* Dalit theology in India

" In Indian Dalit theology, it is seen as providing a " life-giving message to the marginalized Dalits and a challenging message to the non-Dalits.

Dalit theology is a branch of Christian theology that emerged among the Dalit caste in India in the 1980s.

A major proponent of Dalit theology was Arvind P. Nirmal ( 1936 – 95 ), a Dalit Christian in the Church of North India.

Vedanayagam Devasahayam ( b. 1949 ) of the Church of South India followed Nirmal as head of Dalit theology at the Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, and further developed Nirmal's ideas, writing a number of books.

Dalit theology opposes indigenization movements within Indian Christian liturgy, since these are seen as reinforcing traditional caste hierarchies.

( See also: Pierre Johanns, Abhishiktananda, Bede Griffiths, Dalit theology.

* Dalit theology ( a form of liberation theology developed in India )

( See also: Dalit theology.

( See also: Pierre Johanns, Abhishiktananda, Bede Griffiths, Dalit theology.

* Dalit theology

Dalit theologians have seen passages in the gospels, such as Jesus ' sharing a common drinking vessel with the Samaritan woman in John 4, as indicating his embracing of Dalitness.

Recent examples include the Kherlanji massacre, where four members of the Bhotmange family belonging to the Dalit caste were slaughtered in Khairlanji, a small village in Bhandara district of Maharashtra.

Nirmal drew on the concept of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 to identify Jesus himself as a Dalit – " a waiter, a dhobi, and bhangi.

" He also suggested that Jesus experienced human, and especially Dalit, brokenness in his crucifixion.

Such groups, including The Poor Christian Liberation Movement, which are supported by right-wing Hindus, have claimed that Dalit Christians do not suffer in BJP run states, but instead claim that poor Dalit Christian ’ s religious sentiments are exploited by missionaries.

Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, affected by his own experience of growing up poor in rural Puerto Rico, documented the lives of people in developing countries such as Cuba, or India, showing the dignity of the Dalit (" Untouchable ") caste, or the Aymara living in the arid altiplano of Bolivia.

The following morning, Prime Minister I. K. Gujral, addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort, said: When Gandhiji dreamt of India's future, he had said that the country will attain the real freedom only on the day when a Dalit would become the President of this country.

By 1900 Dalits were given the freedom to walk on public roads, and by 1914, Dalit children were allowed to join schools.

* International Dalit Solidarity Network: An international advocacy group for Dalits

T. N. Seshan was the sole opposing candidate, and all major parties save the Shiv Sena supported his candidature., while Seshan alleged that Narayanan had been elected solely for being a Dalit.

In his 2002 Republic day address, he drew attention to the Bhopal declaration on the Dalit and Adivasi agenda for the 21st century and spoke of the necessity of the private sector adopting policies to promote equitable representation of the backward sections in their enterprises.

In independent India, Macaulay's idea of the civilizing mission has been used by Dalitists, in particular by neoliberalist Chandra Bhan Prasad, as a " creative appropriation for self-empowerment ", based on the weltanschauung that Dalit folk are " empowered " by an English education as opposed to that in languages used traditionally ( Sanskrit and Persian ).

In 1917, Rajaji was elected Chairman of the municipality and served from 1917 to 1919 during which time he was responsible for the election of the first Dalit member of the Salem municipality.

* V. Devasahayam, Frontiers of Dalit Theology, Gurukul Lutheran Theological College & Research Institute / Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1997, 501 pages.

* Masilamani Azariah, A Pastor's Search for Dalit Theology, Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2002, 211 pages.

* Jesudas M Athyal, " New Challenges for Dalit Theology ," International Consultation on ‘ Dalit Theology and A Theology of the Oppressed ’ at Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, Nov 2004

The massacre was a retaliation from landlords after Dalit labourers had taken part in a CPI ( M )- led agitation for higher wages.

In Bihar it has an alliance with CPI ( ML ) L and CPI, it has 1 seat in Andhra Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu it has worked for Dalit causes.

Although the Congress for Democracy won 28 seats, Ram's standing as a national Dalit leader and moving a significant share of the Dalit vote to the Janata party and its allies won him considerable influence.

Thus, unlike many other Dalit communities, they are not resigned to their fate which is a requirement for caste control along with social violence.

They have been demanding central Government to accord them SC status on par with Dalit Buddhists, Dalit Sikhs and not to discriminate them on religious grounds for being Dalit Christians.

Here are fruit, maize, wheat, meat and other agriculture products produced for local, national and wider market s. Dalit, created in 1905, is a metal processing plant once one of the biggest in what was once Yugoslavia, employing today 320, but in the late 70es almost 2000 people.

In 1983, he established the Dalit Sena, an organization for Dalit emancipation and welfare.

Modern critics point that the effect of communities ( jatis ) inheriting varna was to bind certain communities to sources of influence, power and economy while locking out others and thus create more affluence for jatis in higher classes and severe poverty for jatis in lower classes and the outcaste Dalit.

In the late 1880s the Marathi word ' Dalit ' was used by Mahatma Jotiba Phule for the outcasts and Untouchables who were oppressed and broken by Hindu society.

The Scheduled Castes are sometimes called as Dalit in contemporary literature.

In 2001, the proportion of Dalit population was 16. 2 percent of India's total population.

In 2010, Hezbollah claimed that the Dalit and Tamar gas field, discovered by Noble Energy roughly west of Haifa in Israeli exclusive economic zone, belong to Lebanon, and warned Israel against extracting gas from them.

In 1932, through the campaigning of the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, the government granted untouchables separate electorates under the new constitution.

This new campaign was not universally embraced within the Dalit community, as Ambedkar condemned Gandhi's use of the term Harijans as saying that Dalits were socially immature, and that privileged caste Indians played a paternalistic role.

Ambedkar and his allies also felt Gandhi was undermining Dalit political rights.

Gandhi, although born into the Vaishya caste, insisted that he was able to speak on behalf of Dalits, despite the presence of Dalit activists such as Ambedkar.

Narayanan is sworn in as India's 10th president and the first member of the Dalit caste to hold this office.

** Chad Bauman, " Identifying the Satnam: Hindu Satnamis, Indian Christians and Dalit Religion in Colonial Chhattisgarh, India ( 1868 – 1947 ) ( Ph.

Indian activists were also very active in using this time to educate others about the issues of caste, class and religious conflict in India, with particular focus on the plight of the Dalit, sometimes referred to as the ' untouchables ' in Indian society.

In India the rise of Dalit activism, government legislation starting as early as 1949, as well as ongoing work by NGOs and government offices to enforce labour laws and rehabilitate those in debt, appears to have contributed to the reduction of bonded labour there.

The supporters of Hindutva have a positive outlook towards the Dalit community, which they aim to bring to leadership positions in their organizations.

He was the first Dalit and the first Malayali to become President.

In a governmental note on higher judicial appointments ( which leaked to the press ; January 1999 ), he observed that eligible persons from the backward sections were available and that their under-representation or non-representation was not justifiable ; K. G. Balakrishnan, a Dalit, was elevated to the Supreme court ( 8 June 2000 ), the fourth such instance, and the only one since 1989.