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2018 - 41 The Rishi People and the Catholic Church 69 Reag eer 2 See Wendy Doniger with B. K. Smith tr., The Laws of Manu . Penguin Books. London 1991, 10,4. 3 Ibidem 10,51-55. 4 Rishi are leather workers, Kaora raise pigs, Dom deal with corpses in the cremation ground, Methor are sweepers. 5 In Mymensingh district, for instance, the Rishi word is not known. They themselves give their name as Rubidas. They are however all the same identified as Muchi by Muslim and Hindu neighbours. 6 Zene C., The Rishi of Bangladesh . London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002, p. XV. 7 In Di Costa J., Bangladeshe Catholic Mondoli . Dhaka: Protibeshi Prokashoni 1988, p.16 it is said that large numbers of low caste people were converted to Christianity. Who this people were and what their caste belonging was, it is not said. 8 Quoted in Zene C., The Rishi of Bangladesh . London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002, p. 122. 9 Fr. Marietti quoted in Zene C., op . cit ., p. 110. 10 Ibidem . p. 110. 11 Quoted in ibidem ., p. 128. 12 “Fr. Wanters had been insisting with the superior to put a man in the spot. Monsignor was prej- udiced against the Muchis. In 1925, when the collapse of the Mission came, Fr. Wanters went to announce to the Superior of the Mission (Fr. M. Veys) the ‘good news’ that the Muchi mission was gone; Fr. Veys asked him: ‘Why do you call it –good news?- To which Fr. Wanters answered: ‘You must be happy that no man is needed there.” In Germano A. ed., Satkhira Mission: The Starting of the Mission in the Diaries of the Jesuit Fathers . Vol. II: 1925-1939. Khulna, 1998. Unpublished manu- script, p. 2. 13 See Germano A. ed., Satkhira Mission… Vol. II, p. 13. 14 Fr. Koster wrote in January 1942: “It will take very long to make this people religious minded. They do not care for God nor for religion.” In Germano A. ed., Satkhira Mission: The Starting of the Mission in the Diaries of the Jesuit Fathers . Vol. III: 1939-1943. Khulna, 1998. Unpublished manuscript, p. 41. 15 Fr. Deman writes in June 1937: “Where help and protection will come from, there will they go;” in Germano A. ed., Satkhira Mission… Vol. II, p. 14. 16 In June 1923 Fr. Dessa writes: “Many of those who have left us come for medicine, but of course I refuse.” In Germano A. ed., Satkhira Mission: The Starting of the Mission in the Diaries of the Jesuit Fathers . Vol. I: 1917-1925. Khulna, 1998. Unpublished manuscript, p. 23. 17 See Germano A. ed., Satkhira Mission… Vol. I, pp. 20-21; 26-27. 18 In Germano A. ed., Satkhira Mission… Vol. III, p. 42. 19 Quoted in Cosimo Zene, op. cit ., p. 239.