Post by: Hee Chan Yun
I am now working in Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)
India as a legal intern. It is a 7-week internship and currently, our intern
team is working on an important case of ADF that could possibly affect the lives
of 2 million Christians in India.
Casteism was officially practiced in India and
although it is now constitutionally forbidden, it had been so deeply rooted in
society that it is still being practiced in many parts of the country, and
people from the lower caste are still suffering from its aftermath and
prolonging discrimination. The government being aware of this has been
providing exclusive benefits to those population who used to be marked with the
stamp of low Caste- the untouchables-in various fields such as political
representation, government jobs and education, which could be compared to the
affirmative action policies in the US provided to racial minorities.
However, the Indian government restricted such
benefits to Hindu Dalits (a Hindi word for the untouchables) and refused to
extend the benefits to Dalits that converted to other religions. Under
political pressure, it extended the benefits to Dalits that professes Buddhism
and Sikhism but has been denying such benefits to Dalit Christian converts. The
government’s rational is that once a Dalit converts to another religion, he or
she would not suffer from Casteism, since Casteism does not exist in other
religions besides Hinduism. But it is an obvious disregard for the clear fact
that Casteism being deeply rooted throughout Indian society, conversion to
another religion would not alter society’s discriminatory attitude and the
chronic economic, educational and social backwardness originating from
centuries of Casteism.
Such denial of benefits to Dalit Christian converts
has the effect of discouraging Dalits’ conversion to Christianity, or Dalit
Christians pretending to be Hindi. We could sense the government’s hostility
and resistance to the expansion of Christianity in the country, which could
also be interpreted as the world’s struggle against God’s Kingdom.
Therefore, our case is to tackle government’s policy
of denying such benefits to Dalit Christian converts, and our job as interns is
to compile as much data from reliable sources as possible to substantiate our
point that Dalit Christian converts do suffer from discrimination as much as
their Hindi counterparts, and denying such benefits is a clear violation of
equal protection law under the Constitution.
We have been visiting Indian courts frequently, the
Supreme Court as well as lower ones, which is a valuable experience- legally,
culturally and socially. It is also a blessing to be in a warm, friendly
Christian group. Research itself is no doubt a good training, and as for myself
who lack practical work experience in an organization, the internship is
helping me to learn how I should handle group work and behave in a collective
force. But I am thankful merely for being given such an opportunity to be in a
country, experiencing a totally different culture from my own, and to learn
from Christians doing His work through law. There are more weeks ahead, and I
wish to be closer to this family, and perhaps through working discover the Lord’s
plan for my path ahead. I thank God and The Center for Global Justice for
granting me such an opportunity!
This post was written by a Center for
Global Justice Intern. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily
reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global
Justice.
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