Faith & All Things

On God, Culture and Social Justice

Archive for the tag “Dalits”

India’s Christians Persecuted

picture-11Today I watched people being dragged out of churches. Men, women and children were beaten with sticks. Even grown men were whimpering on the homevideo and us, the audience, sat up uncomfortably, because it wasn’t a 15s clip on CNN. We watched this raw footage for 15 minutes, where shaky cameras were held above people’s heads and what you see feels as real as your breakfast cereal.

Some amazing things are happening in India today. The ancient caste system is crumpling as Dalits (the lowest caste, actually beneath any caste system) are being educated and many of them are hearing for the first time that they are equal human beings to the rest of us. Hundreds if not thousands of churches have sprung up among the Dalits as many choose to leave the Hinduism behind that is reason for their oppression.

Hindu extremists are not happy about this and have started to persecute the Christians. Some have been killed, many have been burned and beaten. This is one of those atrocities that doesn’t get much media coverage, which doesn’t make it any less real.

For more information check out the All India Christian Council and Dalit Freedom Network.

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