WHY THE US IS PROGRESSIVE

A WOMAN OF COLOUR MAKES IT TO THE US SUPREME COURT!

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is in process of being appointed to the Supreme Court of America. She will be, if the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing goes as expected, the first African-American woman to be elevated to that rare honour.

As I watched the hearing, my mind went back to 2007 when, through a policy formulation, I created a reservation for Dalit Christians in St. Stephen's College, Delhi entirely within the existing legal architecture of our country. It was denounced as a crime worse than murder and rape.

The entire Delhi elite turned against me. The alumni association of St. Stephen's -one of the most powerful in the country- screamed at me. Worst, the Church of North India -of which 80% are Dalits- turned against me viciously. I was accused of wanting to destroy the name and fame of the college.

The secular world caricatured me as a Christian fundamentalist. A call to oust me from office immediately was issued, to begin with, by Shri. Arun Shourie. It was picked up by a whole horde, with Rahul Bajaj funding the legal battle against me. False and fraudulent cases were piled on me, one after another, in a bid to 'smoke me out' legally.

The point I am making is that we are way behind the US in our attitudes. Even Dalits in India cannot, often, endure the thought of Dalits occupying high offices. The attitude of slavery is deeply ingrained in them, with all the prejudices that go with it.

About 15 years ago (approx.) when the bishop of the Madhya Kerala Diocese of the C.S.I was being elected, I asked a few Dalit priests of the church why it is that a Dalit does not stand any chance of becoming the bishop of the diocese even though CSI is about 70% Dalit? The answer I got from everyone was curious-

"We would rather have a caste Chrisitan as bishop,' the Dalit Christian priests told me, 'because if a Dalit becomes our bishop, he will only remain a servant of caste Christians and will not associate himself with us. A caste Christian as bishop will do more for us than a Dalit bishop will dare to."

Now, look at the same situation from a gender perspective. The secular world is more open to gender justice than religion. A black woman may become a US Supreme Court judge. But a Dalit Christian woman will not become even an assistant bishop in the next ten generations in Kerala.

That is how deep caste prejudices run in our collective psyche.

Yet we go on preaching Christ the Liberator with great fanfare!

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