Christianity, Caste and the Dalits

<strong>Centre for Historical Studies School of Social Sciences</strong> a Lecture <strong>Christianity, Caste and the Dalits</strong> <strong>John Webster</strong> Rtd. Professor, United Theological College, Bangalore <strong>14th October 2015</strong> This paper traces the history of interactions between Christianity, the social reality and ideology of caste , as well as the Dalits from the arrival of Christianity in India up to the present day. It draws special attention to differing regional and denominational patterns, as these interactions have been far more complex in the South than in the North as well as among Roman Catholics than among Protestants. It also examines how the State and Dalit caste politics have both defined and affected those interactions during the last two centuries. JOHN C. B. WEBSTER holds post-graduate degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York City (m.Div.), Lucknow University (M.A.), and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D.). He has taught history at Baring Union Christian College and Guru Nanak University in the Punjab as well as United Theological College in Bangalore. In the U.S.A. he has been a Visiting Professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Adjunct Faculty at Union Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Christian Community and Change in Nineteenth Century North India (1976), The Dalit Christians: A History (1992, 1994, 2009), A Social History of Christianity: North-West India since 1800 (2007), and Historiography of Christianity in India (2012).