Indian Christians observe annual ‘Black Day’ protest

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 (former untouchables).

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." 

However, through an amendment, Sikh and Buddhist Dalits were given scheduled caste status, which also bestows on them quotas in state legislatures and India’s parliament, as well as jobs and places in state-run academic institutions.

After Dalit Christians and  Muslims petitioned the Supreme Court to get quota status, the top court appointed a commission, headed by former Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, to study their demands in October 2022 though the case had been pending with the apex court for 19 years.

In May this year, Balakrishnan said his panel would submit a report within a year. 

“Our peaceful protest will continue till we get justice. But, this time, our hopes are high,” Father Vijay Kumar Nayak, secretary of the CBCI's Office for Scheduled Castes/Backward Classes, told UCA News.

“The Indian Church is in favor of granting Dalit Christians scheduled caste status,” the priest said, and observed that our people have been victims of discrimination for seven decades.

He said “the Supreme Court will start hearing the case this month or early next month.”

Thomas Franklin Caesar, one of the petitioners, said that “it is unfortunate that even after repeated demands, there are no positive results.”

“They [Christian and Muslim Dalits] are demanding their constitutional rights.”

He said that the discrimination was against their fundamental rights of equality and religious freedom.

In India’s case, “a change in religion” does not necessarily “change the social exclusion and the caste hierarchy,” Caesar observed.