Chik hindu

The Chiks are part of the broad mosaic of occupational castes in India, groups that historically organized themselves around a specific trade passed down from generation to generation. For the Chiks, that trade was the sale of meat from small animals, an activity that set them apart from castes devoted to other functions and, at the same time, placed them among the groups of lowest social status in the traditional Hindu hierarchy.

Over time, Chik families spread from the heart of Jharkhand to neighboring states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, always maintaining the bond between identity, trade and belonging to the land they farm.

The Chiks live mainly from farming and from a traditional trade uncommon among Hindus: the slaughter and sale of goat and sheep meat, an activity that supports much of the community and that brings them, in daily life, into contact with both Hindu and Muslim customers. This historical link to animal slaughter has placed them, over time, among the poorest and most marginalized layers of Indian society, with little access to education and social mobility.

Family is the foundation of social life, and it is not uncommon for a man to have more than one wife, a custom rare among Hindus and more associated with Muslim communities in the region. Unlike most Hindus, the Chiks bury their dead rather than cremating them, a sign of how they blend their own practices into a broader religious identity.

The Chiks are Hindu, and their faith is deeply tied to the place they occupy in India’s social structure. Hinduism, for them, makes room for multiple deities and possible paths to the sacred, which makes the idea of one God and one savior seem strange. At the same time, they keep practices that set them apart from the Hindu majority, such as burying their dead instead of cremating them and, among some men, polygamy, a custom rare among Hindus and more associated with Muslim communities in the region.

These are signs that their religiosity also carries marks of its own, shaped by the community’s history and trade, and not only by the broader Hindu tradition. This blend of faith and social identity makes the message of one God and one path of salvation something distant from the religious horizon in which the Chiks were raised.

The Bible is available in Hindi, the language that links the Chik people to the other castes and regions of India where they are scattered, though many use other regional languages, such as Sadri, in daily life. There is also the Jesus film and radio broadcasts in Hindi, important tools where literacy is low and oral communication remains the main channel. Even so, Scripture rarely reaches the hands of the Chiks: speaking of Jesus remains, in practice, a rare conversation in their communities.

To be Chik is to be Hindu by heritage and by custom, and faith is intertwined with the family’s position in the social structure. The trade tied to the slaughter of small animals has historically kept them at the margins of higher castes, and at the same time far from those who could tell them about Jesus: there is almost no church or local believer near their communities. Changing faith would mean breaking with the identity that upholds the family’s place in the village and clan.

As a group historically placed at the margins of India’s social hierarchy, the Chiks face needs tied to poverty, low access to education and few opportunities beyond the trade inherited from their families. They also need something they have almost none of: contact with believers and Christian communities who can walk alongside them, teaching and discipling in their own language and culture.

There is a real lack of people willing to go to them, learn their customs and show, in practice, the love of Christ without judging the place they occupy in society.