LOM!kR¥¤ The Pastor to the Dalits, Webster identifies three phases in the history of the Dalit struggle in modern history. The first, beginning in the last third of the nineteenth century, consists of Dalit Mass Movements, organised groups which actively rejected Hinduism. These Mass Movements, previously discussed under 'Caste and Conversion,' continued into the early decades of the twentieth century. The second phase stretched from the Great War until Indian independence, which saw the diminishing authority of the British government and the declining prestige of Christianity. Throughout this phase, various social reformers and politicians, competed with each other in the defence and patronage of the Dalits, often to keep them within, or return them to, thnd a conscious awareness of the injustice of their state and their ability to protest against it.

Earliest attempts at cancelling out casteism can be dated to the late nineteenth century revolutionary, Jyotirao Phule. Eleanor Zelliot suggests that it was this Marathi-speaking reformer who was the first to use the term ÔDalit� as a reference to a particular group in India who were 'the outcastes and untouchables as the oppressed and broken victims of our society.' The term ÔDalit� was also used by Bhimrao Ambedkar.

However, even with the extensive political influence of Ambedkar, Dalit identity did not receive national and international attention until the 1970's. In 1972, siome twenty five years after the granting of Indian independence, very little had been achieved in terms of actual local changes to the status of the untouchables. The Dalit Panther Movement, like the Black Panther Movement, brought together those who had become cynical regarding the effectiveness of non-violent methods of protest. The Dalit Panther Movement was launched by the Dalit activist, J V Pawar, and the Dalit writer, Namdeo Dhasal. Their involvement in the riots in Worli, (Bombay) and the politics in Bombay, alongside their 'tit for tat' attitude towards the caste aggressors in villages, answering violence with streatment from the outcaste communities. In fact, it was this political apathy that inspired the Dalit Panther Movement to resort to violent action. Most of its members were young and increasingly well educated Dalits (through reservation policy), who, inspired by the writing of 'Mahatma' Phule and Dr Ambedkar, had been made conscious of their situation and their own potential to change it. The militant stance taken by the Dalit Panther Movement encouraged large numbers of young Dalits, inspired by the possibility of violent resistance and the strong image of the Black Panther Movement, which the Dali was, according to Murugkar, little more than posturing. The Dalit Panthers was a movement which gave sporadic violent representation to the Dalits in communalist struggles with their caste neighbours, rather than a national terrorist organisation.

Even if it has not resulted in great changes in the Dalit situation, the Dalit Panther Movement has left a legacy of a greater sense of empowerment of the Dalits.
After Ambedkar, it was the Dalit Panther leadership which awakened the slumbering community of the Dalits again. The militancy of their leaders made the Dalits aware of their latent power.

The greatest leg tandem with the same movement of young, educated Dalits, particularly the writer, and Dalit Panther, Namdeo Dhasal. Since the cultural norm is that Brahmins write and authorise literature, Dalit writing is not recognised even as literature by many Sanskrit scholars. Its potency within the Dalit struggle arises from its self-endorsement by the Dalits. The Dalits themselves decide what is Dalit literature and what is not. Which means, in practice, that the literature, or stories, that are used are the ones that are, therefore, authenticated.
Any angry writings against exploitation and oppression can be considered Dalit literature. The downtrodden sections of society what the subject must be an oppressed party, as he notes that some Kannada Dalit literature (from Karnataka State) has been written by upper castes 'and the Dalits have considered their writing as Dalit literature'. Allowing non-Dalits to write Dalit literature does not disempower the Dalits. On the contrary, it further empowers the Dalit community in having the opportunity of accepting or rejecting that literature themselves.

In a speech to the 1992 All India Dalit Drama Convention, Ramnath Cavhan made clear the nature and intention of Dalit Drama and literature.
It exposes and presents the naked reality of injustice and atrocities.... Imich cuts through the rhetoric of those who would defend casteism on any grounds.

Most Dalit narratives are short, unsophisticated, narrative pieces which often originated as oral stories because so many Dalits are illiterate. The Storeyed House, a short story, translated from Marathi to English, illustrates the oppression of a Dalit who works all his life in the city to support his family in his home village. When he is old enough to retire he uses his savings to build a house for his family in the village. Outraged and insecure, some of the caste community burn the house down, killing the pro for trying to improve his family's living conditions. The Dalit hero of the story tries to hide the second storey, by building it as a mezzanine floor, thus showing how Dalits attempt to better themselves while trying not to offend the caste villagers. Yet in the final scene the work is utterly destroyed, leaving the Dalit to begin rebuilding again. The story is simple and straightforward, reading almost like a case study, and yet, like other Dalit stories, it is an emotionally charged piece.

Because of iChristians. Because of the emphasis of Dalit Christians on the Bible, and the emphasis of Dalit literature on narrative, Dalit Christianity is in a position to move the focus of Christian worship in India from a sacramental western tradition, to a 'Word' centred spirituality. This 'logo centric' worship is not evangelical, in that it is not tied only to the written canon but includes the Word as the 'message' of scripture. It includes all forms of narrative expression, and a reworking of scripture into an oral framework which makes sense to the largely illiterate Dalit communities. The dialogue between oral transmission of the Word and written scripture in Dalit theology, at a grass roo can be variously understood, but a story which illustrates love is less ambiguous, and, among the illiterate, a memorable aid to worship.
Since narratives explain ideas in terms of action they are rarely ambiguous. In this regard, the Dalit theological expression-of-ideas seems better.

New Dalit expressions of protest offer a challenge to the churches in India to respond. This response must come in the form of a debate on the role and nature of protest. Anthony Raj, a Christian minister, argues strongly in favour of civil disobedience on the part of Christians,ituations where the political institutions are 'irrational' or unjust. 'Where justice is not done, there is no legitimate authority and no obligation to obey.' Gustavo GutiŽrrez, a Latin American Roman Catholic Priest and liberation theologian, maintains that such disobedience is in no way a contradiction to, or an excuse to abandon, Christian love of neighbour.
When I speak of taking into account social conflict, including the existence of the class struggle, I am not denying that God's love embraces all without exception. Nor is anyone excluded from our love, for the gospel requires that we love even our enemies; a situation that causes us to regard others as our adversaries does not excuse us from loving them.

Jos� Miguez Bonino, ano of raising the consciousness of the oppressed. Bonino argues that violent protest is justified by both the Old Testament and New Testament, particularly by the consciousness raising ministry of Jesus Christ. While he accepts that Jesus was not a militant leader, despite popular messianic hopes of many of his contemporaries, he guided his people to 'conduct their own efforts'. If, for whatever reasons, the churches in India are slow to act in terms of civil protest the Dalit Christians are pacified in meek submission to casteism rather than empowered to reject it as a social evil.

Subalterns hav-Christian Dalits will lose an ally who has snubbed them as outcaste, and therefore collude with casteism. If the church alienates subaltern Christians from non-Christian Dalits then it will help neither the Christian nor the non-Christian Dalits to press on in their struggle against oppression.

Since the emergence of the Dalit Panther Movement, violence has been characteristic of Indian protest. These protests have taken various forms suIn May 1999, a supporter of the Congress party threatened to commit suicide if Sonia Gandhi, the party's presidential candidate, resigned. Meanwhile, several teachers in Poona threatened self-immolation in protest against caste discrimination. The regularity of violent protest suggests that it is an important outlet for frustration in modern India. It cannot be said how effective such means are; riots end without issues being resolved and most cases of self-immolation create brief headlines. The term Satyagraha (peaceful resistance to oppressive law), popularised by campaign against apartheid in South Africa, never caught the imagination of the people of India in the way that the Dalit Panther Movement did, with those involved in the struggle for independence often resorting to violence. When assessing the use of violent protest in India questions of both the moral worth and the usefulness of such measures must be asked. Protest through various narrative and performance mediums, however, continues to grow and develop, encompassing both the strong and the weak, the spectator and the performer. Unlike violence, and Satyagraha, protest through the arts is dialogical and exploritative, challenging both the oppressor and the oppressed to transform society.

R�0��4 ��ñDefault SS1BBAR