Do You Have A Clay Cup? Modern day lepers and untouchables

Posted on Saturday, September 1st, 2007 at 12:55 pm

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This is taken from http://www.dalitnetwork.org Please click on this address and have a look around at the work that the Dalit Network is doing for Christ in the nation of India.

The Story of the Clay Cup™
Dalit Oppression and the Clay Cup™
‘Dalit’ is an ancient Marathi (Western Indian language) word that may be defined as “ground” or “broken in pieces”. It refers to people who have been broken or ground down by those above them in a deliberate and active way. This word perfectly describes the 250 million Indians who exist outside of India’s caste society: those who are traditionally known as the “outcastes” or “untouchables.”

Clay cups were historically used by restaurants, tea shops and train stations in India to serve Dalits separately. Dalits had to destroy the cup after each use so that no upper caste customer would ever use it and risk ‘contamination’ by a Dalit’s ‘uncleanness.’ Today, clay cups are commonly used and are no longer exclusively limited to Dalits. Dalits, however, are still rarely served in glass or metal vessels/cups which could carry their ‘uncleanness.’

The Dalit Freedom Network has chosen the clay cup as a visual representation of the Dalits’ brokenness and oppression. We offer these cups to friends of DFN to act as a daily reminder in your home or office of the Dalit plight. Clay cups available through DFN are handmade by the Dalit community outside of Hyderabad in the state of Andhra Pradesh in central India.

We can send you a cup for any size donation that you choose to give. We leave the amount that you would like to donate up to you. We use your donation to help fund our work with the Dalits.

If you would like to order a large volume of cups (25+) to give to your class or to raise money for DFN at your event, etc., call us at 866-921-1333 or email us at Bulk Clay Cup Orders