The Christmas season brings in
memories of the commemoration of the birth of Jesus, celebration, carol songs,
church services, community activities and sharing of food. Each church
denomination celebrates the birth of Jesus with pre-prepared services and
prayers. Carol songs in English and the vernacular are sung in houses and
churches and people of all communities, castes and groups get together in their
own celebrative ways.
The Carol songs we sing and listen
to are traditional and well known to many. But there are limitations with
language, context and lyrics. Many a time this is brushed aside and we get
together in the spirit of the Christmas season forgetting everything else. But
Carol songs are much beyond of what we know. Several communities have expressed
their feelings and emotions about Jesus, his birth narrative and how Jesus
gives hope and life in the midst of oppression and discrimination.
Such songs have been unheard,
unseen and unsung by the mixed communities in churches, theological colleges
and seminaries. Various dalit communities in different states of India have
always sung from deep within their consciousness of being oppressed for
centuries together. Such a deep consciousness finds support from the babe who
was born in the midst of nothingness. Despite having everything, Jesus chose to
be born in this nothingness, thereby associating himself with those who have
been deprived their rights and their humanity. Carol songs gain deep meaning when
sung from the consciousness of various dalit communities.
The
United Theological College and the
NationalCouncil of Churches in India (NCCI) have always stood for helping to build a
church which should try hard in getting rid of caste, gender, and all sorts of
discriminations within and outside the church. As part of this commitment the
NCCI with support from the Evangelisches Missionswerk in Germany (EMW) and in
partnership with the Department of Communication, UTC decided to bring out a CD
on “Carols unheard: Christmas Carols from Dalit perspectives.”
The talks about how this could be
done were done in the early part of 2012 with liaison work happening between
Rev. Sunil Raj Philip, the secretary of the Dalit Desk of the NCCI, and an
alumna of the college, and the Communication Department in the UTC. The
actualization of the project happened on November 2,3,4 and 5 with recording
done in the UTC recording studio. The release of the CD was held on November 6,
2012 with the first copy being released by the principal of the UTC, Rev. Dr.
John Samuel Raj and the first CD being given to Rev. Dr. Vincent Rajkumar, Director of
CISRS and Executive member of the NCCI. The students, faculty and staff of the
college graced the occasion.
The songs have been written, set
to tune and sung by students from various theological colleges and the UTC. The
songs include Oriya, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, English and Malayalam songs.
Students from various states starting from the North East till down South were
the backbone of this venture. The songs reflect the self-determination of the
dalit communities and will be an inspiration to all the churches in India. We hope
that this Christmas season will be more meaningful with the dissemination of
these songs.
The songs are available for free
download from
http://soundcloud.com/commission-on-dalits-ncci This we hope will
ensure the easy and concerted distribution, listening, appreciation and
internalizing of the songs by the UTC alumni, various church denominations and
Christians at large in India and all over the world. May we listen to these
songs and be able to hear the unheard during the birth of our Lord and saviour
Jesus Christ.
(Photo credit: Rev. Sunil Raj Philip). JK
