The caste system and Dalit Christians: discriminated twice.

The caste system is one of the oldest structures of Indian society. It divides people by birth into hereditary groups that determine whom one marries, what work one does and even which well one draws water from. Caste discrimination has been illegal since the 1950 Constitution, but it remains present in social life — especially in villages, where most Indians live.

Varna, jati and those left outside

Hindu tradition speaks of four great varnas: Brahmins (priests and scholars), Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), Vaishyas (merchants) and Shudras (laborers). In real life, however, society is organized by thousands of jatis — local castes tied to trades and regions. Below and outside all of this, for centuries, were the so-called “untouchables”, now known as Dalits (“broken”, “oppressed”), relegated to work considered impure.

One of the greatest Dalit leaders in history, B. R. Ambedkar, was the principal drafter of India's Constitution. In 1956, convinced there would be no dignity for Dalits within Hinduism, he converted to Buddhism with hundreds of thousands of followers.

The rule that excludes Christians

To redress this history, India created quotas and protections for the “Scheduled Castes”: university places, public jobs, seats in Parliament and a specific law against atrocities. But a 1950 presidential order stated that only Hindus could belong to a Scheduled Caste. Sikhs were added in 1956 and Buddhists in 1990. Christians and Muslims, never.

In practice, a Dalit who becomes a Christian is still treated as a Dalit by the neighborhood — but loses, by law, the quotas and the special protection against violence. In March 2026, the Supreme Court confirmed this: ruling on the case of a pastor from Andhra Pradesh, it held that someone professing Christianity cannot invoke the Scheduled Castes protection law.

The commission that has not spoken yet

In 2007, the Ranganath Misra Commission recommended extending these rights to Dalit Christians and Muslims; the government rejected the report. In 2022, a new commission, chaired by former Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, was set up to study the issue. After several extensions, its report was ready in June 2026, but as of September it had not been made public. In August, Dalit Christians held a protest in New Delhi asking for it to be tabled in Parliament.

Caste inside the church

Most Indian Christians come from Dalit families or tribal peoples — many sought in the gospel a dignity society denied them. But the problem did not stay outside: Indian Christian leaders acknowledge that caste discrimination also exists inside churches — in choosing leaders, in marriages and, in some places, even in separate seating. For a church that preaches that in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek”, the challenge is also one of teaching — and of pastors prepared to face it.