Indian Christians observed what has become an annual “Black Day” protest on Aug. 10 as a vital panel readies to submit a report on granting reservation status under India’s affirmative action policy to Christian and Muslim Dalits.
Protest marches, rallies, and debates were held across the country as different Christian denominations sought scheduled caste status to avail reservation benefits in jobs and educational institutions for Dalit Christians who form 75 percent of India’s 25 million Christian population.
In New Delhi, members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), National Council of Churches in India, and National Council of Dalit Christians observed a “silent protest” outside the Sacred Heart Cathedral after permission was denied to hold it at the Jantar Mandar, a place earmarked for protests in the national capital.
Dalit Christians began observing Aug. 10 as a “Black Day” in 2009 and the protest has grown to include all Christian denominations in recent years.The observance is to protest against a 1950 presidential decree issued on Aug. 10 which denied reservation benefits to downtrodden people who left Hinduism for other religions.
The government, headed by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, issued the decree to prevent the mass exodus of Dalits from caste-ridden Hinduism to other egalitarian and progressive religions like Christianity and Islam. Under Hinduism, the caste system is a “divinely sanctioned” social order where one’s social status is determined by a hereditary vocation.
Dalits are on the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system and are destined to toil for the benefit of upper castes. They currently make up more than 25 percent of India’s 1.4 billion inhabitants.The term Dalits was used as a translation by the British Raj for the first time during a census classification of “depressed classes.”