MUMBAI – A burial controversy involving a Dalit man in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state has brought the plight of the country’s Dalit population into sharp focus, with the local Catholic bishop involving civil authorities to resolve the dispute.

Father Devasagayaraj Zackarias, national secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India’s Office for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, told Crux Now the Catholic Church’s teaching unequivocally rejects caste discrimination, but ingrained cultural habits and attitudes die hard.

“While the world is advancing into the age of digital technology and artificial intelligence,” Zackarias said, “some people continue to cling to caste practices that should have no place among Christians.”

Some of the people who opposed the burial, however, were themselves Catholics of the dominant castes.

The term “Dalit” refers to the “untouchables” under India’s ancient caste system, meaning people considered unclean and therefore traditionally ostracized.

The Indian constitution officially abolished caste distinctions in 1949, but they remain strong in popular culture.

Dalits have traditionally been among India’s most impoverished communities.

Although India’s Dalits account for as much as 80 percent of the Christian population, Dalits continue to face unfair treatment even from Catholics who come from higher castes – a cultural reality facing people of all religions in India.

The 2026 controversy

The impasse earlier this month starkly illustrates the ongoing challenges.

The trouble began when a a retired government school teacher from Kottapalayam village near Thuraiyur in the Tiruchi district of Tamil Nadu died on July 17.

His family sought burial for him in the common cemetery of the town, an epicenter in the Dalit struggle for equal rights.

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Although a civil court had ruled in 2024 that the cemetery should be a common burial ground open to all Catholics regardless of caste, members of the dominant Christian community opposed his burial there and physically impeded it.

A three-day standoff ensued over the burial of the man, A. Raju, the father of six children, one of whom is a Catholic priest currently serving in Italy.

The parish priest of St. Mary Magdalene church, to which the larger common cemetery is attached, tried unsuccessfully to broker a solution to the impasse.

The dispute delayed Raju’s funeral for three days before local officials intervened and achieved a compromise that would allow Raju’s burial to take place in the common cemetery.

Bishop Jeevanandam Amalanathan of the Kumbakonam diocese in which the parish is located told Crux Now the Church leaders met several times with representatives from the dominant castes before the issue came to a head over Raju’s burial.

“We had talks three, four times, but they were not ready to listen,” the bishop said. “They were very adamant,” he said, “vociferous, and we didn’t know what to do.”

“Even now,” the bishop told Crux Now, “I clarify my position that we are for equality.”

“We never supported the dominant group,” he said, “and we are trying to bring them to the table for a dialogue, which we will continue to do.”

“We made our position very clear,” he said. “We tried our best,” the bishop said, “[but] they would not come down from their position.”

​“Finally,” he said, “the civil authorities forced them and allowed the dead body to be buried in the common cemetery.”

A long time coming

The bishops of Tamil Nadu have been advocating on behalf of Dalits for many decades, but progress has been slow and has come – when it has come – in fits and starts.

The Tamil Nadu bishops drew up a state-wide 10-point pastoral plan, revised in 2004 after a review. The Catholic Bishops Conference of India addressed the issue on the national level in 2016, with their own Dalit empowerment program.

The legal battle that ended in the 2024 paper victory for the Dalits began ten years earlier, in 2014, with a suit in which the bishop and the parish priest at the time were named defendants.

Raju played a crucial role in the decade-long fight.

“Teacher Raju was one of the petitioners, along with advocate Das Prakash, who obtained the court order on behalf of Dalit Christians,” Zackarias said.

“It is particularly painful that the father of a Catholic priest serving in Italy had to face discrimination even in death,” Zackarias said.

“Yet when he died, his family still had to struggle to bury him in the common cemetery belonging to the Diocese of Kumbakonam.”

According to Zackarias, the dispute in Kottapalayam extends beyond burial rights.

Dalit Catholics have also sought equal representation in parish administration and equal participation in annual parish feast celebrations.

Throughout the country, Dalits remain under-represented in the clergy at every rank.

“People now expect stronger action against those who continue to practice untouchability in churches and cemeteries,” Zackarias said.