by Shane Thamm

Pastor Peter Ravikumar is a Dalit, a member of India’s largest and lowest caste. By birthright Dalits are subservient to other castes and often fill the filthiest and most undesirable roles in Indian society. In many parts of the country they are considered outcasts, unclean, untouchable. It’s with these people that Peter has spent his adult life sharing the gospel.

Since 2004 Peter has taught at Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary in India’s far south. By May last year he had worked long enough to take one year’s leave. But instead of kicking back and having a holiday, he came to Australia in July to serve two vacant Lutheran congregations — Bethlehem, Bendigo, Victoria and Good Shepherd Community Church, Tuggeranong, Australian Capital Territory — for roughly six months each. He arrived with an intimate knowledge of how to share the gospel with the downtrodden, but was given the unfamiliar task of ministering to the comparatively privileged and upperclass.

Peter says he has learned many lessons in Australia, many that will benefit his seminary work and future ministry. Coming from a background of evangelising in slums and shanty towns, he also believes he can offer important lessons for Christians here. He implores Australian Lutherans to re-orient their lives to show the community that they care about their Christian identity. And he asks pastors to remember that they are fulfilling a calling, not a job.

They may sound like judgemental conclusions — he’s only been here for one year — but Peter is not critical by nature, and his insights are offset by considered praise. His comments are also best understood in the context of his life as a Christian in a society dominated by another faith and as a member of an oppressed caste.

Peter was born into a Christian family in Bangalore in 1960. He was the eldest of four children, and his family moved frequently, following his father’s work with the Karnataka Electricity Board. They lived in many villages but he never met another Christian outside of his family until he was a teenager. In a country of 1.2 billion people, Christians account for under than 3 per cent of the population, while Hindus make up more than 80 per cent (according to the 2001 census of India).

Growing up as both a Dalit and a Christian, Peter understood social segregation all too well. So much so that he thought it was a normal part of life. ‘Whenever I wanted to meet my classmates, they never used to take me into their house’, he says. They never gave him food on a plate, only into his hand. ‘This was because of my caste and also because I was a Christian.’

You can read the rest of this story in the June edition, available from LCA Subscriptions. Full stories become available online three years after publication date.