We Welcome Supreme Court decision to hear Dalit Christian issue; Pray the Central Government will enact law soon

It is a joyous day. We hope that the Supreme Court would soon finally end an historic injustice that was done in 1950 to the Dalits professing the Christian Faith. Whenever the Supreme Court gives its final judgement recognising that the cruel and debilitating inequities and injuries of the 3,000 year old caste system cross all boundaries of religion, region and ethnicity in India, it will also purge the Statues of a law that communalise affirmative action, limit social justice and remove Dalit Christians from the shelter and protection of the law. We congratulate Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan who took up the case.

We have full hope in the Judicial system and the Supreme Court and with the voluminous evidence that we have of Dalit Christian suffering and injustices meted out to them in the last fifty years, we are hopeful that justice would be done finally. We also hope that the Central government would enact necessary legislation without waiting for the final ruling of the Court.

 We have been surprised that the Attorney General quoted in Court the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s reluctance to come to the aid of Dalit Christians. Nothing more was expected of the communal BJP regime. But it was forgotten that the Congress government under Narasimha Rao had indeed accepted the case of the Dalit Christians and had moved a Bill in Parliament. That the Bill could not become law was another matter.

 On 11 March 1996, then Social Welfare Minister Sitaram Kesri submitted to the Lok Sabha the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order Amendment Bill 1996. Its Statement of Objects and Reasons reads as follows: "Converts to the Christian religion who are of Scheduled Caste origin are precluded from the statutory benefits and safeguards accruing to the members of the Scheduled Castes. Demands have been made from time to time for extending these safeguards to the Christians of Scheduled Caste origin by granting them recognition as Scheduled Castes on the grounds that the change of religion has not altered their social and economic condition. Upon due consideration of these demands, it is proposed to amend the relevant Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order to include the Christian converts of Scheduled Castes among the Scheduled Castes therein."

 The Bill could not be introduced in Parliament due to the dissolution of the 10th Lok Sabha. It is recalled that this Act was amended twice in the past, in September 1956 for Mazhbi Sikhs and in 1990 for Neo Buddhists.

 We had launched a vigorous political advocacy campaign in 2004 in view of the Supreme Court asking the government to speak its mind on the issue of giving Dalit Christians the same rights now available to Dalits of major religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism.

 All the leaders of the All India Christian Council, the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, the All India Catholic Union, Church of North India and other groups canvassed with leaders of the Ruling and Opposition parties and Central Ministers to urge the Government of India to reintroduce the Sita Ram Kesri Bill in Parliament.

 A memorandum was also drafted for the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for effective implementation of the Prime Minister's 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of the Minorities of the late Indira Gandhi and has been endorsed by all successive governments.

 The memorandum called upon the Government to restore to Christians of Dalit origin human dignity and equality before the Constitution and the laws of land with Dalits who now profess the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faiths. From this flow Constitutional rights such as the Protection under Article 37 on Untouchability and Prevention of Atrocities act 1979, and benefits of affirmative actions promulgated by the Congress governments led by such visionaries as the late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

We pointed out that the Founding Fathers of the Indian Constitution, in recognising the social infirmity and historic violation of civic and human rights of the Dalit community, enacted the law without reference to their current religions, thus recognising the social reality where untouchability and similar infirmities and indignities exist and are practised in both Rural and Urban India. The religion, and even the social and economic status of the victim, cannot save him or her from such indignity, violence and even death.

The Presidential Order of 1950 restricted these proactive action and rights only to Dalits professing the Hindu faith. That this kept out of Constitutional protection a vast number of communities was apparent in the immediate agitations launched by the Mazhbi Sikh and Neo Buddhist communities as also by Christians and other groups. The Government of India recognised the force of these arguments and social reality and included Sikhs and the Neo Buddhists in the SC list, restoring to them Dignity, protection under the law and benefits of affirmative action. Sikhism and Buddhism share with Christianity the noble traditions of themselves being classless and casteless.

However Mahatma Gandhi and Dr BR Ambedkar had often pointed out that change of religion does not bring about any change in the social status of the weaker sections. They continue to suffer the same social and economic disabilities.

Even the Supreme Court held in the Mandal Case that "untouchability is a humiliating and shameful malady caused by deep-rooted prejudice which does not disappear with the change of faith..." (Indira Sawhney vs the Union of India). The National Minorities Commission acknowledged this reality in its Annual Report for 1997-98 and recommended that "the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 should be amended so as to omit altogether the proviso that a person belonging to a particular religion cannot be regarded as a member of a Scheduled Caste, so that the unconstitutional nexus between caste and religion is eliminated."