A Cracked Pot
By Rev’d Barnabas J Alexander
15 May, 2013
Countercurrents.org
Ring the bell that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in every thing
That’s how the light gets in...(Leonard Cohen)
An Indian Christian Clergyman recently pointed out to me that one’s primary identity is one’s caste. Everything else is secondary. Caste loyalty is of paramount importance. It is through the lens of caste all things are interpreted and understood. This somewhat explains in a nutshell as to why the Christian gospel (Good News) could not dislodge the caste system and its tyranny within the Church. The so-called depressed-classes on the fringes of society have indeed found their liberative potential in the gospel narrative. Such emancipation has however further fortified Caste identity.
It is intriguing to note a conversation which took place in 1936 between the first Indian Anglican Bishop Azariah and Dr Ambedkar:
“If we become Christians can we all be united in one Church wherever we live? And will we be free from all Caste prejudice?” Ambedkar asked,
To which Azariah responded, ‘I have never felt so ashamed in my life because I couldn’t say YES to either question – I could only come away in disgrace’. (Bishop V S Azariah and the Travails of Christianity in British India, Susan Billington Harper, 2000 ; p 313).
Religious conversion remained a hot issue for Mahatma Gandhi. He maintained that ‘it was better for the depressed classes to suffer in Hinduism than to be relieved in Christianity’ (Op cit; Billington; p326). Gandhi insinuated that by conversion Indian Christians have betrayed their native heritage...
Christians on the other hand, as citizens of India have claimed the right to live, worship, to commend their faith to others by peaceful means and to serve the nation as Christians.
If the primary identity of an Indian is their caste then their loyalty to their faith is secondary. In such a mind-set, one wonders how such a caste view influences the commendation of their faith “to others”. In a way, this offers explanation to the formation of churches strictly based on caste lines. Therefore, the phrase “to others” has a narrow interpretation: The “others” ought to mean one’s “own” caste people.
The Christian gospel has empowered the downtrodden. Sadly, however, the power of the gospel has been impotent to decouple caste and faith.
Ambedkar was accurate in his analysis. Indian Christianity is yet to be born again from its caste prejudice.
Western Christianity travails with its subconscious Colour/Class/Gender prejudice!
Rev Barnabas J Alexander is a Methodist Minister in the Leicester Diocese, U.K
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