Bless the Budhaprithis

I was born into a destitute Dalit family in the Gorkha district of Nepal in 1979. A Dalit is known as “Achhut” (Untouchable), a term invented to humiliate the downtrodden. Though the Nepal government has recently declared caste-based discrimination a crime, the Dalit community still strives for dignity.

When I was growing up, children from the higher caste were told not to befriend Dalits like me. If they happened to play with us, they had to be sprinkled with gold-touched water to purify them from our Dalit defilement. I had to bow down to Hindu gods and goddesses from outside the temples where non-Dalits worshiped freely. In restaurants, I had to wash my own plates because no one would dare wash a Dalit’s dishes. Even dogs are allowed to enter the houses of the upper caste, but not Dalits. We are treated as subhuman.

In the summer of 1999, I had a breakthrough at the Monkey Temple in Kathmandu. I met a Biola University theology student on a mission trip. We walked the temple steps for hours, talking about the differences between grace-based Christianity and karma- and caste-based Hinduism. At last, a truly humanizing way to see my identity! That night, I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I found a dignity in the eyes of my Creator who didn’t see me as “untouchable” but reached down to love me, embrace me as his son, and offer me “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3). Jesus welcomes us regardless of our social status or religious performance!

I wish I could say my last twenty years as a Christian have ended my experience of caste-based discrimination. My dream of being treated with dignity as an image-bearer of God is still a far cry in Nepali society. I live in a small flat in Kathmandu with my wife and children where we would be swiftly evicted if our landlords discovered that we are Dalit. We train our children to hide their caste membership.

What is truly scandalous is that Nepali churches are no different. Many churches ask attendees to identify their caste. When they find out we are Dalits, attitudes change dramatically. We hear propaganda, even within the church, that “people of lower castes have lower intellectual ability.” It makes no difference that I recently earned my master’s degree in theology and plan to embark on PhD studies to better serve the church. It only matters that you are “untouchable,” which disqualifies you from church leadership. As a result, Dalits are compelled to either hide their identities or start their own churches.

Instead of mirroring Jesus, who loves every tongue, tribe, and nation, the church has simply gone with the flow of Nepal’s caste-based discrimination. Many Nepali Christians were formerly Hindus but still have Hindu hearts toward their brothers and sisters in Christ. Ephesians 2:14 teaches that Jesus has made the Jews and gentiles one, having broken down the dividing wall of hostility through the cross. Why, then, would we keep intact the dividing wall between non-Dalit and Dalit?

It is time for the church not only in Nepal but around the world to show what true social justice looks like. How do we do that? We must live out the biblical truth that everyone bears God’s image and should be treated as such. We must preach the gospel of Jesus’s death and resurrection that gives dignity and worth not only to Dalits in my country but to the downtrodden around the world. We must follow God’s command to “show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (James 2:1). And finally, we must pray. Pray for the church in Nepal. Pray for the church around the world. Pray that we would truly do justice, because Jesus has turned the walls of hostility into rubble.

—Suresh Budhaprithi

Suresh earned his Masters of Divinity at the Kathmandu Institute of Theology and is continuing his training for lifelong ministry. To help him and his family overcome injustice please consider donating to bless the Budhaprithis!