Caste and the Syrian Christians

An excerpt from a post by Thomas Joseph, a blogger based in the United States. Read the full post here

Christianity is believed to have come to Kerala in the first century AD when the Apostle Thomas, like other disciples, ventured near and far to spread the gospel in accordance with Christ’s command. There has been some speculation that the reason why St Thomas came to Kerala had less to do with converting the “locals” and was more to do with trying to convert the sizable Jewish population who lived in Kerala especially in Cochin.

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I write about this because there was a communication on a Yahoo group to which I belong consisting of mainly Asians who lived or live in East Africa. Apparently there is a debate going on in the UK about outlawing caste discrimination in Britain – yes, the old-fashioned discrimination against Dalits that is associated with India. There is opposition among some Hindu groups in Britain, to this legislation – in effect arguing that caste discrimination in the UK should not be addressed! This entire issue of seeking to achieve a “protected” status for casteism in the UK by certain Hindu groups is a whole different discussion.

But, in this context another member of the Yahoo group cited an email he received from someone known to me and several other family members which essentially said that such casteism is not just confined to Hindus and that even Christians in Kerala are guilty of the same thing.

A part of his email stated:

“But do you know Hindus are not the only ones to be blamed for this accursed practice. Even the so called upper class Christians in Kerala are guilty of this though they had given up Hinduism centuries ago claiming to have been converted by the Apostle St. Thomas!”

He went on to cite a Goan he knew from many years ago when he was a student in England who apparently asked him what caste he was. He (the Goan) claimed he was of the Brahmin caste. He goes on to say: “Wow! I was confused. My parents had never told me what caste we belonged to, not that it would have interested me in the least.”

Now, I am a Syrian Christian by birth but because of my upbringing in Mombasa, Kenya where there were only a handful of other Syrian Christian families, my involvement in the Syrian Christian faith has been minimal. However, I felt that a response was warranted to address the statements made in that email. Here is the thrust of my response:

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“I presume that by “upper class Christians” he is referring to Syrian Christians – being the descendants of those who were supposedly converted by the Apostle Thomas . In all my years, I have NEVER ONCE heard a Kerala Christian – Syrian or otherwise – referring to him/herself as belonging to so and so caste – as S—– pointed out, it would be incongruous to do so. What does happen is that the older generation talks about their antecedents and how they are descended from Brahmins, etc – incidentally such claims are not provable and are based on anecdotal information at best. Many of these claims of Brahmin antecedents are predicated on the belief that St Thomas converted several prominent Brahmin families in the first century. Some of these families are named in these anecdotes and today, if you check out the family websites of some Syrian Christian families, they claim to have descended from these converted Brahmin families. In fact, references to having come from an “ancient (Syrian Christian) family” are found so often that one wonders if there are any families left that are not ancient:)”

“What Syrian Christian families frequently do is to refer to their antecedents in the context of their family names. This is pretty much the norm in conversations among them – especially the older generation – where one of the first questions asked is where one is from within Kerala and then a query as to one’s family name. The younger generation who were brought up elsewhere in India or abroad, are quite oblivious of this sort of information and often view it as being rather superfluous and inconsequential.”

“My father used to say that the biggest change that had taken place in the social structure in Kerala during his years in Kenya was the diminished importance of family antecedents among Syrian Christians. It has been replaced with affluence – ie how well off is the family! He used to say it with a mixture of regret and pride – those who knew him can relate to his attitude. He was affected to his detriment by its diminished influence but he was intellectually detached enough to recognize that it meant true social progress and he used to say that it was a good thing that a form of meritocracy had taken the place of family antecedents.”

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“Where I do agree with S—- is that there is a pecking order here in terms of how Christians view other Christians – yes, very unchristian but it is a reality. Syrian Christians – perhaps because of their assertion and belief that they were converted by St Thomas – view themselves as a cut above other Kerala Christians. They tend to view other Kerala Christians who were either converted by the Portuguese or the missionaries with diffidence bordering on mild unspoken derision – again, quite contrary to Christian teachings. In fact, even among Syrian Christians, there is a certain amount of denominational rivalry which occasionally gets quite antagonistic. However, when it comes to marriage, denomination invariably ceases to be a factor if an eligible young man or woman appears on the scene! So, pragmatism rules when it comes to self-interest!!”

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Read the full post here

Caste in the diaspora

Excerpts from an essay titled The Persistence of Caste in India and the Diaspora by Moses Seenarine, published on his blog
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Although caste no longer function as important units in the former indentured colonies, it would be a mistake to say that caste is no longer important. The importance of Arya Samaj in the Caribbean attest to this fact.

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In the indentured colonies, caste mobility was practiced by individuals or families through adopting sanskritized habits of a higher caste or varna within the system and not necessarily into a creolized noncaste world. However, a situation developed where claims of upper caste origins were viewed as dubious at best and outrightly fabricated in many instances. So, claims for upper caste status need to be qualified with actual knowledge of the Hindu scriptures, or accompanied by class advantages or political status.

As proof of this, claims for upper caste status by the middle class and upper class are taken more seriously than those made by members of the working class. Since, the number of jandi flags outside the house is co-related to caste status, with more flags translating to higher status, caste has become a consumer item which the middle and upper class can more easily afford. Over time, this process leads to class stratification, class endogamy, and the re-construction of caste among overseas Indians.

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Permutations of Caste in the Diaspora
The Laws of Manu forbade the higher castes to reside outside the land of their birth, and this injuction is still observed by orthodox circles. This means that Brahmins cannot exist outside of India. Yet, in Guyana and the Caribbean, Indian national business families do not do socialize with the local Indian business elite, and do not see themselves as part of an Indian business community. For example, recently over 40 Indian businessmen in Georgetown met to address prolonged demonstrations in the capital, however not a single Indian national attended the meeting. Indian nationals almost always return to India to marry.

The Richmond Hill community in New York is the only community of its kind in the USA that has a concentration of several South Asian groups living together: Punjabi Sikhs, many of whom are followers the Guru Ravi Das, living alongside Indo-Caribbeans and Bangladeshis. This fast-growing South Asian enclave is a lower-class community, however there are also caste related issues operating here since both middle and lower class Indians and Pakistanis treat the majority of Bangladeshis, Indo-Caribbeans and lower-caste Sikhs in general either as “outcastes” or as somewhat “lesser Indians.”

As further evidence of this, South Asian women organizations in New York tend to be dominated by Indian and Pakistani women, and not surprisingly divided along issues of nationality, with Indians and Pakistanis on one side and Bangladeshis on the other. In these organizations, Bangladeshi and Indo-Caribbean women are never included in top leadership and decision making.

South Asian women groups do not even consider outreaching to Indo-Caribbean communities. The same is true for almost all South Asian groups, from the left to the right, from national to international based organizations. Of course, there has always been religious linkages, however it is always in the father/child mode and the child never grows up.
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Read the full essay here

Moses Seenarine is part of the South Asian diaspora from the Caribbean. He has written a book titled Voices from the Subaltern: Education and Empowerment Among Rural Dalit (Untouchable) Women

Caste Discrimination in Britain

via the Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance, UK

“The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) were commissioned by the government in early 2010 to carry out research into caste and caste discrimination in the UK. This has been completed and their results have been published in a Report on the GEO website. This report has found that caste discrimination is occurring in the UK and as such, it support and vindicates the research that ACDA carried out in 2009, when participants in the focus groups informed ACDA of the many instances of caste discrimination they had experienced. The then government had said that the ACDA examples were anecdotal but now that their own independent commissioned research has produced its own numerous examples, this government have had to accept that Caste Discrimination is occurring in the UK.

To download a copy of the NIESR Research Report click here to open the Report directly from the Government Equalities Office website. “

 

Excerpts from the report titled Caste discrimination and harassment in Great Britain by Hilary Metcalf and Heather Rolfe

National Institute of Economic and Social Research, December 2010

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8.4. Public behaviour

Certain public behaviour was seen as offensive and harassing or stirring up caste discrimination. They all illustrate prejudice. Some may constitute harassment, although not as covered by the Act.

A number of the qualitative interviewees mentioned problems that they had in pubs. They reported other customers speaking loudly to laud their own caste (the cases reported were Jatt) or making derogatory remarks about low castes (using the words Chamar and Chura). The immediate problems with this reported by low caste respondents were, firstly, discomfort, offence and fear and, secondly, the development of arguments and violence, with either the respondent or others participating.

X was in a group in a pub. One of the group, a Jatt Sikh, started saying ‘bad things about untouchables’. The Jatt said that he knew X was a Christian and so probably an untouchable. This shocked X. (Case study 15)

X said the only other discrimination or harassment he had experienced was in pubs, with Jatt Sikhs taunting lower caste Indians or talking loudly about Jatts and Chamars. When this happens, his friends who are also Jatt Sikhs and he leave, to avoid trouble. (Case study 20)

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8.5  Violence and criminal activity

Some of the incidents reported in the previous chapter, notably school bullying, and the incidents in pubs reported in this chapter resulted in violence. The qualitative interviews and the literature report violence and other criminal activity resulting from alleged caste discrimination and harassment. Whilst these alleged manifestations and consequences of caste prejudice fall outside the Act, they provide important contextual information about the nature, perceptions  and consequences of alleged caste prejudice, discrimination and harassment in Britain.

One of the women who had suffered perceived caste bullying at school reported that her locality was dominated by teenage gangs. For Asians, these were caste and religion-based and excluded low caste people. This made low caste teenagers more vulnerable. ACDA (2009) also said:

• ‘You get gangs in places like Southall and you get stabbings and it’s related directly to caste.’

One person in the qualitative interviews reported a burglary allegedly due to caste:

X set up her own radio station. It was criticised for promoting the Ravidassia community. She received telephone threats from, by their accent, Indians born in the UK. The radio station was burgled. Because of the threats and because nothing other than the radio station equipment was stolen, she believes this was to stop it broadcasting, i.e. that it was caste inspired. (Case study 6)

Obviously, if the purpose of this burglary was as alleged, it is unclear whether it was caste or religion inspired.
The issue of the police taking action was raised by a number of respondents. For example, one said:

X believed that, while the majority of fights within the Asian community involve caste, when people go to the police they don’t understand it, and don’t know that ‘Chamar’ is perceived as an insult and is inflammatory. (Case study 12)

Other reports of violence were related to inter-caste marriages and relationships, resulting in the low caste man being beaten up  (Chahal, undated;  Meeting on Caste and the Equality Bill – Committee Room 4a, HOL, 4th February 2010). At the extreme, pro-caste legislation organisations claim that  the majority of so-called honour killings related to hatred caused by the caste system (discussions with pro-caste legislation organisations; Meeting on Caste and the Equality Bill – Committee Room 4a, House of Lords, 4th February 2010 Minutes).

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The caste of social interactions

Annie Shah, an NRI student, reflects on how her interactions with people in India continue to be governed by caste. These are excerpts from her essay titled ‘A Commentary on Indian Caste System‘ carried on the DalitIndia website.

“Mom, what the hell is the deal with Jains and the caste system?” 

“Annie, are you okay?  Are you eating enough?  Do you have enough money?  Did you talk to my friend, Niru?”

“Mom, listen, I have always thought that Jains don’t believe in the caste system… but after being here without you and dad it seems as though we do believe in the caste system and that…”

“Annie, can we NOT talk about this while you are calling me long distance?”

Being in India without my parents for the first time made me feel both farther away from them than I have ever felt, and closer to them than I have ever felt.  I met with my mom’s childhood friend who she has not seen since the 11th grade.  I met her husband and children, all of whom my mother has never met.  I gave them cashews and almonds, which are considered generous gifts in India.  Niru Masi refused to take them and I refused to take them back and I eventually walked away without letting her dispute the matter any further.  I’d seen my mom do this sort of thing hundreds of times.  It was fun mimicking her.  I put money in the hands of Niru Masi’s grandchildren.  I gave 501 rupees to each of them.  Indian people give money in increments ending in 1.  It’s good luck.  I was able to have conversations in Gujarati where I even impressed myself.  Being in the country where my parents were born and raised elicited feelings of pride for me.  I was doing the things, acting in the social ways that I have seen my mom act for the last 20 years.  I was representing my mom and her entire family when I stepped into Niru Masi’s home.  I felt very grown up.  I felt very comfortable.

Well, I thought I felt very comfortable.  And while I was representing my family, I realized that I was not representing myself.  What I did not know on day one of our visit to India, was that this would be my first trip to India as a foreigner.  For me, the best part of travelling has been that I feel as though I have a child’s eye again.  Everything that I have seen since we set sail in September has been as though I am seeing something for the first time.  I am learning how to define and process everything.  But I did not do this when I reached India.  This was all stuff that I had seen before, done before, experienced before.  Wrong!

Watching the rest of the Semester At Sea students get hustled by the Indian rikshawalas was not something that I was going to be a part of.  I put on an extra thick skin to avoid being scammed.  I was cold and to the point.   I did not exercise any discussion.  I was a patron and the cab drivers were doing me a service.  The homeless people on the street broke my heart like they do every time I go to India.  But in the past, I used to tug on my mom and dad’s sleeve until they gave me a coin or some food to give the homeless children.  I couldn’t do such things during this trip.  I hardened my face and pretended not to be affected.  I felt exhausted and terrible at night before going to bed.

It was at this point on this idle night when I realized I was not representing myself.  This is not the way that I treated the cab drivers and the homeless children in Vietnam or in Boston for that matter.  I talked to them, I tried my damnedest to get to know them and understand their situations.  I know that I got scammed a little bit here and there, but it didn’t upset me.  For some reason, I had equated being tough in India as being more Indian.  But the Indian part of me was the part that wanted to know about the situation of those less fortunate than I am.  It was the Indian part of me who wanted to connect with my fellow Indian brothers and sisters.

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In my visits to India, I have never touched a homeless person.  I have never eaten with a homeless person.  I have never asked a cab driver what his name is or engaged in conversation with him.  This is probably the situation for a lot of people.  But this is not my usual MO.  Back home, I am known by my friends to talk to the cab drivers in Boston.  I get made fun of for it.  Cab drivers have always intrigued me.  They all have a story, they’re from countries all around the world, and they know everything about the city in which they live.  I always ask the homeless people near my campus what their names are.  I never walk by a homeless person in Boston if they have asked me for money or addressed me.    If I don’t want to give somebody change, I make the conscious effort to say “sorry,” or “no.”  I believe that not being recognized as a human being is one of the cruelest things you can do to someone.  I do not make a habit of ignoring someone who has addressed me.  But all of these rules have never applied to me in India.  I have ignored people in India who have begged me for money.  And I was faced with the question of why my behavior is the way it is on this last trip?

It is because I play into the social order of life in India.  And when I say caste system, I do not necessarily mean the untouchables.  But I do play into a system of social hierarchies.  In the past I have always thought that this was a matter of economics.  But looking at it now, I doubt it.

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My tone is bitter because I feel as though devout Jains have not helped the situation of untouchables, and I feel as though Jains belong to the high rungs of the social hierarchy in India and do not help those less fortunate.  Mahavira, a contemporary of Buddha, founded Jainism.  Originally, he was a Kshatriya noble.  He developed the idea of Jainism because he did not believe in the caste system.  It seems to me that a religion that espouses such nonviolence, ethics and is primarily based against the caste system ought to have done more for the situation of caste in India.  But Jains have simply become part of the caste system.

In the social order of things, we are descendants of the Kshatirya noble Mahavira.  The people we can marry are in accordance with that social standing.  I have heard my relatives say things like, “well, we’re considered higher than them.”  I remember how my sister’s boyfriend’s Brahmin family was haughty about the fact that they were higher up than my family, and I remember my mother rebuking by explaining that their sub-caste was not as prestigious as my family.

I am pretty angry with all of this.  I am also becoming quite aware of the fact that the Indian youth in America don’t really have a clue.  But, whether we like it or not, we represent these ideas of our ancestors subconsciously when we go to India.  This was affirmed by the fact that Minal Kode’s sentiments and emotions were quite similar to mine as we traveled through India.

It is obvious to me that the Dalits in India need a charismatic leader.  It is also obvious that socially, the structure of India needs desperately to be changed.  There will always be poor people, but the treatment of these people needs to change.  I am convinced that such a beautifully hospitable country is capable of this.

I am excited to talk to my parents about such things.  I need to understand what they think of these social hierarchies.  Although I had my first experience in India as a foreigner, I left feeling more Indian than I ever have.  It is the first time that I have felt a sense of responsibility to the country from which my parents belong… from the country which I belong to as well.

Read the full essay here

We can only look forward…

- Meena Kandasamy

…when we no longer have to look back.

The following excerpts are from this article for the Himal SouthAsian magazine April 2010 special issue on the future of caste.

Meena Kandasamy is a poet and translator obsessed with Ambedkar’s dream of caste annihilation. She lives in Chennai.

…the caste-Hindu backlash refuses to accept who we are when they know what we are – the result of a supremacist mindset that has the single aim of delegating Dalits to the bottom of the social hierarchy. This everyday dismissal has several facets. In my immediate, personal case, it denies me my Dalit selfhood, doubts my origins because of my way with words, my choice of clothes. This explicit project engages with me in every sphere of life. It is a dual struggle in which one has to escape pigeonholing and also affirm ones identity when on the edge of assimilation.

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The emergence of caste-neutral occupations has not led to the death of any single caste identity. Such predictions about urbanisation’s effect on caste have likewise proved futile. Cruising across the seas, it has been carried to every landscape. Even expat Southasians are in no mood to give it up so easily.

My techie friend in Silicon Valley, a fellow Tamil Dalit, shared an anecdote about driving through the inner city in Denver along with a colleague. Seeing the poor African Americans there, the rundown neighbourhoods and obvious poverty, the other man, a caste Hindu, said, “Namba ooru cheri maadiriyae irukku illa?” (It is exactly like the Dalit settlements in our village, isn’t it?) That is the problem with the caste-Hindu mind: it is trained to recognise caste everywhere, to replicate its order. It is for this reason that it is often seen as perfectly alright when a non-resident Indian acts ultra-strict and oppressive at home, wondering, “How do I face my relatives and family back in the village if my daughter marries a kallu (black)?” His fear is as heartfelt as that of a 15th-century Brahmin facing excommunication for transgressing caste boundaries.

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A decision to step across those restrictive caste lines, to refuse to accept the enforcement of caste practices or to collude with a projects of violence and discrimination, to resist its patriarchal controls and the patterns of thought that it imposes/ingrains/instigates in our midst will lead to multiplicity and unpredictability and disintegration. It is for this reason that I often imagine the annihilation of caste as a feminist exercise – where women totally reject the control of their sexuality in the name of caste or custom, refuse to internalise patriarchy, and speak out against the other forms of discrimination deeply embedded in society.

The readiness to destroy caste requires us to destroy a part of ourselves. But finally it will culminate in the end of imagined or assumed inferiorities and superiorities. That is why, irrespective of where we find ourselves in that hierarchy, we can militate against caste only if each of us make it a personal rebellion, a conscious choice to defy that oppressive, self-defeating system. As an Ambedkarite, I can look at the future of caste only from an obsessive perspective of annihilating it: I believe that real looking forward can take place only when there is no reason to look back.

Read the rest of the article here. Meena Kandasamy blogs at http://meenu.wordpress.com/