Movements Of Liberation:
Theological Roots And Vision Of Dalit Theology

by James Massey

The discussion of this paper is divided in three parts: In part one, first I have tried to explain the nature of oppression or problem, which the Dalits in India have been facing. In part two, I have given a very brief description of Dalit Movements in India, and in part three, I have dealt with the roots and role or vision of Dalit theology. Therefore under the following three sub-heads, the whole theme of this paper is dealt with:

I. Dalit Problem
II. Dalit Movements
III. Dalit Theology

The Dalits indeed are one of the earliest settlers or indigenous communities of India, whose today’s problem has a history over 3500 years. (Massey 1991, pages 7,34-35). Dalits in their history have been addressed by their opponents with many names such as Dasa (slave) or Avarna (without caste or identity) or Achuta (Untouchable). But those who belong to this group, have preferred to address themselves as ‘Dalit’ (broken, or crushed upto the extent of losing original identity). Because ‘Dalit’ is the one expression, which does not merely replace their earlier names (given by others), but it encapsulates all aspects of oppression, which they throughout the last three and a half centuries have been facing.

Their oppression was not (even today) only limited to the extent of physical suffering, they suffered much more socially, culturally and religiously, which is basically responsible to push them into their present state - a state ‘with no identity’, or ‘no people’ or ‘no nation’. This is the reason the scholars, who have been interested to make them object of their study are willing to place them ‘at the bottom of Indian society’, but they are faced with a problem to treat them as a separate class. Because they do not represent any single ethnic identity, they do not possess a common physical form or cultural identity, they do not speak one language, and even they do not have one religion or worship style and they have variety of social life, which makes it further difficult to group them as a single group or class. But the one reality with which all agree is that they do have in common a unique form of discrimination at the hands of high caste people, and this is the primary basis for their ‘distinct grouping within India’. (Mendelsohn and Vicziany 1994, page 6).

It is indeed interesting to note that today through the cumulative domination of caste system and the kind of severe oppression, which the Dalits have suffered or subjected, has turned their life to a most degraded inferior status, which even they have accepted. This conditioning of the mind of the Dalits and the state into which they are pushed in, is the one, which makes them different from other low caste considered Indians, who have also suffered either various ritual debasements or are economically poor as well as politically powerless. This state of their has given them an identity of ‘Untouchable’.

Linked up with the untouchable state of their, is the extreme economic poverty, into which again the Dalits is poushed in, through an on going economic exploitation by assigning them the lowest and most ritually polluted jobs, which includes on the one side landless labourers (in most cases it is in real sense bonded slavery) and on the other side the job considered unskilled (though in real sense these are skilled), which include skinning animals’ carcasses, tanning leather, shoe-making, weaving, butchery of animals, playing in musical bands, scavenging, cleaning the public roads and streets, coconut plucking and toddy tapping. The minds of the members of the Dalits in general even today are completely conditioned with regard to these jobs also. This is what the first report of the Government appointed Commissioner of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (1951) says about this: "By the force of habit" a Dalit "has lost his self-respect to such an extent that he regards his work to which his caste is condemned not as a curse from which he should extricate himself, but as a privilege or presence, which he must protect." So this is the extent of the severity of the economic exploitation or oppression, which has made even the poverty as the natural orders of the Dalits’ life and also it has given him an identity of an ‘economic slave’.

The Dalits as a corporate body, because of economic slavery clubbed with the conditioned psyche, not only became helpless, but also powerless. Because they did not lose only their basic economic, social and cultural rights, but also the political rights as well. So this last factor has turned them into a ‘non people politically’ or they became in real sense the ‘subject’ and their oppressors, who declared themselves people belonging to upper castes, became their masters and rulers.

So the above brief reflection on the state of the Dalits, makes a point very clear that today the three-fold problem have become part of their inner being, which they have accepted as part of their natural life, which includes the inferior considered social status, the politically powerless and the economic poverty (slavery) and these have given them a multi-facet identity, which tells them, they are untouchables, they are subjects and they are slaves.

Because of the above state of the Dalits, the social and political scientists, who have tried to help them even have got confused with their state of affairs. For example one group has considered them as ‘economic slaves’, but later according to them with the development of capitalism system, they have become a ‘working class’. Therefore this group named their today’s Dalit conscienceless as ‘proletarian conscienceness’, which, according to them has come into being as a result of a class struggle with the privileged class. The other group has considered that their whole Dalit struggle is merely for a social equality, therefore it is basically a caste problem. But we need to remember that a proletarian conscienceness is basically rooted in the economic losses and the caste conscienceness circled around the loss of social status. But neither of this is true in the Dalits, case. Their case is quite difference, which has been described best by T.K. Oomemen, who said: "Dalit conscienceness is a complex and compound conscienceness which encapsulates deprivations stemming ideological hegemony. Notwithstanding the compound character of Dalit consciencness there existed, and continuing to exist even today, hierarchy of deprivations in the conscienceness of the Dalits. This manifested in the nature of responses articulated by them in a couple of centuries." Oommen makes his statement of "hierarchy of deprivations" more clear by adding: "Therefore, it is no accident that Dalits protest in India first crystallized against socio-cultural oppression, particularly untouchability. This was followed by mobilization for political enfranchisement. Finally, protest against economic exploitation gradually emerged." (Oommen, 1990, page 256). In the next part of this paper on ‘Dalit Movements’ we will see how these movements tried to deal with this three fold problem of the Dalits.

Dalit Movements or struggle historically is one of the longest, which began during the Vedic period and it continous through out the Muslim period (600 B.C.- A.D.1700). It reached to its climax during the British period (A.D. 1700-1947) and is continuing also during the post Independence period since A.D. 1947-till date. (Massey, 1998, pp. 121-142). During the Vedic and Muslim periods, foundation of the Dalit struggle as well as Dalit consciousness were laid down. During the British period the Dalit struggle or movement continued around the question of separate identity and the political rights of the Dalits, and during the post Independence period, the Dalit movement is centered around the solidarity and the visions of their liberation.

As mentioned earlier during the Vedic and Muslim periods the various Dalit movements were concerned about the spiritual and cultural equality, which began by the founders of Jain and Buddhist religions (between 6^th and 5^th B.C.) and later on these were led by Hindu and Muslim saints during the Bhakti (devotion) movement (medieval period). But it was during the British period when the Dalit consciousness took the real roots among them. Part of the Dalit consciousness, the first thing which became clear to the Dalits was the realization of the fact that they are the first dwellers of the land namely India, and the second realization was that the Hindu social order based upon the caste system was responsible for their dalitness. So it became important for them to regain their original status and also to reject not only the Hindu caste, but also the religion as a whole. It is in this context the various conversion movements from Hinduism to other religions, including Christianity, need to be understood. The most important Dalit leader, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s conversion, along with his followers more than half million to Buddhism in 1956 was the climax of this move of the Dalits. A few examples of the Dalit movements from different parts of the country are given here. Some of the well known movements were: In South India the movements were the Adi-Dravida Mahajan Sabha (1890), the Adi-Andhra Mahajan Sabha (1917), Adi-Keralotharana Sangham (1927) and Adi-Karnataka Sangh (1930); and in North India the main movements were Adi-Dharam in Punjab (1926), Adi-Hindu movement (1921) in U.P. and All Bengal Namasudra Association (1912) in Bengal.

Both during the British and in the post Independence periods, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar played the most leading role. Dr. Ambedkar was born on 14 April, 1891 at Mhow in central India and he died on 6 December, 1956 in New Delhi. He worked and dedicated his life for his Dalit community from the time of his entry into the Dalit struggle in 1919 till his death. Dr. Ambedkar believed in the total liberation of the Dalits and to achieve this goal, he prescribed a formula, which included organising themselves and education of the people. The protest and agitation was the third organ of his formula. By following this formula, he led the Dalit Movement till his death in 1956 and he succeeded also in getting the number of constitutional rights for the Dalits in the areas of politics, economic and social life of the country.

The story of Dalit Movement continues, in fact, it got a real momentum in the post-Independent period. During this period it took the form of political parties, the protests and struggle for unity and solidarity. During this period a lot of protest literature came into existence. Among the political parties the Republican Party of India (RPI) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are the best examples.

Part of the on going Dalit Movement, which need our attention is the Dalit Solidarity Peoples’ (DSP). DSP came into existence as an inter-faith movement during December 1992, with the following four points agenda: First, to strengthen the solidarity among the Dalits all over the country. To achieve this goal it proposed to have on going consultations in different regions with a view to acquainting the people with the programme and to create a net-work. Second, to extend its full co-operation to the Tribal people to achieve their full rights as Indigenous people in our country. Third, to liberate the education system, which has been used as an instrument of oppression against the Dalits. Part of the education programme of DSP includes a construction of common ideology, which will serve a basis for the future Dalit movement. Fourth, to internationalize and create the awareness among the members of international community about the problem, discrimination, oppression and loss of human dignity of the Dalits. The working methodology of DSP included the publication of literature, seminars, work-shops, lobbying, exchange of visits at the national and global level.

DSP to-day is a national inter-faith movement of the Dalits spread out in more than 20 states of the country. The leadership of DSP is drawn from the Dalits belonging to Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. The overall goal of this movement is "the liberation of the whole Dalit community as well as of" their "oppressors and in this way...Dalits become an instrument of establishing a ‘just society’ where all will live with fuller redeemed dignity and recovered humanity." (Massey, 1998, p. 195).

III. Dalit Theology

Here in this part of the paper, first I want to deal with the meaning of the expression
‘Dalit theology’. It is true, ‘Dalit theology’ as one of the expressions of theology is new or even perhaps youngest among the various theological expressions of the world, including India. But at the same time it is also true that the roots of Dalit theology go back right to the beginning of Dalit history. This fact even becomes very clear by looking into the pages of the Old Testament that the Dalits are a part of God’s overall plan of human beings’ redemption or liberation. In fact the prophetic messages have specially referred to the Dalit community by name as part of God’s concern (Isaiah 11:4, Zaphaniah 3:12). Also Dalit history tells us that their opponents, particularly their first colonizers, so called Aryan in India made all kinds of efforts to see that the Dalits’ relationship, on one side with God and on the other side with human beings should get completely severed. This was the reason why during Bhakti (Devotion) movement Dalit saints like Ravidas wanted to re-establish the relationship of their community back to God. All the conversion movements in India were also part of this process. So in this way, if theology is a critical reflection on the relationship of God and human beings in different historical situations, then one can see the roots of Dalit theology going back right to the time of the beginning of their present history.

About the need of Dalit theology, it must be pointed out, first, that the existing traditional theologies, which include Systematic theology (inherited from West) as well as the present Indian Christian theology are irrelevant for the Dalits, because these are neither based on their life experiences nor do they fulfill the needs of their life. Because these do not address the issues faced by the Dalits in their daily life. These are the expressions which fulfill the needs of the rich and elite, who have got themselves placed caste-wise on the ‘top’ or ‘above’, where the Dalits have been forced to be placed at the ‘bottom’ or ‘below’ by the same rich and elites. Therefore, when the Dalit theologians refer to Dalit theology, they are in fact making an affirmation about the need of a theological expression, which will address and help them in search of their daily bread, to overcome their life situation of oppression, poverty, suffering, injustice, illiteracy and denial of their human identity or dignity. So these realities of Dalit life, forms the reason(s) for the formulation of Dalit theology.

Here one important point to be noted is that the term ‘Dalit’, when added as a prefix to ‘theology’, serve as a pointer to the role of this theological expression or Dalit theology. The term ‘Dalit’ refers to the ‘state’ into which the people, who address themselves with this name are living. This is an oppressive state, into which they have been forced to live for centuries, by their opponents or oppressors. Those Dalits of today, who have realized their personal as well as community state of oppression, to this realised state they have named as ‘Dalit’. The main factor behind this realization is their history, because it is their history, which has helped them to know about their past lost identity, which their opponents had deliberately tried to destroy. It is from the past history, the Dalits have also learned, how systematically their oneness has been destroyed by introducing among them hundreds of human divisions by naming them on the basis of their assigned names according to various low level of works assigned to them. This realization of the Dalits have forced them to engage themselves in the quest of ‘solidarity’ in order to once again regain their oneness. But finally it is the Dalit theology, which is going to help them in placing the various actions of the past and the present in the theological context, as an assurance of what they have done or are doing right in the sight of God. This is about the meaning of Dalit theology, but it is actually supposed to be rooted as pointed out earlier in their history and in their move toward solidarity on the basis of the historical incarnational act of God Himself. Therefore these two basis of Dalit theology (history and solidarity) need our special attention before we discuss the role or vision of Dalit theology. Therefore the remaining discussion of this paper we will undertake under the following three sub-heads: (a) Importance of Dalit History, (b) Dalit Solidarity and (c) Dalit theology and its role. (See for detail discussion Massey, 1998, pp. 167-190).

In India there are a number of leaders both in the Church and others, who say "We should not talk about the past". In other words what they are saying is that we should forget our history. Non-Church thinkers who hold such opinions include political ideologists, who belong to power-blocks of either so called upper castes or classes, because they are afraid of losing their power or power structures. On the other hand, Church leaders or thinkers include either those who have been brain-washed through the western theological education or those who hold power within the Church structures by virtue of being converts from the so called upper castes. But along with these two categories of Church groups opposed to recognising or acknowledging the past are number of Church leaders, who themselves are having Dalit origin, because of the fear that they or their forbears would be exposed. Of course, they are also brainwashed by the old missionary theological thinking that everything that we had, whether religious beliefs, or ideologies, or practices are evil or contrary to our Christian faith. Such groups of people also ask why should we remind ourselves of our past, because it means going back to where we started.

There are many other argument which can be offered on behalf of those who oppose the idea of referring to their past or past history. But we need to remember that it is only our past history which can tell us about our past identity. This is particularly true in the case of those in our society, who are not only living a degraded life of poverty today, but have also lost their very humanness. Here I mean the members of the various Dalit communities. Many of them look as they have regained their lost humanity or dignity, because they are now educated or are not living a life of poverty. But the vast majority of these people are mentally poor or their attitudes towards their own self is not fully human. Such cases are also proving a point that mere economic upliftment or just formal education is not enough for their regaining a full humanness or dignity. The efforts of Christian churches, the Indian government and most of the non-governmental oganisations have been mostly limited to this, in dealing with the situation of the Dalits. Therefore for us as Dalits, history is very important, because till now historians either in general or particularly Church or religious historians do not represent the views of our people. But on the other hand, we do need to know our past, which alone will reveal to us that once we were also full human beings, enjoying all the benefits of a normal human being, which include land, property, human dignity, natural resources and human freedom. But this will not be possible until our history is not written from our point of view, that is ‘the view from below’. Because till now the views, which exist whether concerning history or theology or ideology are from ‘above’, meaning that they are either produced by the so called upper caste Christians or from the background of European (mostly) representing the same ‘view from above’. Therefore Dalits’ history from their point of view, that is ‘from below’, has to be prepared now, because this will be the first step toward re-constructing the Dalit theology, which in fact will become the basis for recovering their lost human dignity.

On the question of the past history of a ‘slave nation’, to whom God gave liberation and made a ‘nation’ - the same God commanded through Moses that they have to tell their past history of slavery and freedom to their children from generation to generation - the words of the Bible.

When your children ask you, in time to come, "What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?" Then you shall say to your children, "We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mightily hand...If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in right." (Deuteronomy 6:20-25).

The Bible also tells that whenever this nation ignored this commandment, God again sent them backs to a life of slavery and whenever they realised their mistake, He liberated them. In this sense, Indian Christians, particularly the Dalit Christians have not begun their history, because generally speaking they have continuously denied their past. In the New Testament St. Paul reminds also the Dalit Christians that they should always remember their past, how God, out of nothing, has made them ‘something’ or a ‘people’. (I Corinthians 1:26-28). This much about the importance of Dalit history, now here a few observations are offered on the ‘Dalit Solidarity’, which will help us to know how the Dalit theology is related on one side with God and on other side with the solidarity relationship of Dalits themselves.

The expression ‘solidarity’, I am proposing here to use in place of ‘historical praxis’, which has been used by the Latin American liberation theologians (such as Gustavo Gutierrez). These two expressions share the basic meaning, but still for the Dalit context in India, I believe ‘solidarity’ is the most suitable expression, which can help us to re-discover the core message of Christian faith from the Dalit perspective. The meaning of ‘solidarity’ in Pope John Paul II’s pastoral letter on ‘On Social Concern’ is given as "...solidarity (that is)...a commitment to the good of one’s neighbour with the readiness, in the Gospel sense to lose oneself for the sake of the other." This letter also further says: "Solidarity is undoubtedly a Christian virtue. In what has been said so far it has been possible to identify many points of contact between solidarity and charity, which is the distinguishing mark of Christ’s disciples." (Pope John Paul II, 1988, pp. 74, 78). According to Gutierrez, the meaning of ‘Christian praxis’ or ‘historical praxis’ is almost the same, when he says: "In the first place, charity has been fruitfully rediscovered as the centre of the Christian life...love is the nourishment and the fullness of faith, the gift of one’s self to the other, and invariably to others. This is the foundation of the praxis of the Christian, of his active presence in history." But he adds also, "According to the Bible, faith is the total response of man to God." (Gutierrez, 1973, p. 7).

But when we say, ‘solidarity’ is the action as our response to God , what does it really mean? To begin it means that God himself first has shown His ‘solidarity’ with the human beings in history. But we also need to remember, God’s being solidarity with us was not just as an idea, but it was in the form of concrete ‘action’ or ‘actions’ in human history. The Bible very clearly witnesses about God’s historical action which began with His first action of creation (Genesis 1 and 2). We see Him in full solidarity with human beings, while visiting the human beings in the Garden of Eden. But then the concrete reality of ‘sin’ enters in the human history (Genesis 3). The expansion of human beings’ sin as a historical reality can be seen taking place in Genesis 4-11. After that we also see that God began direct intervention in human history by calling Abraham (Genesis 12 onward). The Bible writers, in order to concretize God’s action of solidarity, picked up a case history of a nation namely Israelite, who with the time became a slave nation in Egypt. But God saw their suffering and oppression, which they had from the hands of their oppressors, Pharaohs of Egypt and He decided to help them through Moses (Exodus 1:8-14, 2:23-25). While commissioning Moses, he said "I have witnessed the misery of my people in Egypt and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know they are suffering and have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians..." (Exodus 3:7,8). Here we see God not only offering his solidarity with the oppressed in words or in ideas, but in actions also shows that He "came down to rescue them", which means He became a part of their struggle. His action also shows that He took a definite side of the oppressed against the oppressors, which was not a religious action, but it was more of a political act, which included even economic and social dimensions also. Then of course we read in Exodus how God fought against the Egyptians on behalf of the Israelites through Moses till they have not received a complete liberation. Later, God was fully involved in the history of Israel and other nations through His prophets, Kings, and ordinary men and women.

The climax of God’s solidarity with the human beings, particularly with the oppressed people of this world can be seen in His incarnational act. The summary of this act of God we find in John 1:14. Here we find that through the act of incarnation, God not only Himself identified with human beings by becoming a human being, he also fully became a part of human history by making "his home among us". A concrete picture of God’s solidarity with us can be seen in Luke 2:1-7. Here we find a human child "wrapped...in swaddling clothes, laid...in a manager" (Luke 2:7). With this, two of the Old Testament prophecies also got fulfilled, which many hundred of years earlier were predicted by a prophet about God’s participation in human history. It was prophet Isaiah who prophesied "A young woman...will give birth to a son", who will be called "Emmanuel" means "God with us" (Isaiah 7:14) and the same prophet said God as a human being will have "no form or comeliness" (Isaiah 53:4). So here (as part of the fulfillment of these prophecies) in the act of incarnation, we do meet God in full solidarity with us, not just as any human being, but one who became the poorest of the poor (in real sense a Dalit), who lost his other worldly identity completely for our sake. This is what the expression solidarity means and which we find in the historical incarnatinal act of God, indeed challenges the Dalit Christians to follow it, so that their common experiences (along with the Dalit in general) should become the basis of an authentic Dalit theology.

Concerning the Dalit theology, the first thing we need to remember is (as referred in our previous discussion) that like most of its other sister liberation theologies, it is a theological expression, which has taken birth on one side from the historical experience of oppressed people, who address themselves by the name ‘Dalit’ and on the other side their encounter with the God of the Bible, who has always been bias towards the oppressed and historically poor. It is also based upon the Dalit assumption that they themselves are the makers of their history, which means that they are the ‘subject’ of their history, not an ‘object’, which the histories constructed by their opponents have tried to show throughout the ages. This of course is the first step towards the Dalit liberation, because in real truth it is they (today’s Dalits) of Indian Society, who represent the divinely undivided humanity of the created world. This is the original state of their, which the Dalit theology is supposed to enable them to recover. Upto the realization of their original state, of course is, which Dalit history has revealed to them, because the ‘divinely undivided humanity’ is the one which their opponents have tried to destroy intentionally.

The concrete results of their opponents’ onslaught upon their very humanity, resulted into the loss of their other rights, which included educational, social, economic, cultural, political, spiritual and religious. The recovery of all these now depend upon their solidarity. Because it is their commitment to their solidarity, which can generate power among themselves to face the challenge of their opponents. This solidarity is again two sided, a commitment to God on one side and a commitment to their fellow Dalits (who may belong to any religion, creed, ideology) on the other side. Now this dual commitment to solidarity, is in real sense the subject of the Dalit theology.

So it becomes very clear that the Dalit theology is a reflection on the solidarity relationship of the Dalits. Behind this solidarity based relationship, are a number of factors, which play a role, one, the aspiration of the Dalits for their full liberation. Two, God is on their side and is interested to empower them to work for the transformation of this world, where full justice will again reign. Three, Jesus Christ is the model in whom God concretely became human being to struggle along with the Dalits in their struggle, for their liberation and now He continues to do the same through His Holy Spirit.

Dalit theology, as understood by some is not a counter-theology as compared to the traditional theologies, which include the European constructed Systematic theology or the Indian Christian theology formulated and adopted by the so called upper caste considered Christians. Because these traditional theologies were neither intentionally formulated as enabling theological expressions to deal with the life issues of the Dalits nor these were based upon the experiences (past or present) of the Dalits.

In the same way, Dalit theology cannot be replaced with any of the liberation theologies as sometimes attempts have been made to do so. It is particularly true with South American born ‘Liberation theology’, with which some Indian theologians have tried to mix up the Dalit theology. It is true that the Dalit theology has the commonness with ‘Liberation theology’ on the question of history as well as in the general goal i.e. ‘the whole liberation of the whole people,’ but on the question of the actual history, context, racial elements, ideological basis, almost all the liberation theologies are different. For example our African brothers and sisters in North America were brought in by force, they never came with their choice. On the other hand South Americans who have gone through a kind of economic oppression in Europe and later on gave birth to today’s ‘Liberation theology’ were racial from the same stock as their oppressors. The theology in South America is based upon the economic based class system, whereas in North America, it is colour, culture, social and slave-master relationship based oppression, which becomes the basis of ‘Black theology’. In the same way, the Korean based ‘Minjung theology’ is the outcome of ordinary people’s pain, their frustrations, their agonies and their sufferings, along with their hopes, aspirations and struggle.

But when we talk about Dalit theology or Dalit people’s experiences, the situation changes immediately. Here the Dalits, unlike their above sister communities of different countries, have lost everything. Dalits story of oppression is also too long as compared to any other groups of the world. As mention was made to their lost history of the Dalits, in fact in their case, they lost almost everything, including their land, culture, language, colour, religion and political/social rights. For them everything has to begin new. Here their opponents, who as colonizers came at different stages of history, have today become the owners or masters of not only the resource material that belonged to the Dalits, they even became the owner of the Dalits. So the enslavement of the Dalits is multi-facet, which even the Dalits today themselves have accepted as reality. So in this ways the historical context is enough to show that the Dalit theology cannot be clubbed with any other single or group, either traditional or liberation theologies.

Beside the above difference with others, the Dalit theology also differs from other in its role, which include: First, it has to address to the Dalits themselves about their state and the consciousness. It can also help in raising the conscious of the Dalits to the fact that they are remnant of a casteless community, based upon a divinely established principle of equality (as against the caste based divided communities, which is the handiwork of human beings). The Dalit theology also has to raise their conscious to the fact, that their assigned inferiour status is neither of their own creation, nor a divinely created reality, but is imposed on them by a humanly created system. Therefore the Dalit theology has to prepare the Dalits to reject the old caste based religious order which have perpetuated their captivity, because this will pave a way toward their full liberation.

Second, the Dalit theology has also to address the non Dalits, both within the Church as well as outside. Because the opponents or the oppressors of the Dalits have equally lost their original divinely created humanity. The role of the Dalit theology with regard to this will make them conscious about the suffering and pain of the Dalits and also about their own non-humanity, which allows them to treat the Dalits oppressively. Again the Dalit theology will help them in regaining their humanity.

Third, the Dalit theology has to play a role in raising the conscious of the Church/Christian Community as a whole. The current traditional theologies have been playing a role which has forced the Church to maintain the statusquo or existing orders of political, economic, social, religious, cultural, including caste based divisions, not only outside, but within the Church life also. So it is the Dalit theology which can challenge the Church to change her stand, with regard to all these structures. In this way the Dalit theology will help the Church to become an instrument of change.

Fourth, the Dalit theology has to enable the ordinary Christians to take active part in the struggle of the Dalits. Presently even the ordinary members of the Christian community in India are convinced that it is against the teaching of Christian faith to join any struggle or movement. But as seen in the last section on ‘Dalit Solidarity’, our Lord Himself in His incarnatinal act of solidarity has shown the way to us for such situation.

Fifth, Dalit theology has to create the possibility of full liberation or salvation, basing upon the Christ event of redemption, which will not only involve in freeing the Dalits from the oppressive structures, not merely making it possible to become subject of human or their own history or even having an experience of personal sins’ forgiveness, but to achieve the whole salvation for the whole people of God including their oppressors. And this way the Dalit theology will enable the Dalits to become an instrument of establishing a ‘just society’.

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