It was the year 2000 that saw a new dawn. It was not merely a turn of the calendar. As the world reveled in the 2000th anniversary of Jesus Christ’s birth, the Indian Church joined the global chorus, heralding the second millennium as the “Jubilee Year” with unbridled ecstasy. Yet, beneath this glittering facade of faith lurked a sinister shadow—a hypocrisy that mocked the very essence of Christ’s teachings.
Pope John Paul II unveiled a commemorative pen priced at an extravagant ₹5,000, a trinket for the privileged few with pockets deep enough to indulge. The affluent snapped it up, while the destitute—particularly the Dalit Christians, converts from India’s most oppressed castes—stared in silent resentment. For them, this was no jubilee but a cruel reminder of their abandonment. How could these forsaken souls, crushed under the weight of poverty and exploited by the Church they trusted, join in the festivities when their cries for justice were drowned by the clinking coins of the elite !
However, something unexpected was also going on. On Saturday, March 25, 2000, this simmering rage erupted. Hundreds of Dalit Christians from across India stormed Delhi, rallying under the banner of the Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM) and its visionary founder, R.L. Francis. They marched to Parliament Street, their voices roaring against the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and its anti-Dalit policies, condemning the systemic oppression woven into the Church’s very fabric.
Their memorandum demanding equal rights was a gauntlet thrown at the feet of a complacent hierarchy. This was no quiet plea—it was a historic insurgency, likely the first of its kind in India, seizing the attention of the masses, the authorities, and the media. For years, the Church leadership had pointed fingers at the government, accusing it of discriminating against Dalit Christians. Now, the mirror was held up, and the reflection revealed a rot far uglier within.The CBCI and the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) recoiled in shock. They were clueless.
CBCI spokespersons relentlessly attacked the Vajpayee administration and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), framing PCLM as a government stooge to discredit its cause. The truth, however, cuts deeper: in 25 years, PCLM has not accepted a single rupee from any government, standing as a defiant testament to its independence.
A Quarter Century of Unrelenting Battle
Now, 25 Years have passed since the PCLM started the battle against discrimination. Many of our associates have sacrificed their lives fighting this battle against injustice in the church system. In its 25-year journey, the Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM) humbly honors eight departed associates who courageously advocated for marginalized Christians within the Church. Among them are Shri Mahesh Pathak, an independent journalist from Delhi (2000–2006); Shri Meharban James, a railway employee from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh (2003–2013); and Dalit Father William Premdas Chaudhary of the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese (2006–2016), who penned his poignant autobiography An Unwanted Priest in 2012. The movement also remembers Shri Sai Prasanna, a senior Mumbai-based journalist (2006–2015); Peter Nathaniel Khalkho, a Delhi government employee (2001–2014); T. Yacob, an advocate from Nalgonda, Telangana (2004–2007); and Jesuit Father Anthony Fernandes (2002–2014), whose autobiography The Abbot of Unteshwari Mata reflects his work in Mehsana, Gujarat, where Mother Mary is venerated as Unteshwari Mata.
Lastly, the tribute extends to P.B. Lomiaon, writer-editor of Church Restoration in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh (2001–2017), who authored a novel based on the true story of a conversion, centered on the character Budhiya. Their collective legacy remains a testament to resilience and advocacy within the Christian community.
Who Are Dalit Christians and Why They Are Fighting
The basic structure of the Church system is flawed. Though the Church derives its power from 70-75 percent of dalit converts, these people are ignored in the system. These include a lack of representation and opportunities, caste bias and discrimination, and the misuse of church resources. Despite converting to Christianity to escape caste, Dalit Christians remain marginalized within the church. There is a lack of transparency in managing foreign donations, and poor Christians are often not empowered with equal rights.
Now, the problem is that church leadership is not ready to give Dalits their due place. The CBCI must account for 25 years of inaction, detailing efforts for Dalit upliftment against its sprawling new edifices. Of 175 bishops, only nine are Dalit; of 25,000 priests, just 1,130. Seminary promises like St. Stephen’s 40% reservation fizzled, leaving a privileged elite—98.7% of laity voiceless, per Justice Michael F. Saldanha—to rule. The Church also uses dalit christians politically, further complicating their situation and neglecting their development. This leads to disillusionment among them.
The basic question matters as most people believe that Christianity doesn’t have caste discrimination. It’s a total myth. Dalit Christians are the descendants of India’s most downtrodden—those once labeled “untouchables” under the Hindu caste system—who embraced Christianity seeking liberation from centuries of social and economic bondage.
Drawn by promises of equality rooted in Christian doctrine, they abandoned their ancestral faith, only to find themselves trapped in a new hierarchy of exclusion within the Church. They comprise 70-75% of India’s roughly 24 million Christians (with unofficial estimates nearing 70-80 million). They are predominantly converts from Scheduled Castes, lured by missionary assurances of dignity.
Yet, their reality is grim: they face double discrimination—caste-based prejudice from their Hindu past and religious marginalization within their adopted faith. The Church, rather than uplifting them, has mirrored the oppressive structures they fled, relegating them to the fringes of its vast empire.
Their struggle matters because it exposes a profound betrayal of Christian ideals—equality before God—and challenges the moral legitimacy of an institution that preaches salvation while perpetuating injustice. Dalit Christians are not mere statistics; they are a testament to resilience, demanding a reckoning for the exploitation they endure under a Church that thrives on their numbers but denies them power.
Our fight is a clarion call for justice, not just within Christianity but across India’s pluralistic society, where systemic inequalities persist. If the Church fails them, it risks losing its soul—and their hope. The problem is the church leadership is ignoring the plight of poor christians and engaged in creating a false narrative that Christians are unsafe and face increasing violence, this is a misrepresentation of the situation. By doing so the church is tarnishing India’s image nationally and internationally for its own benefit, and that the Vatican’s claims about Christian persecution in India lack credibility.
The church is unwilling to grant equal rights to Dalit Christians within their own structures, despite advocating for their inclusion in the Scheduled Caste list. The church prioritizes maintaining its resources and influence over addressing the needs of its followers. However, the reality within the Indian Church paints a starkly different picture. For centuries, the downtrodden and marginalized classes in India have sought refuge in the Church, hoping to escape caste-based oppression and social exploitation.
The slavery of dalits have not ended even after converting to the church system.They have been further entrenched in a cycle of inequality, betraying the very ideals of equality and universality that Christianity professes. Their hope for liberation has been replaced by a deeper quagmire of injustice.
Poor Christian Liberation Movement: Born out of Agony and Discrimination
The PCLM came into being not as an impulsive outburst but as a clarion call born from the agony of countless converted Christians, relentlessly exploited within the Church’s own walls. Its mission was bold: to dissect social and political challenges through rigorous research and offer practical solutions for a community forsaken by its shepherds.
Since India’s independence, the Church leadership had squandered five decades failing to craft a development model to uplift Dalit converts from their misery. Instead, it obsessed over erecting churches and schools, expanding its dominion while leaving its poorest followers to languish. Evangelism trumped empowerment, and the promise of equality remained a hollow echo.
A Fight Against Church Imperialistic Ambitions
The Church’s ambitions were clear: more followers, more buildings, more power. Yet, for dalit Christians, this expansion brought no salvation—only deeper entrenchment in their plight. The leadership’s sole concession was a demand to include converts in the Scheduled Caste list, a shallow gesture that sidestepped genuine reform. The primary focus of church leadership was to increase its followers by building new churches, schools, and expanding its infrastructure across every corner of the country.
However, this expansion of the church was not benefiting these Dalit Christians, as all their efforts were limited to religious propagation. The church leadership has restricted the social and economic development of those who converted to Christianity from the Dalit community, even limiting their demands to include Dalit converts in the Scheduled Caste list.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) holds the view that discrimination is being practiced against converted Christians within the church. In this regard, the Catholic Church released a report in 2016 titled *Policy of Dalit Empowerment in the Catholic Church in India*. The report acknowledged that untouchability and discrimination against Dalits (Dalit Christians) are widespread within the church and need to be eradicated as soon as possible.
However, the responsibility to eliminate such discrimination inherently lies with the church leadership. In 2010, PCLM struck back with a scathing critique of the Ranganath Misra Commission Report, exposing how Christianity’s anti-caste ideals were trampled in India. Converted Christians were denied social, economic, and spiritual equity, a betrayal the movement thrust into the spotlight.
In 2015, Dalit christians delegation petitioned the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, demanding an end to caste-based oppression by the Indian Church and suspension of Vatican’s observer status if non-compliant. Despite constituting 70% of Indian Christians, Dalits face systemic exclusion from Church leadership and resources, with only 9 Dalit Bishops among 175 and minimal representation in its 50,000+ institutions.
PCLM is of the view that religion, when personal, is sacred—but when twisted into an empire-building tool through forced conversions, it becomes a tyrannical institution. For seven decades, the Church had wielded Dalit Christians as pawns in its imperialist game, neglecting their development entirely.
This neglect extended to the youth, left ignorant of social and political realities. Church leaders fed them doctrine, not discourse, spawning a wave of independent evangelists rather than engaged citizens. India’s Constitution grants the right to propagate religion, but PCLM warned of the fine line between propagation and coercion.
Unrestrained conversion drives sparked backlash like Ghar Wapasi, fanning communal flames. The 2008 Kandhamal riots in Odisha—a bloody fallout of such tensions—left scars of death and destruction, a grim warning of the stakes. Two years ago, the Vatican moved to canonize Kandhamal’s victims as martyrs, a process PCLM decried as provocative. PCLM refuted this, insisting no such systemic persecution existed in India, and accused the Vatican of assaulting India’s *Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam* ethos while meddling in its affairs—a pattern growing bolder over two decades.
India’s tapestry of unity in diversity has long been its pride, with citizens honoring each other’s freedoms. Yet, probes by government commissions and Supreme Court observations have pinned communal strife on the Church’s imperialistic stance. It’s essential to understand the power and resources that the Church controls. It controls 22% of India’s schools, 30% of its healthcare—yet Dalit Christians reap no rewards.
In 2002, PCLM’s 10-point agenda in Delhi demanded equity, an end to conversions, and redirected funds for development. Though initially dismissed, these calls now echo louder. The movement also tackles burial ground shortages, pushing cremation since 2002 as land disputes escalate, a crisis spotlighted by a 2025 Bastar case in the Supreme Court. PCLM’s 2008 plea for a national board to protect assets, backed by figures like Justice K.T. Thomas was rebuffed.
The Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM) is advocating for significant reforms within the church system in India. One of its key demands is a complete ban on planned conversion activities, redirecting the substantial funds spent on these efforts towards the development of poor Christians. Additionally, PCLM emphasizes the need for decentralization of church power, suggesting that local Catholics should be involved in the election of bishops rather than relying solely on appointments by the Vatican. This move aims to empower local communities within the church.
PCLM also focuses on addressing social and economic disparities within the Christian community. It demands that Dalit Christians, who are often marginalized, should have at least 50% representation in church-run organizations. The Church should give justice to people and then blame others. Furthermore, the movement seeks to reduce the growing social distance between Christians and other communities, promoting interfaith harmony. Another critical issue PCLM addresses is the scarcity of burial grounds for Christians, which has become a significant challenge in urban areas.
Lastly, it advocates for the establishment of a national board to protect church properties, ensuring that these assets are managed responsibly and for the benefit of the community. PCLM’s legacy—seminars, protests, books like *Budhia*, and the documentary *In Search of Self-Respect*—spans 25 years of relentless advocacy within India’s pluralistic ethos. As the Church revels in jubilees, PCLM demands it confront its sins and deliver justice to those it betrayed.
PCLM believes that the Catholic Church has completely failed to uphold its duty of ensuring equality and justice for the majority of converted Christians, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds. The church holds immense resources in India and it has the biggest land bank after the government of India. But, there is no monitoring authority. If Hindus temples are regulated by Devasthanam Act, Muslims by the Waqf Board and Sikhs by SGPC, then why not there should be a monitoring authority for churches as well. Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM), an organisation working for the equal rights of converted Christians in India constantly struggling to introduce a regulatory system for the Church.
According to a Kerala High Court judgement, the Vatican can only be a caretaker of the Church property by the Canon Law and this property should be used only for welfare of Christian communities. So, why doesn’t the church spend this amount on the welfare of Poor Christians? It has always abdicated from its responsibility.
The Catholic Church runs 480 colleges, 63 medical colleges, 9500 secondary schools, 4000 high-schools, 14000 primary schools, 7500 nursery schools, 500 training schools and 260 professional institutes. If protestants-run institutions are added, the number will reach 50,000. Now, how many dalit christians have benefitted from the massive church empire.
Our Agenda For Reforms
The Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM) is fighting for equal rights and diversity within the church structure for converted Christians based on their numbers. It demands a complete ban on planned conversion activities and decentralization of church power. Currently, the Vatican appoints bishops in India, but PCLM advocates for local Catholics to elect them.
We don’t believe that constitutional amendments to include Christians in the Scheduled Caste list are the only way to develop converted Christians, as such efforts might weaken their position within the church structure. PCLM also seeks to stop organized religious propagation and redirect the substantial funds spent on it towards the development of poor Christians. It emphasizes developing a model within the church to promote the development of converted Christians, which was outlined in the New Delhi Declaration in 2002.
We have discussed a 10-point program for Dalit Christians and has been discussed on various platforms over the past two decades, gaining serious attention within the church system. PCLM wants a halt to organized religious propagation and the redirection of the substantial funds spent on it towards the development of poor Christians. The Church should stop conversion and focus on the development of those who have chosen to join their fold.
Arranging funeral rites for loved ones has become a major challenge for Indian Christians, exacerbated by shrinking land availability in metros, small towns, and even villages. Tensions over burial spaces are rising nationwide, exemplified by a 2025 Supreme Court case from Bastar, Chhattisgarh. Since its inception, PCLM has advocated safeguarding Church assets. In 2008, calls emerged within the community for a national board to protect these properties. It is important to protect church assets from misutilization.
The Battle Continues
Ironically, the social and economic status of converted Christians, especially Dalits, remains unchanged, highlighting a persistent failure to address systemic inequality within the Church. The Church must see caste as a problem. It does exist in the Church. They should realize that it is against Christ’s vision of establishing an undivided society.
Our fight is to change this system based on discrimination. Many of our soldiers have sacrificed their lives fighting this inequality. They are no more but their presence can still be felt. This is going on. This will go on…
R.L. Francis
President – Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM)
