Low-Caste Converts Barred From Mass in India

MADRAS, India — Police were guarding a church in southern India on Thursday after more than 250 lower-caste villagers who converted to Christianity were barred from a Christmas Mass.

The villagers, known as Dalit Christians after the lower-caste Hindu social group they once belonged to, were prevented from attending midnight Mass at St. Ebiben’s Church in Manjakuppam, in southern Tamil Nadu state, about 1,100 miles south of New Delhi, by high-caste converts, Father Christopher Rethinasamy said.

He said he was helpless to do anything because he feared an outbreak of violence.

Dalits, also known as “untouchables” because higher castes would traditionally refuse physical contact with them, are at the bottom of India’s ancient caste system.

Many of India’s Christians, who account for about 2% of the country’s 1.02 billion population, have changed their faith to escape the Hindu caste hierarchy.

The Dalit Christians were made to wait an hour and half as Mass was conducted for the converts from the Vannia community, who were formerly high-caste Hindus.

They were allowed entry an hour after the ceremony ended, after police intervened and negotiated with church authorities.

“I know it is against the teachings of Jesus,” Rethinasamy said. “But I had to go along with the decision of the Vannia Christians. I did not want the situation to deteriorate.”

About 50 police officers were posted at the site to prevent any clashes, said a senior police official in the area, Rajeev Kumar.