By Gasper F. Lo Biondo, S.J.

The treatment of India's tiny Christian minority, in a dominantly Hindu population of roughly one billion, has recently become a distressing point of concern internationally. During his visit there in November, Pope John Paul II sharpened the spotlight on frequently bloody assaults by fundamentalist Hindu sects. He did so with his words and, even before he arrived, his announced presence -- which triggered a wave of anti-Christian sentiment.

Having traveled to India in October, I can attest that Indian church leaders are thankful for the Western scrutiny and solidarity. Still, a casual reading of recent events could easily give a stunted impression of the nature of this conflict and the high human stakes involved.

It is tempting to view all this through the prism of familiar flash points of ethnic and religious strife, as in Bosnia and Northern Ireland. There is indeed friction between Christians and Hindus in parts of India, but the motivation behind the attacks has less to do with religious faith than with politics and the dynamics of class and caste.

Some leaders of fundamentalist Hinduism, the ascending political force in India, have rallied their followers against what they call "forced conversions" by Christian missionaries. "Conversions," though, serve as a code word for what has actually provoked violence and intimidation over the past two years. This is the work of the church to lift up people at the bottom of India's social system.

Look at the regions with the worst outbreaks of hostility, and you'll find church organizations meeting the needs of India's poorest people. These include tribal members and the Dalits, formerly known as the "untouchables" of India's caste system.

Human Rights Watch, a secular non-partisan organization, recently reported that in many instances, "Christian institutions and individuals targeted were singled out for their role in promoting health, literacy, and economic independence" among the Dalit and tribal people. The report added, "A vested interest in keeping these communities in a state of economic dependency is a motivating factor in anti-Christian violence and propaganda."

Upon arriving at the airport in Hyderabad in southern India, I was greeted by someone who personifies this mission among outcasts. Father AXJ Bosco is a Jesuit friend, but perhaps more to the point, he is a Dalit. The word in Sanskrit means "the oppressed, the broken." In the language of the three-thousand-year-old caste system, people like Father Bosco are the Pariahs, the Untouchables -- whose very touch pollutes others.

Father Bosco explained to me that Dalits are a distinct minority, about 17 percent of India's population. At the same time, they constitute a majority of Indian Christians (who form a little over two percent of the general population). In many places, to be Christian means to be low-caste.

Driving through the city, Father Bosco pointed out the polluted Musi River and the slum dwellers living on its banks. He told me discrimination, built into the social order, is especially rampant in rural areas. Commonly, Dalits cannot take water from the common well or enter the temple. They can't sit together with others in schools, theaters or restaurants.

Father Bosco works with a non-profit voluntary organization called the Village Reconstruction Organization. It aims to uplift the living conditions of the rural poor, partly through through low-cost housing, agricultural development, comprehensive rural health services and sanitation, formal and non-formal education. This is the kind of work that has become vulnerable to extremist Hindu attacks on Christians.

Further south, I learned about the Mukkuvar people, who dwell in coastal fishing villages. Like the Dalits, they are among the lowest on India's social scale. They became Christians willingly (in the 16^th century). This is how they were able to set themselves apart from other caste-bound Indians around them. Through Christianity, through their experience of God's love, they affirm their distance from caste society and resist incorporation into it.

Fundamentally, the issue here is not "conversions," but human rights and dignity. On this ground, the Pope made his appeal in India for a higher unity. This harmony would arise from the belief of both Hindus and Christians that our experience of transcendence is the core of what makes us human. Religious freedom is one name we give to this natural desire to transcend, or reach above, ourselves, and beyond the systems that would degrade us.

Jesuit Father Gasper F. Lo Biondo is a senior fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University and coordinator of the center's project on globalization and cultures.