Introduction
.......let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." This has never been the ground-rule of action of any ruling class in Santal-Parganas. While I sit to spill some ink on the paper. I'm reminded of a saying of Malcolm: "Don't let anybody who is oppressing us ever lay the ground-rules. Let them know now that this is a new game, and we've got some new rules...."1 Gone are the days when the Santals lived a fatalistic life. This is not an era where the oppressed Santals look-up to their oppressors to give them some system of logic What is logical to the 'dikus' is no logic to them. or reason. And what is reason to their oppressors is no reason for the oppressed. As the Santals today, more than ever, are realizing that what sounds reasonable and logical to their exploiters is neither reasonable nor logical to them, the time is ripe now to devise a system, a set of rules to re-place the old. This alone can bear some fruit in their struggle for freedom. And 1 term this struggle as "Santal-Revolution". The 'Santalness' in the land of Santals has become a power of Liberation today. The Santal theology of liberation in today's context therefore, must be evoking the spirit of Santal-ness. Theology in this light becomes an on-going attempt of this particular community to define in every generation its reason for being in the world. There can never be a universal theology. It is essentially boundup with a particular community. The theology of the oppressors cannot be an authentic theology. for its interest is one of maintaining the statusquo. This, in the term of James Cone, is an anti-Christ theology. An authentic Christian theology is the theology of the oppressed people. God-talk can never be a christian-talk until and unless it is amalgamated with the liberation of the oppressed. My deep conviction as that of Cone is that no Santal should be claiming to do theology today unless the focal point and purpose of her/his theology is the liberative praxis of the Santals. The responsibility for the Santal societal change is an essential part of the Santal theological task today. This little book is a drop in the great ocean of the challenging task every Santal theologian is faced with. This may ebb controver-sies and may even make the oppressive communities raise their eyebrows. This is precisely why theologizing has become a very dangerous job today. An authentic theologian has to be obedient to the Word of God and faithful in doing it, even to the point of death on the cross. He believes that the death of Jesus is not the end of everything but the beginning of a new life. God, raising Jesus from death has called humanity to a new hope.
Foreword
The Santals are the single largest tribal group in India. By their sheet number...eight million people, that is 1% of the Indian population-they claim our attention-attention to what is happening to them. This tribal people, with unique cultural characteristics, have all along been harassed, oppressed and exploited by the 'diku' landlords, the money-lenders and by the political powers. They have been deprived of their lands, their forests the sources of their survival. But the Santals are not a people acquiescent and resigned to their lot. They havd been a struggling people. Like the Minjung, the oppressed people of Korea, and like the blacks of South Africa, the Santals are active agents of their own libera-tion. A deep awareness and even assertion of their cultural identity is indispensable in the project of their liberation. LosS of cultural identity is loss of their freedom, just like the loss of their lands and forests is the loss of the physical as well as spiritual means of their survival. In the case of the Santals, their culture and freedom-the spiritual dimension, so to say, -is inextricably intertwined with their lands and forests-the material and the earthly sources of life. At the global level, the experience of the last few years show a remarkable shift taking place from the economic and the political towards the cultural which is beginning to occupy the central stage in the struggles for liberation. The Santals have to draw from their cultural resources the strength to withstand and overcome the evil forces that continue to keep them in bondage, The Santals have also a lot to draw from their own history. They resisted and fought fiercely their oppressors in many rebel. lions, specially in the well-known 'hul' (rebellion) in 1855-1857. The movement of liberation and struggle among the Santals has not been in vain. It has borne fruits, the most significant of which is the creation of a homeland for themselves the Santal Parganas. Once again, despite ominous signs of Santal identity being wiped out and their liberation movement brutally repressed, in recent times, fresh signs of hope are re-appearing. The determination of the Santals not to surrender themselves to their exploiters is growing stronger. Peoples' victory over the dictatorial regime and the volcanic outburst of the Romanian people in recent days against the iron fisted misrule of Ceausescu and his wife Elena, leading to their overthrowing and execution is people's power at work. It should serve as a warning to all those who-think that they can continue to exploit with impunity the tribals of the country. A theology of liberation among the Santals has to grown out of their experience and sufferings, their struggles and revolts, hopes and dreams. It has to sustain them in their fight for self-determination and liberation. This book offers inspiration for the development of a Santal theology of liberation, rooted in their culture, tradition and history. From the point of view of methodology, it wants to read the Bible starting from the experience of Santals, and not the other way round. It critically surveys also the involvement of the Church among the Santals and calls for inculturation in all areas of the life of the Church. Only such an inculturated Church can be truly an involved participant in their project of liberation. Anthropologists are wont to distinguish beetween 'etic' and 'emic' approach to a culture, according to whether it is studied from without as a phenomenon or looked at from within, making oneself a part of the culture of the people studied.
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