All my life, growing up in Dalit-majority areas in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, I lived in a confusing state of hyphenation, that is, the dual identity of being a Dalit and a Christian. Sharobeem (2003) defines hyphen identity as “a dual identity, an ethnocultural one, and raises questions and debates about which side of the hyphen the person belongs to” (p. 60).
Hyphenated identities are often mentioned in the context of immigrant life, illustrating journeys of assimilation-alienation and constant self-questioning: “Where exactly is home?” Dual identities are confusing and can be extremely frustrating, be it for immigrants or people with more than one ethno-religious (overlapping) identity, in this context Dalit Christians.
Dual identities are confusing and can be extremely frustrating, be it for immigrants or people with more than one ethno-religious (overlapping) identity, in this context Dalit Christians.
There is widespread fear and frustration among Dalit Christians in Telugu states who face alienation due to their unique identity. Many faced problems while filling out forms, such as incorrectly specifying “SC” for caste and “Christian” for religion instead of “Hindu” for official documents. This reflects the broader problem that Dalit Christians practicing “Indian Dalit Christianity” often have to choose between identifying as BC-C (Scheduled Castes Convert to Christianity) or SC Hindus.
Source: FII
In both scenarios, this forced choice leads to their alienation, exclusion and marginalization. In the bureaucratic world, and often within the broader Christian community, being both Dalit and Christian is not recognized; they are viewed as neither one nor the other. But in reality, in the eyes of the ruling castes, they are the “untouchables” who are perceived as untouchable by the church, society and the bureaucracy
Dalit Hindu Christianity
Because we were excluded from Hindu temples due to constant discrimination, even though we as Dalits wanted to get closer to the gods, my family began practicing “Indian Dalit Christianity,” a mix of Hindu and Dalit Christian rituals. Our wedding ceremony is incomplete without Tali (the sacred wedding thread that the groom ties around the bride’s neck according to Hindu tradition).
Our housewarming ceremony would be incomplete without sacrificing a rooster and boiling the milk in the newly built house, while at the same time holding a prayer meeting led by a priest. Like the majority of Christian Dalit households, I grew up knowing that these Hindu rituals were accompanied by a strong Christian consciousness, the liberating potential of love and forgiveness, and saw Jesus as the savior and ideal of the oppressed individual.
With a few exceptions here and there, all members of my extended family are Christians, and the churches we attended were also predominantly Dalit Christians.
With a few exceptions here and there, all members of my extended family are Christians, and the churches we attended were also majority Dalit Christians. However, my extended family and church community have constantly negated their Dalit identity in favor of Christian affiliation. While in my family and church community, Christianity is seen as synonymous with the Dalit way of life and existence, as I constantly use Dalit metaphors or references to common Christians (e.g. references to foods like beef, boti blood roast in Christian households etc.), Dalitness is still unnamed.
Source: FII
They identify primarily as Christians, and for them they have abandoned the evils of Hindu oppression by identifying as Christians. However, as Christians, they practice Dalit Hindu culture and rituals, making their lives unique and connected to both cultures. Unlike the rest of the family, my mother has always played a key role in building my Dalit consciousness and instilling in me a sense of responsibility against caste annihilation. She often recalls her experiences with me and growing up as a Dalit Christian, I felt the need to make the feminist point of view of Dalit Christians visible.
Dalit Christian feminist viewpoint
Due to the long history of socio-economic and political oppression, there is a difference in the way Dalit women speak and live, and from an epistemological perspective, Dalit women have a unique epistemic lens (Guru, 1995). The Dalit feminist standpoint marked this difference in knowledge production and drew inspiration from the black feminist movement and Marxist standpoint theory, which argues that knowledge comes from lived experiences or what Harding (2003) calls a person’s “social location.” originates.
Paik (2021) acknowledges the lived experiences of Dalit women and writes that the Dalit-womanist-humanist complex “enables a deeper analysis of the broader struggle to fully understand the different worlds in which the most oppressed Dalit women live.” (p. 2). .
As a Dalit Christian, there is a difference in my experiences. Wherever I go, I am easily recognized as a Dalit Christian by my bare forehead with the missing bottu (traditional Hindu decorative dot on the forehead). In the article “Gendering Dalit Christian Experience Through Bottu,” I explain how the absence of the bottu (decorative dot traditionally placed on the forehead of Hindu women) shapes the unique experiences of Dalit Christian women and the intersections of gender, caste, class and religion highlights identity (Jidugu, 2024).
In Telugu states, Christianity is seen as synonymous with Dalit identity, and a Christian is often exempt from ridicule and humiliation only if he or she belongs to the dominant caste.
In Telugu states, Christianity is seen as synonymous with Dalit identity, and a Christian is often exempt from ridicule and humiliation only if he or she belongs to the dominant caste. Dalit Christian poet Manasa Yendluri, in her series of stories on Bottu, talks about the harassment Dalit Christian women face on a daily basis for not having Bottu. The missing Bottu becomes a central part of the way Christian Dalit women navigate society and how society views them.
Source: FII
This points to the heterogeneity of the Dalit community in various aspects and describes the realities of Dalit Christians from a feminist perspective. The concept of intersectionality, as Crenshaw (1991) defines it, is crucial to the Dalit Christian feminist standpoint because Dalit women experience the world not only at the intersections of caste, gender, and class, but also religion and perceive.
Dalit Christian writers and poets such as MM Vinodhini, Sujatha Gidla, Bama, Aruna Gogulamanda and Manasa Yendluri among several others have brought about this intersectional experience by asserting resistance in their writings and thereby marking a ‘difference’.
To understand Dalit Christian identity, it is important to recognize the intersectional and complex experiences of Dalit Christians as well as the association and perception of Christianity as a Dalit religion.
Particularly in the context of the Telugu states, I argue through my experiences as a Dalit Christian that when both identities are foregrounded and one challenges the other, in reality neither exists on its own. To understand Dalit Christian identity, it is important to recognize the intersectional and complex experiences of Dalit Christians as well as the association and perception of Christianity as a Dalit religion. This article further celebrates the epistemologies of the oppressed and calls for knowledge production based on the lived experiences of Dalit Christians, particularly from a feminist perspective.
References:
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Gopal Guru. (1995). Dalit women talk differently. Economic and Political Weekly, 30(41/42), 2548-2550. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4403327
Harding, S.G. (ed.). (2004). The Reader of Feminist Standpoint Theory: Intellectual and Political Controversies. Psychology Press.
Paik, S. (2021, June 19). Dalit feminist thought. Economic and political weekly newspaper. https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/25/special-articles/dalit-feminist-thought.html
Jidugu, KH (2024, May 29). Gendering the Christian Dalit Experience through Bottu. Do sociology. https://doingsociology.org/2024/05/29/gendering-dalit-christian-experience-through-bottu-jidugu-kavya-harshitha/
Sharobeem, H.M. (2003). Separate identity and the question of belonging: a study of Samia Serageldin’s The Cairo House. Studies in the Humanities, 30(1-2), 60-84. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A117325783/AONE?u=anon~85683dec&sid=googleScholar&xid=99cb26b9
