Black Sheep Bleat - II

We the inheritents of Malluland take pride in our family names. People(read, Syrian Christians) fight out
verbal, physical and legal battles to secure their family names from tampering by outsiders.

Let us travel back in time and see where the Christians(most of them, some lucky b******** not included)
stood in the social ladder in the 1900-1960 period. The land was owned by upper-caste Hindus and the Christians had to lease it for agriculture, the labour force mostly consisted of Dalits (of course, the written
family histories refer to "our forefathers worked in the fields alongside (yea...convenient way of putting it)
Dalit labourers to make the soil yield gold").

Christians were considered too business-minded to be trusted and they had to pay tributes to the landlord. "Nasrani kamizhnu veenal kaalpanavum konde varu", a saying coined in those days bears testimonial to
the nature of Christians.

During the freedom struggle, the Christian community was occupied with getting the best deals from British and filling the vaccancies left in government jobs due to boycott by patriots. But the real reason for the subservience of the Christians was the belief that the arrival of Europeans served their social, economic and political interests better.

Freedom at midnight gave political freedom and not socio-economic freedom to the Christians. Only in 1957, when the Kerala Land Reforms Act was implemented by Communist (yea..the church-burning, bible-shredding, nun-raping, materialist breed) government led by EMS Namboodirippad, did the Christians get to own their farmland. The Christians chose to expresstheir gratitude by leading the 'Liberation Movement '(Vimochana Samaram) and outsting
the government with the help of Congress government at the Centre.

The post-independence era witnessed meteoric rise in the social and economic status of the Christians, and the former silent spectators were now leaders of the society. All are equal before God, well... that is not the way Christians in Kerala think. The Dalits who converted to Christianity were always treated as unequal, unwelcome in the churches, social circles and definitely not welcome through marriage.

Churches and denominations grew by the multitude but the treatment of the
Dalits and low-castes remained the same. Their churches were termed Pulappally and Parappally, a reference to the Pulayar and Parayar, the lower castes who constituted the congregation of the churches. There is little or no interaction between the congregations of the upper class Christians and these Dalit churches. A convenient arrangement for a community which wants to show off its 'open, liberal and Christian' tradition. I have heard Christian leaders telling public gatherings about how "we have 'brethren' from all sections of the society whom we embrace in the love for Jesus Christ"...shove it assholes, we know what you've done to them".

to be continued...
Comments are welcome (If it's regarding grammar, spelling and syntax...refer 1para 2 line of Black Sheep Bleat -I)