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Articles and Interviews

Article 1: Loyola's religious influence around the world

by Ann Toland Serb - Loyola Magazine, 1987

Anthony Raj , S.J., received a Ph.D. degree from Loyola this year. He has return to his native India to work with "untouchables", the lowest social caste in that country, of which he himself is a member and one of the few to ever have earned a doctorate. Father Raj has embarked on a life's mission of exposing and changing the injudtice of the Indian caste style, and dreams of someday opening a college for "intouchables".

Article 2: CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD

Illustrated weekly of India June 25, 1989

They fled their native faith in quest of dignity and brotherhood. What they encountered instead was callousness and discrimination.
A wave of resentment has swept harijan converts to Christianity in Tamil Nadu. Ignored and humiliated by the upper castes, these wretched of the earth even allege discrimination at the hands of the clergy.
K.P. Sunil, who toured the state recently, portrays the sense of discord that afflicts the Church in Tamil Nadu.

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Article 3: Dalit caste Christians have come of age

Interview: Dalit Indian Priest - Father Antony Raj Perinbam

ASIA FOCUS, September 15, 1990

MADURAI, India-Dalit literally means trampled upon of crushed. It is a term people from the low castes use to refer to themselves, instead of terms like 'Untouchable', 'Harijan' (Children of God) etc., which higher caste Hindus use in reference to 'dalits'.
Indian Jesuit Father Antony Raj perinbam, 45, is from the dalit community. His doctorate dissertation at Loyola University, Chicago, United States, focused on the 'Social Bases of Obedience of the Untouchables in India'.
Father Antony Raj who is presently researching 'Social Discriminations against Dalit Christians in Tamilnadu, in Southern India, spoke to ASIA FOCUS recently about the problems Dalit Christians face.

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Article 4: A Dalit Jesuit speaks to the Tamil Church

By Antony Raj - JIVAN January 1992

The DCLM (Dalit Christian Liberation Movement) is a protest movement fighting for human dignity and justice for the Dalit Catholics in Tamil Nadu. Dalits form 70 per cent of the total Catholic population. This movement is by-product of the caste politics of the Catholic Church.

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Article 5: DISCRIMINATION AGAINST DALITS BY CHRISTIANS

by Aruldoss SJ - SAR News: Bombay - 051, September 19-25, 1992

There is discrimination against dalits within the Christian Church itself in Tamil Nadu, says a study conduced by Fr Antony Raj SJ, a dalit Jesuit and sociologist.

The study titled DIscrimination Against Dalit Christians in Tamil Nadu, was started by the jesuits in 1988. It was published on August 9, 1992, at the Institute of Development, Education, Action and Studies (IDEAS) Centre Madurai.

Fr. Antony Raj is a former president of the Dalit Christian Liberation Movement of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. At present, he is the Research Director of Dalit Research project at the IDEAS Centre, Madurai.

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Article 6: L'intouchable, la soutane blanche et le méditatif

L'évènement du jeudi - juillet 1991 (France)

Pays de violences et de spiritualités, l'Inde est une des terres d'élection des jésuites. Mais de quels jésuites ? Ceux qui prêchent la révolte parmi les leurs, comme Antony Raj ? Ceux qui poursuivent leur tâche d' éducation des élites dans de grands collèges au charme néo-colonial, comme ceux de Madras ? Ou ceux qui, tel Ignatus, s'entretiennent avec Dieu loin de toute préoccupation terrestre, s'éfforçant d'unir par l'esprit toutes les religions entre elles ?

Article 7: Des chrétiens 'dalits' marginalisés

Pierre de Charentenay s.j., Président du Centre de Sèvres - Etudes, février 1994 (France)

La situation des dalits chrétiens est exposée dans une brochure, Children of a lesser God, DCLM Publication, Madurai,1992, écrit par le P. Antony Raj, jésuite né en 1944, docteur en sociologie de l'Université Loyola de Chicago, président du "Dalit Christian Liberation Movement" de 1989 a 1992.

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Article 8: MINDERWERTIGE CHRISTEN IN INDIEN ? - Kastenlose kampfen fur ihre gleichberechtigung in der Kirche

KM, January 1996 (Germany)

Das Wort 'dalit' aus dem Sanskrit bedeutel 'zerbrochen', 'zerschlagen', 'unterdrückt'. Als Dalits bezeichnen sich seit der ersten Hälfte dieses Jahrhunderts die 'Unberührbaren' in Indien. In indischen Kastensystem sind sie als Kastenlose ganz unten in der gesellschaftlichen Hierarchie angesiedelt. Die Verfassung vom Jahr 1950 hat zwar die Praxis der Unberührbarkeit verboten. Tatsächlich werden aber auch heute noch 134 Millionen Inder wegen ihrer Herkunft als Kastenlose sozial und wirtschaftlich diskriminiert. Auch die katholische Kirche hat sich als anfällig für den Virus der Kastendiskriminierung erwiesen. Der südindische Jesuit Antony Raj hat den Kampf gegen diese Krankheit in der Kirche aufgenommen. Für die KM sprach mit ihm Martin Maier, Redakteur der Jesuitenzeitschrift 'Stimmen der Zeit' in München.

Article 9: Die Unberurhrbaren und das Christentum in Indien

By Martin Maieer SJ,

Sonderabdruck aus den - STIMMEN DER ZEIT - Heft 2, Februar 1996 (Germany)

 

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