*Upper caste and Dalit Catholics clash, police shoot and kill
**by Nirmala Carvalho, 03/10/2008 13:53, INDIA

*http://www.asianews.it

In Tamil Nadu upper caste Catholics attack Dalits, destroying dozens of
their homes. They are "guilty" of demanding a separate parish. Police move
in and fire at attackers.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) – Two Christians died and many more were wounded shot
by police who intervened yesterday to stop clashes between Dalit Catholics
and upper caste Catholics in the diocese of Pondicherry-Cuddalore (Tamil
Nadu).

Troubles started on 7 March when a group of Dalit Christians from the
Villupuram district began a hunger strike to protest discrimination in a
local parish by the Vanniyar.

Three months ago Dalits from St Jabamalais Annai Church in Earyur built
another church dedicated to Saghaya Madha (Our Lady of Perpetual Help) and
sought to have it erected as a separate parish with its own priest.

They were backed in their demands by two political groups, the Viduthalai
Chiruthaigal Katchi (Vck) and Ambedkar Makkal Iyakkam (AMI). The VCK even
put up posters calling for the closure of St Jabamalai and the recognition
of the new parish church.

In response some 500 upper caste Christians went on a rampage on Sunday,
attacking Dalits and torching over 30 huts.

Police said that when they moved in to stop the protest they were pelted
with stones and were thus "forced" to open fire on the aggressors. M Periy
Nayagam, 40, and A. Magimai, 24, were killed and 40 more people were
wounded.

Fr G Cosmon Arokiaraj, secretary to the Commission for Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, told *AsiaNews
*that the "confrontation in the area between Dalit and Vanniyar Catholics
goes back quite some time, but the Church does not want to split a parish
along caste line," but is working towards "gradually removing discrimination
against the Dalits and uprooting all forms of discrimination."

These tragic incidents show that it is urgent to ban many forms of
discrimination against Dalit Christians both within the Christian community
and especially society at large. In fact "since the Christian community is
perceived as a single entity," he explained, "the government does not
recognise to Dalit Christians the same rights as other Dalits."

In the Indian caste system, states have granted specific benefits and quotas
in schools and public service for Dalits to compensate for their secular low
social standing.

"For years Dalits have been discriminated within the Church itself," he
said. "They cannot sit with upper caste members in the same church; they are
buried in separate cemeteries; they cannot use the same roads as upper caste
people. When the mother of a Dalit priest died in the 1990s the upper caste
did not allow the funeral procession to use the main road; even the bishop
failed to bring about a compromise."

"In India more than 65 per cent of all Christians are Dalit, but Christians
represent only 2.3 per cent of a population of 1.1 billion people."






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