While Christianity has made a lasting impact on society, politics and administration in countries across the world, it has become flexible in its approach towards the caste system in India. The existing society here has deeply influenced the religion, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader and Lok Sabha member Thol. Thirumavalavan has said.
“In India, it has established itself without making any fundamental change to the existing society. It is a strange phenomenon. Here, the roots of caste has nourished Christianity,” he said, releasing Christhuvathil Jaathi (Caste in Christianity), authored by writer Nivedita Louis, in Chennai on Thursday.
He said the “roots of Christianity in India are the roots of caste” and it does not possess the “roots of its Christian values”. “The approach seems to be that other factors do not matter so long as they remain Christians. Visit the church and sit separately. Be a Christian and it does not matter if you have separate burial grounds. This flexibility, I say, is not the weakness of Christianity. But it only proves the power of the caste system, which has swallowed Christianity,” he said.
The VCK leader said that in Indian society, even the basic structure of a family is constructed on the basis of discrimination. “Discrimination is the special character of the caste system. It has created disharmony and stress in relationships. There is no peace. Violence and denigration is pervasive. Caste is justified and propagated as a matter of pride. There is a constant movement to protect it,” he alleged.
He also explained that while exploitation in other countries had resulted in revolution and radical changes in society, in India, since the times of Buddha, there had only been an ideological war to understand the structure of the caste.
K. Chandru, a retired judge of the Madras High Court, recalling the struggle of the Dalits Christians to get themselves included in the list of Scheduled Castes, alleged that the RSS was against it. “When the Bishops met Rajiv Gandhi when he was the Prime Minister, he asked them to get the nod from the leaders in Nagpur [the RSS headquarters],” he claimed.
Rev. Mark Stephen, who has been fighting for the rights of Dalits in church, received the first copy of the book.
Ms. Nivedita Louis said she had written the book neither to please nor to appease any particular group. “I have presented the fact. My next project is the prevalence of the caste system in Christianity in southern districts of Tamil Nadu,” she said.
