Publisher's Synopsis
Between ten and 15 percent of all Dalits in India are Christians. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of all Christians in India are Dalits. Dalit is an Indian term which means "broken" or "oppressed", and refers to those also called untouchables.;After a brief discussion of the origins of caste and untouchability, John Webster traces their history within the context of the wider Dalit movement from the mass conversion movements of the late-19th century, through the religious competition and nationalist politics of the 1920s and 1930s, to the present post-independence period through to 1990 when the government of India adopted a policy of compensatory or protective discrimination towards Dalits. The book concludes with a chapter on the history of Christian theological reflections vis-a-vis the Dalits.
