Patronising the Upper Castes: The Church in Bama's Karukku

Abstract

The caste system is a form of disgraceful social stratification, unique to the Hindu society in India. It is a two pronged system that privileges the upper castes and marginalizes the lower, thus creating a monumental gap between the two. To escape the brunt of casteist discrimination, some untouchable communities had chosen to get converted to Christianity which is egalitarian by principle. In Bama’s autobiography Karukku, we find the community of parayas who had proselytized to Christianity. Despite their proselytisation, they are still subjected to caste-based discrimination. The present paper attempts to establish that despite endorsing egalitarianism and social justice, the institution of Christianity, in the Indian context, have proved unsuccessful in rescuing the dalits from caste-based discrimination. This paper further focuses on the economic deprivation the dalit Christians are suffering because of their Christian status.

Keywords

proselytization, caste discrimination, Christianity, casteist ideology, social justice.