Hearing the Voices of the Oppressed Within Our Traditions

It saddens and disturbs me deeply whenever I see some of the responses of Hindu organizations and individuals to Dalits who voice criticism of the tradition and its practitioners. One immediate response is to accuse Dalits of Hindu-hate and of failure to understand that caste oppression is not intrinsic to Hinduism.

Those who come from places or power and privilege within a tradition find it difficult to understand the ways in which the same tradition is experienced by others as oppressive and as negating their dignity and self-worth. Having never experienced cruelty and injustice in the name of religion, they assume that the tradition that has been good to them has been good for all who live within it.

How could we criticize Dalits for not knowing of the emancipating and redemptive teachings and practices within the Hindu tradition when they do not experience these in encounters with Hindus? Or when Hindus are hostile to criticism and attribute the worst motives to those who lift their voices in protest against suffering?

Hindus need to humbly receive the criticisms of those who experience the tradition as denying their humanity and to hear and to acknowledge the deep pain from which such criticism emerges. We must cease underplaying or explaining away the witness of those who describe their experiences of powerlessness and lack of freedom.

There are times when we need to stop defending, speaking and posting and to just listen in chastened silence with our hearts and minds. Without such empathy and identity with the pain of others we will never cultivate the understanding that starts the journey to transformation.