Students Vow to End Caste Prejudice

May 10, 2012: Protestant and Orthodox theology students vowed to work against casteism and caste prejudices from the Church and society at a conference in the South Indian city, Bangalore this week.

“Theological education is more than a degree for getting jobs in the churches. It should be a time of conversion to live a life of solidarity with the poor and oppressed,” the approximately 125 attendees said in a concluding message. The students demanded that churches in India show solidarity with the dalit (“untouchables”) in their struggle for equality and justice.

Some 70 percent of Christians in India are dalit, and although caste discrimination was outlawed in 1950, dalits continue to face higher rates of illiteracy, poverty, and injustice.“We are potential agents of change, and we want to link with people’s movements to fight against domination and exploitation in society,” the students said. They vowed to join political struggles, and work with people of other faiths to build a non-exploitative, open and just society.

Attendees represented 37 theological institutes from around India at the conference, organized by the Board of Theological Education of the Senate of Serampore (BTESS) College.

BTESS president Bishop Isaac Mar Philoxenos of the Mar Thoma Church opened the conference by equating the struggles for social justice and peace to “radical obedience” to Christ. Where life is denied, God is denied, and justice and peace are denied, he said. The Senate of Serampore University is the only Christian university recognized by the Indian government and mainline Protestant churches in South Asia.

Fifty-two theological institutions are affiliated with the university, and about 8,000 students graduate each year. For most mainline Protestant churches, a Serampore degree is a prerequisite for ordination as a priest or other form of ministry.