VEMAIAH BEESUPOGU

The emergence of dalit theology in India can be considered as a significant event in the history of Indian Christian thinking as it is very much related to the historical experiences of an oppressed and down trodden people. It can be conceived in the context of the struggles of a community against casteism and their continued aspirations for social justice both in church and society. However, the immediate concern for formulating a Dalit theology emerged within the Christian Dalit Liberation movement. So the sources and process of Dalit Theology lay in the agony and sufferings of Dalits in their search for self identity, equality and their search for a meaningful life in the community. K.C. Abraham, the President of Ecumenical Association for the Third World Theologians rightly points out: Dalit Theology emerges out of the attempt in their seeking a new identity for themselves based on their past religions and cultures which had been suppressed or destroyed by dominant communities. In

The last two hundred years have seen the emergence of a new consciousness and a new identity among the 200 million people who have been considered “outcaste” or “untouchables”. Today they call themselves Dalits, a new name they have coined for themselves, and demand aggressively their share in the shaping of the destiny of the nation. It is not a mere name or title, in fact it has become an expression of hope and identity. The term Dalit in Sanskrit is derived from the root dal which means to split, break, crack and so on. When used as an adjective, it means split, broken, burst, destroyed, crushed. It is said that Jotiba Phule(1827-1890), the founder of the Satyashodhak Samaj, a non Brahmin  movement in Maharastra, a social reformer and revolutionary, used this term to describe the outcastes and untouchables as the oppressed and broken victims of the Indian caste-ridden society. It is also believed that it was Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who coined the word first. The Dalits of today were kno

The History of Reservations:   Caste Based Reservation in India Started in 2nd Century BC. In Manusmriti -the law book of Brahmins all the laws were based on Caste and no Merit was ever considered. It divided people into High and Low Castes on the basis of their birth and not on the basis of Merit. Wealth, Political power, Spiritual leadership, Education, Ownership of Land, Trade and all lucrative aspects were reserved purely to the higher castes. The Concept: The correct term used for reservation in the Indian Constitution is Representation. Those who have benefited from reservation and are enjoying the fruits of reservation must first of all understand the true meaning of reservation. It is not given to anyone in his individual capacity. It is given to individual as a representative of the underprivileged community. The beneficiaries of reservations are in turn expected to help their communities to come up. Reservation is a democratic principle to provide representation to the cas

In the late 1960s and 1970s, the state of Maharashtra in western India saw a resurgence of anti-caste political struggle and, simultaneously, an explosion of literature by writers from formerly 'untouchable' castes. (1) Writing often in anger and with a sense of urgency, the writers drew from a shared experience of caste subordination and from the low caste civil rights movement that had accompanied India's independence from the British in 1947. The writers identified themselves as Dalit, an old Marathi word meaning 'ground' or 'reduced to pieces', thus calling attention to the continuing oppression of untouchables in Indian society. Since the 1970s, the term Dalit has gained currency as a self-chosen name of political and cultural identity for untouchable communities throughout the country. The greater political consciousness and exposure to literacy that Maharashtrian Dalits experienced are embedded in historical circumstances. The area that is now the