On the 1st of January, 2 temples in Gollirahatti village in Karnataka were shut down after a Dalit had entered the village.
The reason?
Purification rituals needed to be done before the temple could be opened again.
Wait. What?
The Flawed logic of the system
Why does the upper caste care so much about caste?
They want to keep themselves “pure.”
How, according to them, does caste perform this function?
A person becomes impure when he comes into physical contact with impure elements or tasks. Certain bodily functions (such as waste from the body) and certain parts of life (such as a death in the family) result in temporarily polluting the body. While the ritual washing (bathing) could help one regain purity if one had limited exposure to impurity, one had to avoid highly impure tasks and objects. These include things like cremating the dead, cleaning the toilet, or even eating meat.
Caste seeks to keep the upper caste person in India “pure” by delegating impure tasks, objects and impure diets to impurity specialists. Thus, this community of specialists lives in a permanent state of impurity to which people they serve enter temporarily. One can see that the “religious division of labour goes hand in hand with the permanent attribution to certain professions of a certain level of impurity.” (H.H. p49) The cremation specialists live in a permanent state of impurity and they serve others who become impure temporarily. Often, their diet would include meat which makes one impure or unclean.
The upper caste Hindu had to maintain his purity by avoiding not just the impure tasks and objects, but also the impure people. One had to avoid marrying “impure people”, one had to avoid eating with “impure people,” and one even had to avoid being seen by “impure people” while one was eating.
The loss of “pure” space
On the 9th of January, a few Dalits and activists entered the temple premises under police protection.
State power is today used to destroy the segregation of spaces into pure and impure spaces. How did this come about?
The answer is the constitution of India. With the adoption of the Indian constitution, traditional society lost its sacred walled-off space.
The Indian Constitution operates on the assumption that all human beings are equal and have equal worth. This is an idea derived from Christianity — a philosophy foreign to our soil. And thus, the constitution outlaws the segregation of society based on caste lines.
With the loss of spaces segregated for purity, maintaining purity by marrying within one’s own caste is the only avenue left. Thus, it is often defended all the more militantly.
We all care about purity
The truth is that we all care about purity. Traditional society sought purity by assigning purity values to objects and tasks, and then by delegating impure tasks to impurity specialists. Modern society might seek purity through meditation, yoga, diet ‘cleanses’, digital ‘detox’, or any of the numerous other ways out there.
We all feel impure.
Because we are impure.
Blood cleanse
The Pharisees of Jesus’s day were equally concerned about purity. They thought eating food without the ritual wash made one unclean. They thought eating food with tax collectors and sinners made one unclean.
Jesus said that it is not what goes into a person that made a person unclean. Eating meat or touching a corpse did not make one unclean. It is what comes out of a person that makes one unclean. The source of impurity is not objects, tasks or food. The source of our impurity is our heart.
Purification has to be inside out.
The lasting solution will not be found in the flawed logic of the caste system. It will not be found in the skin-deep measures of meditation, diet or digital detox.
The solution to our impurity can only be found in the blood of Jesus, who died for us. Only Jesus can purify us, by transforming our inner person — by creating a new heart within us.
Freedom from impurity
This purity we receive frees us from our bondage to systems that promise purity but ultimately oppress us.
And so we don’t worry about the caste of the person we marry. We don’t worry about whether a task or work would make us impure. We don’t worry about meat making us impure. We have received purity. We received a permanent purity by grace through faith. And we can live out this freedom without fear.
Hey Paul.. coming back from the latest blog and then to this one.. I have a problem with this gospel.. the gospel where the opening line is "We Are Impure".
As Dalits, this is not a new statement to us... Our ancestors have heard this even before the first disciple or missionary landed in India... The next statement is usually an ask, do this, do that, sacrifice this, give that so you find your redemption after you die or in the next life..
"Guilt Tripping" should not be the beginning of any relationship, even if it has "God" in it.
From a social point of view, guilt tripping comes from religions that preach from abundance, from privilege, and from a position of power. Imagine being a Christian in India during the British regime, on one side, you and your country people are persecuted and under slavery by the same people who also preached about the "good news" to you. How confusing that must be.
The Dalit Gospel is simple, we are rejected and deemed untouchable by the majority of the population in the country, Christ promises us brotherhood and an equal place in the church as much it is in heaven. Dalit Gospel is harder because the person preaching it must also see how the people can be uplifted while they are alive, rather than just praying for their way in heaven.
The Term Shudra, translates to son-of-a-whore, Christ and Christianity frees me from that curse. Its high time we stop sharing Western gospel as our own and rather see what the function of Christianity is to serve in India.
I say this only because I am fully aware of the kind of work you do and the need for more people to do it... Cheers brother..