Wednesday April 3, 1996.
BBC-2, 7.30- 8.OOpm
East, the perennially controversial current affairs series with an Asian perspective returns on Wednesday, April 3, with a brand new look to its mix of hard hitting analytical and investigative stories from Britain and abroad.
In Last Among Equals, veteran broadcaster Mark Tully OBE reports from India on how caste discrimination in the Christian church is leading to exploitation, violence, and in some cases murder.
The Christian missionaries came to India preaching 'blessed are the poor'. They converted the poorest of the poor, the low caste Hindus or 'Untouchables', who were eager to escape the umiliations that the caste system imposed on them. However, as Tully reveals, these so-called
'Dalit' Christians found themselves treated just as harshly by their Christian brethren as they were by the upper caste Hindus.
Caste divisions in the church are particularly acute in rural areas like the village of Tutchoor, 60kms from Madras. Here, the upper caste Christians live on one side of the hill nearer the church, their religious processions do not pass the Dalits' homes, and they even worship and are buried separately.
However, in more democratic India, the Dalits are trying to use the power of their numbers to seek the implementation of the Christian promise that the last shall be first, and the first shall be last. But, as Tully discovers, they're meeting with determined opposition from the upper castes, despite the church's acknowledgment of the sin of discrimination.
Equality is of course the doctrine of the teaching, but in the grounds of reality they are not treated equal," says Dalit Bishop Azariah from the Church of South India. "Even within the church they are not equal, " he admits.
Better representation in the clergy is now one of the maln Dalit demands. Although the Bishops say things are changing, they are not able to protect Dalit priests from the prejudices of the higher castes. Alarmingly, Christian priests and nuns working for the Dalits are victims of violence. With instances of rape, assault and murder in Ghaziabad, it now seems that modern day Christian martyrs are paying the price for the missionaries' fallure to insist that all men are equal in the eyes of Jesus.
Last Among Equals is made independenfly for BBC Pebble Mill's Asian Programmes Department by Endboard Productions Ltd.
Further information available from BBC Pebble Miii Press Office: 0121 414 8392. Photographs of Mark Tully on location available from Harriet Birch, BBC Picture Publicity: 0181 576 8836.