|
by John Lindner
The ancient carriage moves slowly through the village carrying a huge idol of Krishna.
Hundreds of villagers go before and behind it chanting slogans to their god, whom they
call Jagganath, literally "Lord of the World." The idol is drawn or carried on a
truck through every district in Orissa State. Nothing can stop it, is the popular belief.
It is from this event we get our word "Juggernaut"--which is defined as any
large, overpowering, unstoppable, force or object devouring everything in its path. Some
may wonder if the Dalit conversion movement is India's 21st Century Juggernaut.
Last November 4, tens of thousands of Dalits ("untouchables") converged on Delhi
to participate in a mass conversion ceremony to Buddhism. Ram Raj, chairman of the All
India Confederation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and de facto leader of
India's 300 million Dalits, had predicted a million Dalits would show up. They probably
would have if authorities, stirred by militant Hindu groups afraid many would convert to
Christianity, had not blocked the roads and trains leading to Delhi, causing hundreds of
thousands of Dalits to miss their appointment with destiny.
Certain Christian leaders had begun to talk about the event as an opportunity to present
the gospel to the mass of Dalits--a dream or fear that did not materialize. Yet millions
of Dalits all over India have an affinity for Christianity--perhaps because Christians
have done much to help the poor and downtrodden. Now millions of Dalits are considering
turning to Christianity in a movement that may drastically change India forever.
In March Dr. Joseph D'Souza, chairman of the All India Christian Council issued a
statement discussing the current move among Dalits. He pointed out that whereas publicly
people were walking into Buddhism, privately they are choosing the Christian faith.
"One church in a major city reported an acceleration of people coming to faith in
Christ--their annual count of new people coming into the church had crossed the 10,000
mark," he said. "In one state many hundreds of villages en masse have decided
that their liberation lies in turning to Jesus Christ.
"In another state, another Christian denomination reports a great influx of new
people into their worship services. In yet another state new churches are being birthed
regularly. In another North Indian state, over 100 locations of Dalilt communities have
requested missionary teachers. A major movement is on."
A leader of a church-planting movement assisted by Christian Aid said he was approached by
two Dalit leaders last December representing 117,000 Dalits. They asked for instruction so
they could embrace the Christian faith. Fearing they may be a ploy of the RSS (radical
Hindu group) to sabotage his work, he told them to go back to their communities and bring
a signed petition requesting conversion to Christianity. They returned a week later with
signatures of 200 village leaders. He knew then they were for real.
So before Christmas last year he brought them to his place, conducted a foot washing
ceremony, and then gave them garlands of flowers to signify his acceptance of them. Each
one received a copy of a pictorial New Testament entitled "He Walked Among Us."
He later distributed 15,000 copies of the book among the villages represented, along with
a contribution of $300 and instructions on how to celebrate their first Christmas.
In January this leader, whose 120 full-time workers have already planted 90 churches and
200 house groups in Orissa, began holding three-month training sessions for Dalit leaders.
Key Dalit persons came, about 20 at a time. They received instruction for three weeks,
then went home for one week, then came back to the training center. This went on for three
months. The leader has trained about 60 Dalits so far, and plans to begin training 30 more
in a few weeks.
In July he invited Dalit leaders from all the districts of his state to a meeting to
determine if this spiritual thirst is prevalent throughout the whole state. They testified
that it was, and chose 30 key men to receive instruction.
"These are key leaders," he said, "men of influence in their
districts."
The leader told Christian Aid he wants to open a training center in each district. Each
center would have three trained instructors and five village mobilizers. He already has
seven training centers in operation.
The state is divided into districts. Each district contains four to five blocks. Each
block is divided into 25 to 30 "gram panchayats." Each panchayat contains about
20 villages. So it is possible the movement could affect 75,000 villages. And if each
village averages 500 people, the movement could affect 37.5 million people.
"We won't pretend to supervise the whole thing ourselves," he said. "We are
inviting other Christian groups in our state to enter into the plan."
Dr. D'Souza emphasized a key element of what's happening: "We hasten to point
out that all this is happening freely, independently and without coercion of any kind by
any Christian group," he said. "The Dalits have come to the basic conclusion
that their liberation will only come through spiritual salvation and that the Brahminical
Social Order can be only challenged by a powerful spiritual ideology that encompasses
social realities."
The Juggernaut may become a Jesus movement.
|
