Friends, This one story of Dalit, untouchable Hindu, that's just published in the Hindustan Times.com (BY A HINDU) has moved me. If you like it read on and pass it on. Let us pray for the salvation of 350 Million untouchable Dalits in India. Our Mission, RoadRunner World Mission Inc. is making a difference in so many of these lives. Want to know more about this group?

Harsh Mander  April 24, 2007

As a boy, he was often reminded that he was predestined to be lesser and unworthy than most other children in his class. He was taught each day that he was not an equal to other children, and indeed never would be. After all, he was born in the low Dalit caste of Dhankars. In the government village school, Dalit children like him were seated by teachers in the rear of the classroom, at a safe distance from the other students. They were barred from drinking water from the earthen pot kept outside the school, even during those blistering summer afternoons. At the village hand pump, his mother had to wait patiently each day for the kindness of an upper-caste woman to fill her pitcher; her touch would have polluted the hand pump and later it would have necessitated ritual cleaning by wet earth.

The young lad often rebelled against these rules and many other indignities when he returned to his sparse home at the segregated outskirts of the village settlement. "They treat us as though we are dirty," he would say. "I take care to ensure that I keep much cleaner than most of my classmates. Maybe our ancestors did unclean work. But no longer; we gave all that up a long time ago." His father, Krishan, would listen silently.

Then one day, their lives altered once and for all in ways that none could have predicted. There was an old temple near the village square. His father would often go to worship at the temple. He loved the shade of spreading trees there, the stone courtyard and the modest old shrine. As an outcaste, he complied with the ancient rules that barred his entry within the actual temple, but he often lingered near its threshold, his hands reverentially folded, and lit incense sticks to the God whom he loved so much but could never touch.

That morning, some upper-caste Brahmin and Bania youth aggressively blocked his path to the temple, threatening him if he returned to worship there. They taunted him, "What business do low-caste people like you have in our temple? Just stand at a far distance and join your hands."

It is difficult to explain exactly what transpired at that moment. But a lifetime, indeed generations of uncomplaining acquiescence to multitudes of degradations and humiliation of caste, just cracked within him. Rarely had Bhanwar seen his father so agitated than when he returned home that day. He broke his silence some days later, to announce his decision to his stunned family. "I will build my own temple. It will be bigger and better than anything that the people of this village have seen. Let us see who can stop us from worshipping then?"

He gathered all his savings from the toil of his entire adult life at harrowing lonely sites of road construction, with which he had planned earlier to buy a small piece of agricultural land. Even this money was not enough, so he borrowed an additional Rs 20,000 from the moneylender at the crippling rate of 2 per cent interest per month. This added up to Rs 65,000.

He wrapped the currency around his waist, and set out in search of the grandest idol that he could find. He located what he was looking for with a sculptor in Dosa, an imposing human-size statue of Hanuman,(MONKEY god) almost four times taller than the idol of Thakurji in the village temple.

Triumphantly, he transported the mammoth idol back to his village in a hired tractor trailer. No one from among the stupefied upper-caste villagers was willing to help unload the statue, and Krishan instead requisitioned the labour of his lowly caste-men to deliver the God to his unconventional new resting place. The next few weeks Krishan devoted to installing the statue on an elaborate raised platform near his house, and exulted as he watched the mounting consternation, outrage and impotent fury of the upper-caste community against what they saw as his unprecedented mutiny and sacrilege.

But no worship can commence at a temple until it is sanctified, and the scriptures only permit the ancient sacred rituals to be undertaken by a Brahmin priest.  There was no question of any local priest consenting to do so. Krishan was not daunted, and again set out in a new quest, which ended this time in Mathura, where he found a Brahmin priest willing to perform the prayers but for a substantially higher dakshina than normal, of Rs 6,000.

The day that Krishan had awaited finally arrived. The Hanuman temple with the idol that towered over the village temple was at last to be sanctified, after a 24-hour Ramayana recitation. The programme was, however, boycotted by the entire village, including its Dalit residents, who had been threatened with persecution if they were even seen near the new pretension of a temple. But more than 2,000 Dalits gathered from many districts of Rajasthan, and there was great feasting and celebration. A shower of stones from the direction of the village at night could not dampen the festivities.

Since the installation, the villagers imposed a complete boycott on Krishan's family, including a strict ban on any purchases from the village shops, on any casual wage employment and water from the village hand-pump. They braved jeers when they walked the streets, stones often landed near the temple, and women openly defecated around it even during times of worship. Matters came to a head when all the men and boys of Krishan's family were thrashed after they rejected the demand of village elders that they demolish the temple and pay a fine of Rs 21,000.

The entire family furtively fled the village that night, and was mocked when they sought protection at the local police station. They agitated for many weeks at the office of the district collector. The local media and human rights and Dalit activists leapt in to their vocal defense. As a result, after several months, not only was a criminal case registered against the villagers, but they were also given an armed guard of five policemen to protect them round the clock when they returned to the village.

I met the upper-caste police guards in the village, who were clearly dismayed at their ill fortune that they were forced to defend a Dalit family against righteous upper-caste anger, and yet they were helpless because Krishan had learnt to complain raucously to the media and human rights organisations if he perceived the slightest bias. In an ironic if brief reversal of roles, I found the police guards in trepidation of Krishan. The elderly landless Dalit often sent his police guards peremptorily on errands to buy him bidis and they meekly consented.

Yet, eventually, the police guard was withdrawn. The upper-caste villagers had waited impatiently for this moment, and resumed their molestation of Krishan's family. Finally, three years after he joined battle to break with centuries of oppressive caste traditions by building his own temple to Hanuman, Krishan was eventually broken down and forced to abandon his village with his family for the streets of Jaipur.

They are reduced again to seeking wage work where they could, struggling to meet burgeoning medical and food bills.

Meanwhile, a towering Hanuman stands abandoned and alone in Nimrodh village. It is hard to tell what he thinks of the fate of his resolute worshippers.

(Harsh Mander is Convenor, Aman Biradari)

India's Dalit Awakening Gains Momentum

On December 6, 2003 in Tamil Nadu, India, tens of thousands of Dalits, the "untouchables" of Indian society, are expected to gather at an undisclosed location for a mass conversion event.

Dalits in India have a long history of oppression and discrimination. To improve the quality of life for their people, Dalit leaders are calling them to reject the Hindu-based caste system and embrace a faith that will restore dignity and freedom. "Christianity is the faith of first choice," said Joseph D'souza, president of the All India Christian Council.

"Tens of thousands may embrace the Christian faith," notes K.P. Yohannan, president of Gospel for Asia. The December 6 event, he adds, may potentially open the way for millions to turn to Christianity.

The Dalit mass exodus out of the caste system began November 2001 in Delhi when tens of thousands officially became Buddhists. However, Dalits across India are becoming Christians in great numbers, drawn by the message of the unconditional love of God in Christ.

Many Dalit leaders view the anti-conversion law passed on October 31 in Tamil Nadu as a move to reinforce the caste system and keep Dalits from leaving Hinduism. According to the law, anyone convicted of converting a Dalit faces up to four years in prison and a 100,000-rupee fine (around $2,000).

"Please pray that the 20 million Dalits of Tamil Nadu will open their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ," says Yohannan. "And may the Church in India open its doors wide to these precious people."

Dalits Embrace Christianity

Thousands of Dalits are expected to turn to the Christian faith at a rally in Tamil Nadu on December 6. A group of Dalit leaders, including R. Tirumavalavan and T. Ranganathan, will play a big part in this event.

This comes just weeks after an anti-conversion law was passed in Tamil Nadu. This law makes it illegal to convert someone to another religion through the use of force, fraud, or allurement. Even the promise of spiritual blessings and eternal life could be grounds for accusation under this law.

In spite of the potential danger involved in having a gathering of mass conversion, Dr. D'Souza-President of the All India Christian Council-firmly supports the December 6 event. He remarked that the AICC had pledged solidarity to the Dalits in September 2001, adding that this would be kept-no matter what the obstacles.

"Once again, we salute the Dalit people for their incredible courage, and we realize that they have taken huge risks in launching this movement in Tamil Nadu. The local government can seriously violate fundamental rights and cause more problems, but the Dalits are determined and we join them and we welcome them and will receive them on December 6th. If they are willing to take the risk and pay the price, the church has no excuses but to also be willing to pay the price," Dr. D'Souza said, quoted in a December 2 article from ASSIST News Service.

In addition to Christian leaders addressing the Tamil Nadu crowd at the rally, Buddhist leaders will also be speaking. Some Dalits are expected to convert to Buddhism at the event. At one location in Tamil Nadu, 100 Dalits have said they are turning to Islam.

In view of the anti-conversion law recently passed in Tamil Nadu, please pray for boldness for Christian leaders speaking December 6 at the rally. Pray that many Dalits will turn to the true and living God.

Jesus loves them

"The Afro-Americans suffered slavery for some centuries. The Jews suffered holocaust and martyrdom for some time. The Dalits have been suffering humiliation, martyrdom and unspeakable horror for the last three thousand years." (From a Christian Dalit publication)

Dear Friends, imagine if this were your life: Since you own no land, you work as an agricultural laborer for a landowner who pays you either a few pounds of rice or around 40 to 90 cents a day. On the brink of destitution, barely able to feed your family, you can't afford any education for your children. Neither can you break away from the vicious cycle of debt bondage that has been passed on in your family from generation to generation.

At the end of the day you return to a poorly constructed hut in a small segregated colony that has no electricity and is miles away from the nearest water source. You are forbidden to enter places of worship, draw water from public wells, send your son or daughter to the village school where the other children go, walk in a street where the upper caste people live and, if you find yourself in the presence of one, you must remove your shoes. You cannot sit down in a bus, even if a seat is vacant; and you must drink out of a separate cup in the local teashop.

You are made to perform the lowest jobs in the community: dig graves, dispose of dead animals, clean human waste from public latrines with your bare hands, all because you were born as an "untouchable," a Dalit whose very presence and touch is believed to pollute everything. And from your miserable existence there is never an escape, no matter what you may achieve in life.

In 1950, the great nation of India adopted a democratic constitution that declares all men equal. Since that time, through various social reform efforts, progress has been made to bring that standard of human rights to all levels of society. However, for the majority of the 300 million untouchables (Dalits), very little has changed.

Poverty and illiteracy are huge factors in this struggle to improve the life of nearly 600 million who belong to the low caste and Dalit communities. But the major obstacle for the country to achieve the constitutional goal is a deep-rooted religious belief system that determines the value of an individual and his opportunities in life based on his caste. This system was put in place by the Aryan invaders when they conquered India around 1400-1000 B.C. for the purpose of keeping the native people in permanent subjection as servants and slaves.

The Lord Jesus gave His life for the redemption of all men and women, and to Him they are equally precious. That's why RRWM is deeply committed to share the love of Jesus with all the people of the Indian subcontinent regardless of their status in society.

To bless the nation of India, we have pledged to start 200 primary schools for children from the lowest levels of society; in villages where the illiteracy rate is as high as 90 percent our goal is to open the first 100 schools by the end of 2010. In each of these schools we will diligently work with the children to give them the best education possible. At the same time, we will love them as Jesus has shown us by His example, and we will teach them the Word of God. Real freedom and change can only come from within.

When these children experience the love of God and truly understand their value to their Creator, they will be able to walk away from the rejection and worthlessness they have been branded with and through Jesus become new creations. This inward transformation will empower them to change the world around them, and they will bring this message of hope back to their families and communities.

Building a primary school with three to four classrooms for 250 students will cost us $25,000. This will also include the necessary furnishings. I believe the Lord is once again stretching the vision and faith of our RRWM family by challenging all of us together to love and welcome thousands of precious children on His behalf that otherwise would have no future.

Today as you read this, would you please commit to pray with us for God's blessing on this new ministry outreach? And out of love for Him, would you and your family also decide to become part of this outreach to India's children by sending a special gift to help build one of these schools? Thank you for caring.