A question that had vexed Roberto de Nobili, a 17th-century Italian missionary in southern India, has recently come up before the Supreme Court. A group of Dalit Christians from Tamil Nadu’s Kumbakonam diocese has approached the top court to rule on the caste-based discrimination allegedly practised within the Catholic church after the Madras High Court’s Madurai bench dismissed their plea. J Doss Prakash and other churchgoers of scheduled caste origin have alleged discrimination in the Kottapalayam parish’s ceremonies, fund collection, council appointments and burial rights. The Supreme Court has issued a notice on their special leave petition.
The roots of the discrimination go back almost half a millennium. Before de Nobili, the church’s inability to convert upper-caste Hindus had frustrated Francis Xavier, the 16th-century Basque missionary in Goa. Francis was so exasperated with this and the new converts’ refusal to give up their Hindu practices that he beseeched the Portuguese king to send the dreaded inquisition to the Indian colony, which arrived in 1561 and stayed on for two and a half centuries. Further south, de Nobili found a way out by allowing Brahmins their separate churches and adopting aspects of the local culture—a formula that entrenched casteism in the church. Even today, the ‘Brahmin Catholics’ of Goa often prefer their children to be married into other families of the same caste.
There is also the demand for granting Dalit Christians—estimated to number about 2 crore—scheduled caste status, which has been denied under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950. Following a court order, a three-member commission of inquiry headed by former Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan was formed in October 2022 to look at whether the status could be granted to individuals who have converted to religions other than Sikhism and Buddhism. Last November, the social justice and empowerment ministry extended the commission’s tenure by a year. Equality among castes has various dimensions. As centuries of efforts show, society may take long to accept it. There are also serious political—read quota—considerations that would follow SC status. But as the commission and the case make their way, we hope the differences will be healed in the spirit of our inclusive Constitution and such discrimination will at least be given a judicial burial.