the Indian govt. to consider the converted Christians for reservation. As our ancestors hoped for better future, we also continue to hope that justice will dawn despite the saying justice delayed justice denied! It is no mere accidental co-incidence that when the Dalit Christian issue was burning in Bangalore, suddenly the issue of language in Bangalore Diocese came to the forefront. The Kannada speaking Christians felt that the Bangalore Church is full of Tamils and during the worship, Tamil was given prominence. This gave rise to a decade long struggle in which both the laity and the Kannada speaking priests participated actively. As you see the above narration seems to be in its objectivist mood. But if you peep a little into this objectivity is nothing but a subjective politics of the Dominant castes against the Tamil speaking Dalits appraisal in Bangalore. Hence, the language struggle is nothing but a competition among the dominant castes to settle their dues. Therefore, my strong accusation of the language issue is that it side winked the real issues of the Dalit Christians. In reality, the Kannada speaking Dalit Christians would be a force to join the actual Kannada struggle in the Catholic Church. This takes us to a concluding theoretical part on the above three models the personalized details of entering into modern city spaces, the Dalit Christians reality at Anekal Taluk and the Dalit Christian Struggle in Bangalore v/s the Language issue in the Church. In All these the marginalized theme of e veryday life in the Church, though the Dalit
Christian had to fight for his /her due place, yet his/her resistance is portrayed as nothing but claim for individual gains. Further to thwart their resistances subtle negotiations take place to keep them adhere to their caste callings. Therefore, local history is neither a universal phenomenon nor is it a

particular event. Its neither a valourised lot nor a vulgarized empiricist construction. Its neither a source to negotiate apolitical spaces in social relations nor to bargain power. Its then a battle field of gendered, casteist, classist, irreligious and ethnic social relations that determine our everyday attitudes. To put in Gramcian terminology its a common sense ideology that guides our behavioural patterns. Sometimes, this may look as if its a fluid-flux and enmeshed status. But that doesnt mean that we look them as the problem of virtual relational communities. In the past decade a growing number of scholars in the humanities and social sciences have turned their attention to space (local) as a means of understanding historical processes. After the linguistic turn in the last decade, historians and other history-oriented scholars have deliberately speculated such terms as "region" (Desi), "space" and "territory" into the focus of historiography. The turn
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See, Fr. Ambrose Pinto S.J., Dalit Christians: A Socio-Economic Survey, Ashirvad, Bangalore, 1992. P.31-32.

to space has connections with the various forms of history from below, such as the traditions of local history, micro-history and family history. Thus, the spatial turn also has connections to the general global politics. In this globalized politics, Religion cannot be looked as mere Creed, Cult and Code to guide the people ethically but a localized politics that determines the human environment in a specific way. Dramatically exacerbating modernization during the past four "Development Decades" (Sachs, 1992), the "social minorities" (The upper castes, and the rich) are consuming the natural and cultural spaces of the world's "social majorities" (The Dalits, Adivasis, women and Children) with the stated intentions of developing them for "progress," economic growth and humanization. For their part, with sheer guts and a creativity born out of their desperation, the "social majorities" continue resisting the inroads of that modern world into their lives, in their efforts to save their families and communities, their villages, ghettoes and barrios, from the next fleet of bulldozers sent to make them orderly or clean. Daily, the blueprints of modernization, conceived by conventional or alternative planners for their betterment, leave "the people" less and less human. Forced out of their centuries-old traditional caste-communal spaces into the modern world, they suffer every imaginable indignity and dehumanization by the minorities who inhabit it. The only hope of a human existence, of survival and flourishing for the "social majorities," therefore, lies in the creation and regeneration of trans-modern spaces not to think in global but to think of my givenness here and now. The modern "gaze" (Illich, 1994b, P. 3) can distinguish less and less between reality and the image broadcast on the TV screen. It has shrunk the earth into a little blue bauble, a mere Christmas tree ornament. Forgetting its mystery, immensity and grandeur, modern men and women succumb to the arrogance of "thinking globally" to manage planet Earth (Berry, 199Ia, 199Ib). We can only think wisely about what we actually know well. And no person, however sophisticated, intelligent and overloaded with the information age state-of-the-art technologies, can ever "know" the Earth except by reducing it statistically, as all modern institutions tend to do today, supported by reductionist scientists. Since none of us can ever really know more than a minuscule part of the earth, "global thinking" is at its best only an illusion, and at its worst the grounds for the kinds of destructive and dangerous actions perpetrated by global "think tanks" like the World Bank, or their more benign counterparts - the watchdogs in the global environmental and human rights movements. So, my friend, it upholds the funny Kagakka and Gubbakka story that seems to promise something different to ponder upon the specificities where I tread and live. Can we then come to grips with our Universalist jargons to focus on here and now of the surviving communities that need justice not heaven from afterlife?