Hyderabad, India, Sep 6, 2010 / 17:07 pm
A massive crowd gathered in the city of Vijayawada in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on August 30, to honor the memory of the recently deceased Archbishop Marampudi Joji of Hyderabad. The archbishop died on August 27 of a heart attack, his second since 2002. He was 68.
Archbishop Joji led a remarkable career as the first member of India's Dalit class, once regarded as the society's “untouchables,” to receive the high episcopal rank. Although India's caste system was officially abolished in the law, attitudes of discrimination have remained in some aspects of Indian life. A 2006 survey found that almost a third of the country's Dalits were Christians.
The archbishop was a strong advocate for the rights of India's sizable Dalit Christian minority. In a 2009 interview with AsiaNews, Joji explained that Dalit Christians are faced with discrimination in society because of their class origins, and even legally on account of their religion.
“I am the first Dalit bishop of India,” he said in the 2009 interview, “and I have a duty to ensure that most Dalit Christians can enjoy the same privileges on par with other Dalits.” Up to the end, Archbishop Joji devoted his life both to the leadership of the Church in Hyderabad, and to the cause of social justice for religious and ethnic groups in India.