by Peter Daniel, S.J. 

This is the story of the village of ‘Agnipuri‘ (A village of Fire). When I was appointed parish priest in Darsi, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, I soon heard of a neighbouring village called Erraobanapalli, which is more than 100 years old. In this village, there was a group of 65 high caste farmers, divided into two political groups, who used to win the elections for local government (Panchayat) every time. On the other side of the village lived 250 Dalit families who served them, and who were also split into two groups, and never allowed to come together. Most of the Dalits were either Christians or Catholics, but some Dalit Muslim and Hindu families had joined them over time. All the Dalits were landless labourers. The Government Primary School was situated in the high caste part of the village and hence the Dalit children had no access to education. The Dalit part of the village was 100% illiterate.

When I started visiting the village and found out about this situation, I met with the Dalits, first with the two groups separately and then eventually with everybody together. It took four years, but when the next elections for local government were called, the Dalits were ready to vote for their ‘independence’. They chose a single candidate and regardless of their great fear of taking a stand against the high caste farmers, they won the elections. As soon as the high caste farmers found out about the election results, they burned down the Dalits’ houses.

The homeless Dalits, men, women and children, fled with only the clothes they were wearing into a nearby forest. When I found out about this, I immediately organised food for them. The next morning, we marched together to Darsi, to the office of the governor of our county. We sat in front of his office for seven days until the sub-collector came to meet us. He agreed to build a new village, where the government would take care of building the road, a drinking water facility, electricity and a new school. Since the government was only going to rebuild the same number of houses that had been destroyed by the fire, and which had been shared by three families each, I found a private sponsor from Austria who agreed to finance the remaining new houses, so each family would have their own space. With the help of the Jesuit province, the community built temporary huts on the ground that had been identified five kilometres from the original village. Together, we then built the 250 houses.

We named the village ‘Agnipuri’ (A village of Fire) and blessed the new colony in July 1996. That day was also the day of reconciliation with the high caste farmers who came for the inauguration of the new village and made peace with the Dalits. I felt about this whole experience like Moses leading the people of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land. Each of us had a role to play in this modern exodus and we all experienced God walking along with us.