Well-funded Christian organisations with an agenda, are aggressively lobbying (one could call it, bullying) the state governments of Andhra and Telangana for the extension of Scheduled Caste (SC) benefits to persons even after converting to Christianity. The two Telugu states are scheduled for elections within a year – Telangana’s elections are to be held before the end of this year and Andhra Pradesh’s is expected to take place in the first half of next year.
A powerful, well-organised network of Christian organisations and church leaders many of whom receive questionable foreign funding, have chosen the pre-election time frame for demanding the repeal of a current state directive (A.P 1998 circular memo) seeking verification of religion and questioning the eligibility of SC converts to Christianity for making use of their previous Hindu caste-based government benefits such as reservations, economic and financial schemes and other special privileges granted at the Central and State level.
Back in 1977, when the impending dangers of a well-oiled Christian-evangelist-conversion-machine were relatively unknown, the Andhra Pradesh government had circulated a General Order (GO) that sought to give consent for extending special SC benefits meant for Hindu SC members, to those members that converted to Christianity or Buddhism. This state proposal had its share of challenges and two decades later in 1998, the Andhra Pradesh government indirectly tried to address this vote bank sensitive issue by releasing a 1998 memo in favour of conducting local, on-the-spot religious identification and verification by local government officials in order to ascertain eligibility for SC government benefits primarily meant for members of Hindu SC community as stated in the Indian Constitution.
Now, just in time for elections, the Christian organisations are lobbying for the disregard and scrapping of the circular memo issued in 1998 by the erstwhile unified Andhra Pradesh state Social Welfare Department with regard to the verification of an individual’s religion when in doubt and thereafter confirmation of the individual’s eligibility for utilisation of their previous or current Hindu caste status for availing government subsidies and privileges.
Current Indian law and census surveys require a citizen to state their caste only if the citizen belongs to any of the Indic religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, or Jainism. If you state your religion to be an Abrahamic one (Islam, Christianity) “caste” becomes irrelevant; the presumption is that the ‘caste’ question does not arise based on the understanding that the religions of Christianity and Islam do not recognise, include or practise any type of discrimination based on caste, which is an alien concept to them.
Caste provisions, protections, and special considerations were included in the Indian Constitution because of caste-based discrimination experienced by the lower castes within the Indic religions. The concept of a specific caste that one is born into, which carries forth into future generations, does not exist in the non-Indic religions (although many have argued that various types of race and class distinctions have always existed around the world), hence the logical assumption is that caste does not and should not play a role in the rights and standing of an individual that chooses to convert to Christianity or Islam.
The premise and presumption for those designated ‘Scheduled Tribe’ are different. While a scheduled caste grouping is based on specific Indic religions, a scheduled tribe grouping is based on indigenous tribal customs and beliefs unique to each tribe, their geographical locations, their socio-economic status, and the need to provide tribal people with access to means of health, education, overall well-being and other indicators of modernization. A scheduled tribe (ST) status is not linked solely to the religion practised while a scheduled caste (SC) status is based on the religion practised. For 2-3 decades now, it has been observed and controversial remarks have been made about Christian missionaries targeting tribal populations because their special “ST” status would not be impacted by religion and tribals would continue to enjoy the Indian government’s special privileges while the Christians could continue with their goal of increasing the numbers of Christian converts in India.
The tribal-Christian scenario appears to get the best of both worlds, while many Hindu leaders worry that the primary purpose of an accorded special status for tribals is being misused, at the expense of the larger nation and ancient indigenous cultures. Christian zealots would like the scheduled tribe scenario for scheduled castes as well. The Christian organisations are demanding the scrapping of the 1998 Andhra government memo, recommending a process of verifying the religion of SC beneficiaries first and thereafter determining their eligibility for Hindu SC government benefits, because a majority of the converted SC Christians practise the dual-identity principle whereby they are Christian in faith and belief but retain their Hindu names and backward caste certificates to continue using specially allocated government benefits meant for so-called ‘backward caste” Hindus.
Conversions from SCs into Christianity have taken place on a massive scale in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (formerly, the larger combined state of Andhra Pradesh). Per the 2011 Census, there are officially 6.82 lakh Christians in Andhra Pradesh, while the actual number is estimated to be between 80-90 lakhs.
Many complaints and PILs in the recent past argue that converted Christians from Hindu scheduled caste status have already misused their special rights and protections under Indian Law by continuing to use their Hindu names and scheduled caste status, thus taking up a large share of the privileges meant for their fellow SC Hindu brethren. Who’s checking their application forms and their census inputs?
The law states that those converted to Christianity should apply for an OBC -C or BC -C category certificate (based on their state of residence) and quit utilising their previous Hindu SC or BC status. The OBC/BC -C category status offers far fewer economic, educational, employment, and financial benefits compared to the SC category which is why a majority of Christian converts continue to lie about their religion on Census forms and other important government forms that ask for caste information. The converted SC Christians are encouraged by their church organisations to continue deceiving the Indian government and State governments by misrepresenting their religion on government forms in order to pursue the misuse of government benefits and special privileges/protections specifically meant for Hindu members of the disadvantaged community. In fact, there have been instances where SC caste certificates have been cancelled by the appropriate District authorities when the potent SC/ST Atrocities Act was invoked but the complainant was found to be a converted Christian who can no longer use his SC/ST legal status.
Citizens have also argued that Christians and Muslims often use the caste argument to denigrate Hinduism while incentivising lower-caste Hindus to convert. Hindus rarely point fingers at any of the odd, unreasonable, illogical, or fanatic beliefs embedded in the Christian and Islamic doctrines. Hence, Hindus wonder why converted, ex-Hindus should be permitted to benefit from their previous Hindu caste status for free or subsidised economic, educational, or monetary benefits at the expense of the Hindus of the nation.
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