In this blog post, we are dealing with the topic, who are Dalits? What is Dalit Theology? If you want to know about Dalit Theology, then this post is for you.
Who are the Dalits?
When we ask, who are Dalits? Then we can say, those who are the broken, the torn, the rent, the burst, the split; those who are they opened, the expanded; the bisected. They have driven, asunder, the dispelled, the scattered; the downtrodden, the crushed, the destroyed, and they manifested.
What is Dalit theology?
This question-answer has given by Webster in three different ways:
- Firstly, It is a theology that has reflected upon the Christian responsibility to the depressed classes.
- Secondly, this is a theology for the depressed classes or the theology of the message addressed to the depressed classes and to which they seem to respond.
- Thirdly, it is a theology from the depressed classes which they themselves like to expound.
This query, according to Webster
The first solution may be that it’s miles a theology approximately the Dalits; or theological reflection upon the Christian obligation to the depressed instructions.
Secondly, the answer can be that it miles a theology for the depressed training; or the theology of the message addressed to the depressed instructions; and to which they appear to be responding.
Thirdly, the answer can be that it’s far a theology from the depressed classes; that is the theology, which they themselves would really like to expound.
Nirmal says that a Christian Dalit theology produces with the aid of Dalits. It bases totally on their very own Dalit reports, their own sufferings, their personal aspirations, and their personal hopes. It is going to narrate the story in their pathos; and their protest against the socio-monetary injustices.
They had been subjected to for the duration of history. It is expecting liberation which is meaningful to them. It constitutes a radical discontinuity with the classical Indian Christian theology of the Brahminic Subculture.
This Brahminic way of life within classical Indian theology desires to be challenged via the rising Dalit theology. This means that a Christian Dalit theology can be a counter-theology. Basically, it’s miles the commonplace Dalit enjoys of Christian Dalits; alongside the other Dalits in order to shape a Christian Dalit theology.
Historical Dalit consciousness
It is the primary datum of a Christian Dalit theology. The question of Dalit consciousness is really the question of Dalit identity, the question of their roots. Moreover, Deuteronomy 26: 5-12 is taken as one of the biblical foundations because it has tremendous implications for Dalit theology.
A creed, a confession, a faith affirmation must exercise in laying bare the roots of the believing community. ‘A wandering Aramean was my father’ recalls the nomadic consciousness. To confess that ‘once we were no people’ is also an integral part of a confession, before we come to the claims ‘now we are God’s people.’
It is only when we recognize one’s root, one’s identity, we become truly confessional. A truly confessional theology has to do with the question of the roots, identity, and consciousness. The historic Deuteronomy Creed has paradigmatic value for Dalit theological construct.
The Dalit needs an activist struggle for liberation, a movement informed by its action towards its theological reflection. Their pathos should give birth to their protest. Their protest should be so loud that the walls of Brahminism should come tumbling down. A Christian Dalit theology is a theology which has full of pathos, but not a passive theology.
The Question of God
The God whom Jesus Christ revealed and about whom the prophets of the OT spoke is a Dalit God. So, God is a servant God–who serves. Services for others have always been the privilege of Dalit communities in India. Unfortunately, the word ‘service’, ministry, or Diakonia has lost its cutting edge.
Originally the word Diakonia was associated with the waiting at the dining table. The ‘servant’ therefore, means a waiter. Our housemaid or the sweeper who cleans commodes and latrines are truly our servants.
In this sense say that servant God means our God. God is a server, a dhobi, all such services have been the lot of Dalits. This means we have participated in this servant-God’s ministries.
Therefore, Jesus Himself recognizes and identifies a servant of God as a truly Dalit deity. The gospel identified Jesus with the servant of God of Isaiah (Is. 53:2-8).
The Servant language here used to describe the full of pathos. This is the language used for God–the God of Dalits. This is also the language that mirrors the God of Dalits and Dalits themselves.
Dalit Christology
The Dalit proclaims and affirms that Jesus Christ whose followers we are was himself a Dalit – despite his being a Jew. The humanity and divinity of Jesus to be understood in terms of his Dalitness. So, the Dalitness of Jesus is the key to his mystery of divine-human unity.