By Irudaya Jothi

Kolkata: May 10 was the saddest day for the Dalit Christians around the world as their leader and liberator Jesuit Father P Antonyraj passed away due to Covid 19.

Father Antonyraj “was a prophet of our times who challenged the caste-ridden Church hierarchy,” said Jesuit Father A X J Bosco mourning the death.

Father Bosco, who is also a Jesuit Dalit leader and social activist, described Father Antonyraj as “a firebrand rebel for the sake of Jesus and the Dalit Christian people whom he loved. He fearlessly struggled and fought for justice.”

According to Father Bosco, who was the former Jesuit provincial of Andhra, Father Antonyraj’s thoughts would continue to inspire many to work for the liberation of the powerless “until all are accepted as equal>

Holy Cross Sister Manju Kulapuram, secretary of the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace, recalled Father Antonyraj asserting that “Jesus was a rebel” at a workshop in Chennai. “A great activist. May he continue to inspire and challenge us,” she told Matters India mourning the death.

Henri Tiphagne, a lawyer and human rights activist who was a close friend of Father Antonyraj, describes him in as a leader who opted to become a fighter.

Writing in the Counter Currents magazine, Henry said Father Antonyraj spoke “in chaste American English accent that he consciously cultivated with learning it the hard way. Asked about his English, he always proudly said, ‘so what if I am a Dalit.’”

“Tony (Antoniraj) must have been a thorn in the flesh for his superiors, rectors and archbishops wherever he served” remarked Henry.

Jesuit Father Maria Joseph Mahalingam, the principle of Loyola College, Mattala, says the Society of Jesus has just lost one of its dynamic, courageous, committed, compassionate, prophetic and exemplary sons, who could understand and implement its liberative policies.

Antonyraj was born in 1945 in a small village in Meenthully in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.

After getting a doctorate from the Loyola University of Chicago, in the US, he went to a village to thank the people where he collected the data for his study, ‘The social basis of untouchables in Tamil Nadu.’

One of the villagers then asked him, “Illustrating our inhuman, pathetic and untouchable situation, you have obtained honorable doctorate. What is the use of your Ph.D. for us?”

The question from an ordinary man shook the Jesuit scholar.

It proved a turning point in his life. Father Antonyraj refused to teach in Loyola College, Chennai, but worked directly for the advancement of the downtrodden, Father Mahalingam recalled.

In his address to the Jesuits at the concluding ceremony of the 150th anniversary of the formation of the New Madurai Mission in Kazhukerkadai in 1987, Father Antonyraj said emphatically, “Tamil Nadu Church is a Dalit Church. We will be at its center because we constitute 70 percent of the Catholic Church in Tamil Nadu. Those who are dominating it hitherto should leave the place to us.”

He was severely criticized for making such a controversial statement. The more he was criticized, the more he thought of making his statement true. Hence he started uniting and mobilizing the Dalit Catholics.

After the 1979 murder of 12 Dalits and the burning of many houses in Villupuram, Father Antonyraj built homes for them. During and after the Villupuram Dalit massacre, he visited many nearby villages and parishes and had many meetings and training with the Dalit Christians.

Is caste issue that serious even today?

Father Antonyraj’s answer was an emphatic yes.

According to him, casteism was openly practiced in the Tamil Nadu Church and among the Tamilians everywhere in the world. More than 60 percent of the Christians in Tamil Nadu are Dalits but most bishops and superiors of religious houses are from the minority higher caste.