Joseph D'souza

Last updated

Most Reverend

Joseph D'souza
NationalityIndian
Occupation(s)Moderator Bishop of the Good Shepherd Church of India, CEO of Operation Mobilisation-India, President of the All India Christian Council,
Known forChampion of Quality Education for All in India
Notable workEstablishing 100+Schools providing economically challenged urban & rural children access to affordable english medium education
StyleMost Reverend
TitleThe Right Reverend
Movement Continuing Anglican
SpouseMariam D'souza
Children1

Joseph D'souza is an Indian bishop, missionary, and Christian and Dalit rights activist. As of 2018, he was International President of the Dignity Freedom Network (DFN) (previously known as Dalit Freedom Network), President of the All India Christian Council (AICC), [1] [ self-published source? ] and CEO of Operation Mobilisation - India with is not affiliated with Operation Mobilisation, International. On 30 August 2014, he was consecrated as Archbishop of the Good Shepherd Church of India, and associated ministries.

Contents

Early life and education

Joseph D'souza was born into an upper caste Christian family, living in what he calls "Christian ghettos" surrounded by low caste and Dalit people. [2] He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Karnataka University, a M.A. in Communications from the Asian Theological Seminary in the Philippines, and an honorary Doctor in Divinity degree from the Gospel for Asia Biblical Seminary, an affiliate of Serampore University. [3] He married Mariam, who came from an Adivasi tribal group, despite the opposition of some of his family and friends. [2] D'souza's daughter Beryl is the medical and anti-human trafficking director of the Dignity Freedom Network. [4]

Career

One of the factors in D'souza's decision to take up the cause of Christians and Dalits was the start of attacks on Christians in the mid-1990s, including the burning to death of the missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons in Orissa in 1999. D'souza joined the Indian branch of George Verwer's evangelist Operation Mobilisation as an international vice president, and was 2012 promoted to CEO of the India branch, which has left the movement of OM in 2014. He no longer has a role within Operation Mobilisation. [5] He has set up 107 English Medium Education Centers educating nearly 25,000 Dalit children working with Operation Mercy India Foundation. [4]

In 1998, he founded the All India Christian Council (AICC). [6] The AICC is one of the largest interdenominational Christian alliances, formed to deal with human rights issues and national concerns common to Christians in India. [7]

In 2002, D'souza co-founded the Dignity Freedom Network (DFN), formerly known as the Dalit Freedom Network, first in the United States and, later, expanded to other countries. D'souza travels widely in campaigning for the fundamental rights of the poor, the marginalized and outcastes of society in South Asia and other nations of the world. [7] D'souza has discussed human rights issues with civil society leaders and politicians in India, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil and the United States, and at human rights commission meetings.

Dalit advocacy

Speaking in October 2005 before a US Congressional hearing, D'souza said that "India's tragedy is that society continues the practice of the caste system, with the rule of law not being applied when Dalits are being discriminated against, even though the practice of untouchability stands abolished by the Constitution." [8] He also noted that "Christian Dalits continue to suffer for their allegiance to the Christian faith. They are discriminated against both within the Church and outside of the Church. Their rights are trampled upon. Their very existence is one of misery and suffering". [9]

Talking of a mass conversion ceremony in October 2006, D'souza was reported by the BBC as saying "I think it's important to understand that this is a cry for human dignity, it's a cry for human worth". [10] On 4 November 2001 thousands of Dalits left Hinduism en masse, and chose to become Buddhist. [11]

D'souza has given many examples of cases where Dalits have been attacked when they resisted oppression. He has written that "Efforts by Dalits such as Surekha Bhotmange to demand their rights have provoked a brutal backlash from higher caste groups. In fact, incidents such as these, where witnesses, or those that seek judicial remedy, are brutally savaged, have become depressingly common". [12]

Christian advocacy

As chair of the All India Christian Council, D'souza has asked Christian leaders to stop publishing incendiary rhetoric, which was being used as fuel for anti-Christian propaganda.

He asked them to refrain from "bombastic slogans, militant language and a general demeaning of Indian culture". [13]

Writing in 2002, D'souza said "If the Christian Church in India does not abolish caste within the Church and closes its doors to the Dalits because of the pressure of the Brahminical dominated RSS and its fundamentalist affiliates, the Dalits will turn to whoever offers them human dignity, equality and the right to spiritual salvation... The time has come for the Indian Church to clean its own house and to openly offer and give the Dalits their God given dignity as the children of God in Jesus Christ. The time has come for the Dalits to appropriate the full spiritual rights available in Jesus Christ. The time has come to turn away from the Brahminical Social Order and to create a new humanity. The Gospel of Jesus has the solution to the caste problem because the Gospel rejects all forms of discrimination and deals with issues of the heart, soul, body and human relationships". [14] D'souza has disputed that Christians are involved in forced, fraudulent and manipulated conversions. He has stated that conversion by force is against the teachings of Jesus.

In January 2002, the AICC issued a statement signed by Joseph D'souza as President and John Dayal as Secretary General, asking the national and state governments to prevent efforts by the Sangh Parivar to stir up communal violence in the Adivasi tribal belt in Northern India. It talked of "vicious Hindutva communal rhetoric .. targeting Christians in the region". It said RSS cadres were running schools that "follow a curricula and textual material, which is outside the pale of any academic and public scrutiny, blatantly rewrites history, and poisons young minds". [15]

Criticism

The Hindu American Foundation criticized D'souza's 2005 congressional testimony stating the hearing was "deliberately biased and misrepresentative of India and Hinduism" with witnesses including D'souza who held "virulent Hinduphobic perspectives that lack any credibility in India or abroad." Specifically, the organisation criticized D'souza for terming the conversion of Hindus to Christianity as "the process of breaking this spiritual darkness." [16]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalit theology</span> Christian theology concerned with the Dalit caste

Dalit theology is a branch of Christian theology that emerged among the Dalit caste in the Indian subcontinent in the 1980s. It shares a number of themes with Latin American liberation theology, which arose two decades earlier, including a self-identity as a people undergoing Exodus. Dalit theology sees hope in the "Nazareth Manifesto" of Luke 4, where Jesus speaks of preaching "good news to the poor ... freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind" and of releasing "the oppressed."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalit Buddhist movement</span> Modern sociopolitical movement among Dalits

The Neo Buddhist movement is a religious as well as a socio-political movement among Dalits in India which was started by B. R. Ambedkar. It re-interpreted Buddhism and created a new school of Buddhism called Navayana. The movement has sought to be a socially and politically engaged form of Buddhism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalit</span> Marginalized castes in India and other South Asian countries

Dalit, also some of them previously known as untouchables, is the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold varna of the caste hierarchy and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama. Several scholars have drawn parallels between Dalits and the Burakumin of Japan, the Baekjeong of Korea and the peasant class of the medieval European feudal system.

The term Dalit Christian or Christian Dalit is used to describe those who have converted to Christianity from other forms of religion in the Indian subcontinent, and are still categorised as Dalits in Hindu, Christian, Muslim, and Sikh societies in South Asia. Hindu Dalits are sometimes referred to as Harijans. About 90% of Pakistani Christians are Dalits from the Chuhra caste and at least 9% of Indian Christians are Dalits, categorised thus by the greater societal practices in various parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Freedom of religion in India is a fundamental right guaranteed by Article 25-28 of the Constitution of India. Modern India came into existence in 1947 and the Indian constitution's preamble was amended in 1976 to state that India is a secular state. Supreme Court of India ruled that India was already a secular state from the time it adopted its constitution, what actually was done through this amendment is to state explicitly what was earlier contained implicitly under article 25 to 28. Every citizen of India has a right to practice and promote their religion peacefully. However, there have been numerous incidents of religious intolerance that resulted in riots and violence, notably, the 1984 Anti-Sikh Massacre in Delhi, 1990 Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir, 1992-93 Bombay Riots in Mumbai, the 2008 Anti-Christian riots in Odisha. Some perpetrators of the 1984 Anti-Sikh Massacre in Delhi have not been brought to justice despite widespread condemnation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kancha Ilaiah</span> Indian scholar, activist and writer (born 1952)

Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is an Indian political theorist, writer and a Dalit rights activist. He writes in both English and Telugu languages. His main domain of study and activism is the annihilation of caste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republican Party of India</span> Indian political party

The Republican Party of India was a political party in India. It had its roots in the Scheduled Castes Federation led by B. R. Ambedkar. The 'Training School for Entrance to Politics' was established by Ambedkar in 1956 which was to serve as an entry point to the Republican Party of India (RPI). The first batch of the school consisted of 15 students. Its first batch turned out to be last batch as the school was closed after Ambedkar's death in 1956.

Dalit Voice was a political magazine published in Bangalore, India. The current full title is "Dalit Voice: the voice of the persecuted nationalities denied human rights" and it appears fortnightly in both internet and print formats. It was founded in 1981 by V.T. Rajshekar, a former journalist for the Indian Express, who was also its editor. It was the largest circulated Dalit journal in India.

A controversy in the US state of California concerning the portrayal of Hinduism in history textbooks began in 2005. The Texas-based Vedic Foundation (VF) and the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF), complained to California's Curriculum Commission, arguing that the coverage in sixth grade history textbooks of Indian history and Hinduism was biased against Hinduism; points of contention included a textbook's portrayal of the caste system, the Indo-Aryan migration theory, and the status of women in Indian society.

Chuhra, also known as Bhanghi and Balmiki, is a Dalit caste in India and Pakistan. Populated regions include the Punjab region of India and Pakistan, as well as Uttar Pradesh in India, among other parts of the Indian subcontinent such as southern India. Their traditional occupation is sweeping, a "polluting" occupation that caused them to be considered untouchables in the caste system.

Ruth Manorama is a Dalit social activist from Bangalore, India who fights for Dalit women's rights, the rights of domestic workers and those in the unorganized labour sector, as well as urban slum dwellers. In 2006, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dayal</span>

John Dayal is an Indian human rights and Christian political activist. He is a member of the National Integration Council (NIC) of India, Secretary-General of the All India Christian Council and a past president of the All India Catholic Union. He has been outspoken in opposition to communal polarisation, bigotry and the spread of hatred between religious communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caste politics</span> Identity politics on caste system lines in India

In India, a caste although it's a western stratification arrived from Portuguese word Casta and Latin word castus ,is a social group where membership is decided by birth. Broadly, Indian castes are divided into the Forward Castes, Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes. Indian Christians and Indian Muslims are also function as castes. With castes separating individuals into different social groups, it follows that each group will have conflicting interests; oftentimes putting those with lower social standing in less favorable positions. An attempt to address this inequality has been the reservation system, which essentially acts as affirmative action to provide representation to caste groups that have been systematically disadvantaged. There have also been other cases where political parties, like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), was formed to challenge the power of the upper castes.

Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz is an Indian Muslim activist organization based in Patna, Bihar. Founded in 1998, it represents the concerns of the "Pasmanda" Muslims, a new identity that integrates the Dalit Muslims (Arzals) and backward-caste Muslims (Ajlafs). The organization represents the union of several Dalit and backward-caste Muslim organisations under the leadership of Ali Anwar, who is himself a backward-caste Muslim of the Ansari (weaver) caste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violence against Christians in India</span> Anti-Christian violence in India

Anti-Christian violence in India is religiously motivated violence against Christians in India. Human Rights Watch has classified violence against Christians in India as a tactic used by the right-wing Sangh Parivar organizations to encourage and exploit communal violence in furtherance of their political ends. The acts of violence include arson of churches, conversion of Christians by force, physical violence, sexual assaults, murders, rapes, and the destruction of Christian schools, colleges, and cemeteries.

The All India Christian Council (AICC) is a nationwide alliance of Christian denominations, mission agencies, institutions, federations and Christian lay leaders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights</span>

The People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights is an Indian non-governmental organisation and membership-based movement which work to ensure basic rights for marginalised groups in Indian society, e.g. children, women, Dalits and tribes to establish rule of law through participatory activism against extrajudicial killing, police torture, hunger, bonded labour and injustice by hegemonic masculinity of the caste system and patriarchy. PVCHR ideology is inspired by the father of the Dalit movement and modern nation state, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, and father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi, who struggled against patriarchy & the hierarchical caste system. PVCHR and its founders nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to combat masculinity driven militarist traditions, for their contribution to bettering conditions for peace in world and for acting as driving force in efforts to prevent the use of masculinity driven militarist traditions as a weapon of war and conflict. PVCHR was founded in 1996 by Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi and Shruti Nagvanshi in collaboration with Sarod Maestro Vikash Maharaj, historian Dr. Mahendra Pratap and poet Gyanendra Pati. JanMitra Nyas is legal holder of PVCHR which is Public Charitable Trust and has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. PVCHR was honored as a "Friend of German Parliament" during a significant dinner meeting with Vice President Claudia Roth at Lodhi Garden Restaurant on February 20, 2015. This recognition marked a crucial milestone in PVCHR's international advocacy for human rights. The event symbolized a deepening partnership between PVCHR and the German Parliament, emphasizing shared commitments to advancing global human rights.

Vincent Manoharan is an Indian human rights activist, he is known mostly for creating the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), and organization that focuses on stemming the discrimination still present within India's caste system.

Norbert D'Souza is a railway engineer and trainer from Pune who was president of the All India Catholic Union (AICU) for four years. The AICU represents almost 16 million Catholics in India, including followers of the Latin Rite, the Syro Malabar Catholics and the Syro Malankara Catholics. He held office from 1996 to 2000, succeeding Peter G. Marbaniang and succeeded by Maria Emilia Menezes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalit feminism</span>

Dalit feminism is a feminist perspective that includes questioning caste and gender roles among the Dalit population and within feminism and the larger women's movement. Dalit women primarily live in South Asia, mainly in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Dalit women face different challenges than women in oppressor castes in these countries. They are more likely to be poor, uneducated and socially marginalized. Dalit feminists advocate and have advocated for equal rights for Dalit women based on gender, caste and other issues. They have addressed conferences, created organizations and helped elect other Dalit women into political office.

References

  1. ↑ Dalit Freedom Network.
  2. 1 2 Adams 2009.
  3. ↑ D'souza, Rogers & Beals 2007, p. 199.
  4. 1 2 Chismar 2012.
  5. ↑ "OM India Key Focus Area Booklet". 16 October 2012. p. 4.
  6. ↑ D'souza, Rogers & Beals 2007, p. 197.
  7. 1 2 Committee on International Relations 2006, p. 10.
  8. ↑ Committee on International Relations 2006, p. 23.
  9. ↑ Committee on International Relations 2006, p. 27.
  10. ↑ Rai & Simon 2008, pp. 159–160.
  11. ↑ Adeney 2009, p. 196.
  12. ↑ Nelavala 2008, p. 189.
  13. ↑ Guthrie 2005, p. 179.
  14. ↑ Pocock, Van Rheenen & McConnell 2005, p. 96.
  15. ↑ Congressional Record February 2002, p. 616.
  16. ↑ "Hindu American Foundation Appreciates Congressional Hearing On Dalit Rights; Concerned By Biases". Hindu American Foundation. 12 October 2005. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015.
Sources
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.