The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South India

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 17 Article 7

January 2004

Dialogue 'On The Ground': The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South India

Selva J. Raj

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Recommended Citation Raj, Selva J. (2004) "Dialogue 'On The Ground': The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South India," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 17, Article 7. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1316

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Raj: Dialogue 'On The Ground': The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South India

Dialogue 'On The Ground': The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South India l

Selva J. Raj Albion College

INTERRELIGIOUS dialogue is a vital 'dialogue on the ground,' delineates the theological concem for the Catholic Church social and religious themes embedded in this in India:. Over the past three decades, church ritual, and reflects on its implications for leaders (Amalorpavadoss 1978), progressive interreligious dialogue. theologians (Amaladoss 1979), and maverick monastics (Griffiths 1982) have The Shrine, The Saint, and the experimented with various models and Devotees forms of interreligious dialogue. Quite distinct from these contrived institutional A. Shrine initiatives is the dynamic of intimate, subtle, The shrine of St. Antony at Uvari on the and spontaneous ritual exchange and Pearl Fishery coast, situated thirty miles dialogue between ordinary Hindus and north of Kanya Kumari at the tip of the Catholics occurring in the arena of popular Indian peninsula, is a popular Catholic piety and rituals at the grassroots level - shrine in south India. Known as the "Padua often in opposition to institutional norms of the East," Uvari is a coastal village of and directives - that may be described as coconut trees and fishing boats situated on "dialogue on the ground." In light of the shores of the Bay of Bengal. Its five ethnographic research at the shrine of St. hundred plus Catholic families of the Parava Antony at Uvari in Tamil Nadu - that serves (fishing) caste group proudly trace their as a representative sample of regional Catholic heritage to the missionary work of shrines in rural south India - this essay stalwarts like St. Francis Xavier who is said focuses on the logic and grammar of a to have spent several days in the village specific public ritual locally known as during one of his missionary trips. Though asanam as an illustrative case-study of the

Selva J Raj, who received his Ph.D. in History of Religions from the University of Chicago, is Chair and Stanley S. Kresge Associate of Professor of Religious Studies at Albion College. A Past-President of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies, he is a Co-Chair of the Comparative Studies in Religion Section of the American Academy of Religion and current President of the Midwest Region of the American Academy of Religion. His research interests are in the area of ritual exchange between Hindus and Catholics in India, Hindu women saints, tribal religions, and contemporary women's movements in India. Author of several articles, he has co-edited two volumes: (with Corinne Dempsey) Popular Christianity in India: Riting Between the Lines (SUNY: 2002) and (with William Harman) Dealing with Deities: The Ritual Vow in South Asia (SUNY: forthcoming in 2004). Currently he is co-editing, with Corinne Dempsey, Ritual Levity, Ritual Play in South Asian Traditions. He is also working on a monograph titled The Dialogue of Rituals: Religion of Tamil Catholics in SOUt11 India.

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Ii, , situated in a caste-conscious Catholic Around the eighteenth century, said Marion, village, this rural shrine attracts thousands of a modest hut made of coconut leaves was devotees of diverse religious and caste built to house the wooden statue of St. identities who fulfil various vow rituals Antony. A Hindu family looked after the hut collectively known as asanam that include - for several generations until the Catholic, but are not limited to - hair-shaving, ear Church took it over from the Hindu family. piercing, ritual bathing, and animal A full-fledged shrine dedicated to St. sacrifices. Antony was built in the 1940s. It was fully F our towering churches - including a remodeled in 2003. church built in the shape of a ship bearing an Dvari residents assert that the wooden airplane - dedicated to four different statue ofSt. Antony enshrined on the altar is Catholic saints dominate Dvari's physical the same wooden statue installed by the and religious landscape. Among these four Portuguese sailors. According to the churches the recently renovated shrine of St. villagers and the clergy, a glass stand on the Antony is undoubtedly the most prominent altar contains the relics of St. Antony sent when measured by the number of pilgrims it from Rome to the local bishop Gabrielle attracts and the wondrous miracles attributed Francis Roche in the 1960s. The tiny to its patron saint. While many south Indian wooden statue of St. Antony is one' of the Catholic shrines - like the popular shrine of major spiritual attractions for pilgrims. Vellankanni in northern Tamil Nadu - are Every Tuesday - considered sacred since St. known for fertility and healing, the shrine of Antony died on a Tuesday - pilgrims flock St. Antony is regarded by many pilgrims - to the shrine to see the wooden statue and St. Catholics and Hindus alike - as the Antony's relics, the two major spiritual preeminent site for miraculous healing for attractions for pilgrims. The two annual those suffering from demonic possessions, festivals, observed in February and mid various fonns of black magic and sorcery, June, attract tens of thousands of pilgrims of and psychological distress. The old men and all religious affiliations. According to a women of the village never tire telling conservative estimate, the February festival pilgrims and visitors the Dvari legend that draws over 100,000 pilgrims from far and recounts the shrine's humble yet wondrous neaL During the festival season streams of begimlings and the powerful miracles devotees stand in long lines to touch the attributed to its patron saint. glass case containing St. Antony's relics or Marion, an eighty-year-old retired have an item blessed by the saint by placing catechist, enthusiastically recounted this it on the wooden statue. legend to me. Long, long ago, nearly three or four hundred years ago - so goes the B. Saint legend - Dvari had a small harbor where The original St. Antony ,of Padua, a native of local villagers would trade with the Lisbon but commonly referred to as the saint incoming ships. The crew of a Portuguese of Padua since he spent his mature years in ship approaching Dvari contracted cholera. the Italian city of Padua, is well known A sculptor on board the ship began chipping throughout the Catholic world as the "finder a block of wood and carved the image of St. of lost articles" and the bestower of fertility,. Antony. No sooner than he completed the However, Dvari St. Antony is especially sculpture the entire crew was miraculously renowned for his powers over demonic saved from cholera. The ship was docked at spirits, particularly malevolent local Hindu Dvari. In gratitude for the miracle, the deities/spirits like Isaikki Amman and sculptor and the sailors installed the Chutalaimadan who command the religious miraculous wooden statue on the shores of attention of a vast number of his local Hindu Dvari against the backdrop of a huge rock. and Catholic devotees.2 Although his

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol17/iss1/7 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1316 2 Raj: Dialogue 'On The Ground': The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South India Dialogue 'On the Ground' 35

iconography is consistent with St. Antony of to the shrine for a brief or extended stay Padua's typical representation in the either to establish or strengthen ties with the Catholic world where he is portrayed in saint. While the resident devotees are Parava

Franciscan habit holding a book and the c Catholics, the vast majority of the visiting infant Jesus in his anns, Uvari Antony's pilgrims come from diverse caste and sacred persona and powers are radically religious groups with Hindus and Catholics recast to reflect indigenous assumptions of the Nadar caste group constituting the concerning sacred figures and the existential single largest group. Throughout the year, human and spiritual needs of his local visiting pilgrims flock to the shrine on devotees. This recasting enables Uvari Tuesdays to perfonn vow rituals. Many Antony's religiously pluralistic clientele to arrive early in the morning by bus, rented embrace the European saint as their chosen vans, or private cars, spend the day at the clan or family deity (kula teyvam) equal in shrine to complete the rituals, and return by power and attributes to such popular Hindu dusk while others stay in the church guest tutelary deities as Mariamman, the Tamil house for an extended period that can be goddess of dis~ase and healing. Called as the anywhere from two days to three weeks. As Parava saint to distinguish him from St. a rule, those suffering from possessions and Antony of Puliampatti where Nadar caste psychological distress tend to stay for two to groups constitute his principal clientele, this three weeks. When at the shrine, devotees indigenized saint of European descent both are willing to endure hardships such as supports and confounds indigenous social sleeping on the grolmd in front of the shrine. realities like caste. "Million. Miracle The modes and medium of social and Worker," "Wonder-worker," and religious interaction between resident "Superdoctor" are some of Antony's devotees and visiting pilgrims merits our affectionate, popular indigenous titles. So attention. Stories and legends about the powerful and revered is St. Antony that shrine and the saint provide an entree for numerous wayside shrines are dedicated to initial social interaction between the two him throughout the coastal region of groups of devotees that are ordinarily southeast Tamil Nadu. In incorporating divided by caste, religious, and social indigenous traits, the cult of Uvari Antony distinctions. Thus the saint and the shrine act represents a compelling case of the as the primary reason and medium of reconstruction and transformation of a interaction/exchange between the two European Catholic saint into a powerful groups of devotees. In this sense, the locals indigenous tutelary deity. Uvari Antony's who regard him as a member of their ability to bring healing to both Hindu and "village family" claiming a filial " Catholic devotees illustrates the complex relationship to him, play host to visiting I' negotiations and complicated identities of pilgrims with a feeling of ','ownership" since his devotees and their shared religious they regard him as "their" saint. The ritual universe. hospitality offered by the villagers to visiting pilgrims is most prominent during C. Devotees the two annual festivals when Uvari St. Antony's devotees come from all residents offer free accommodation in their religions, castes, and walks of life, although own homes to pilgrims traveling long rural low-caste Hindus and Catholics distance irrespective of caste distinctions, In constitute his principal clientele. They may the process, the host families subject be classified under two broad types: a) themselves to some hardship and resident devotees comprising local villagers inconvenience in hopes of garnering whose identities are linked to the shrine and additional spiritual and/or earthly blessings its saint, and b) visiting pilgrims who come from the saint. Suspending caste distinctions

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for the duration of the festival, the caste obtaining relief from various physical conscious Parava Catholics share their home diseases and psychological problems and food with Hindus and Catholics of including possession. Unofficial estimates Nadar caste avoided in daily life. Several' claim that on an average about 1000 villagers proudly told me that they consider devotees have their hair shaved during the it a great honor to extend hospitality to June festival and 5000 during the February pilgrims. Extending hospitality to pilgrims, festival. they say, is tantamount to offering Devotees believe that it is especially hospitality to the saint himself. Others view meritorious and auspicious if asanam is it as a way of expressing gratitude for favors performed on a Tuesday, since St Antony received from the saint. Given that this died on a Tuesday. Church officials state remote village has limited lodging facilities, that on average about thirty five to forty the hospitality tradition oevised by the laity asanams take place every Tuesday. While is an ingenious and pragmatic adjustment to some arrive a day early so that they are local economic realities. Mutuality and spiritually prepared to commence asanam reciprocity characterize the hospitality rites with the auspicious early morning tradition at Uvari. It yields positive social purificatory bath at the shrine well known as benefits both to the hosts and the guests as it ''puthumai hnaru" (wonder well) believed helps expand their social network. In many to have special purificatory and healing cases, new friendships are forged between powers, most pilgrim families arrive the host and pilgrim families while in other Tuesday morning in buses, taxis, rented vans cases old bonds are renewed . and or buses, and private cars. Devotees take strengthened since host families tend to special care to ensure the proper execution welcome repeat pilgrims. Pilgrims of their promises and the prompt payment of reciprocate by inviting their hosts to their debt owed to the saint lest they incur his homes. wrath. Uvari Antony has a reputation to be vengeful and wreak havoc on those who The Asanam Ritual Tradition break their promise. "If we don't fulfil our promises" an elderly resident of Uvari Asanam is the most common ritual commented, "St. Antony will beat us to obligation undertaken by the devotees. The death. Every night he goes around the centerpiece of Uvari ritual tradition, village on a white horse wielding a silver asanam, as noted earlier, is a collective tenn stick. He chases the delinquents and causes for a series' of ritual actions undertaken as misfortune for them. He does not spare promissory, petitionary, or thanksgiving even the priests who become greedy over rituals. Ordinarily these include, but are not church donations.,,3 The transactio,nal idiom limited to, fasting, ritual sacrifice of a goat implicit in the asanam r:ites and in the saint or chicken, hair-shaving, and feeding devotee relationship requires a separate thirteen beggars/poor persons/ destitutes. In treatment which is beyond the purview of the weeks preceding asanam, the sponsor this paper (Raj 2004). family subjects itself to a series of austerities The following is the general pattern for in order to ensure the efficacy of the rite. asanam rites. The ceremonies begin with a . Devotees offer asanams for any number of series of preliminary rites that frequently earthly benefits ranging from finding include hair-shaving and ear-piercing in the suitable spouses, gaining healing, fertility, tonsure house located near the shrine. This is marital stability, and agricultural prosperity followed by a purificatory bath at the to passing exams and securing jobs in the "wonder or miracle well" with thirteen Gulf countries. Local tradition maintains buckets of water' drawn from this well. As that asanam is particularly efficacious for noted above, the number 13 has special

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol17/iss1/7 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1316 4 Raj: Dialogue 'On The Ground': The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South India Dialogue 'On the Ground' 37

religious significance since St. Antony died pilgrims. When the meal is ready, all those on June 13. Pilgrims insist that the efficacy who did not take the purificatory bath earlier of the rite depends, among other things, on in the day now proceed to the miracle well the strict adherence to the auspicious for bath followed by a ceremonial number. Although mandatory only for the circumambulate of the shrine. principal petitioner/beneficiary of Antony's The centerpiece of asa1Jam rites is the favors, usually other family members also festive ritual meal prepared by devotees and take purificatory baths to express solidarity offered to St. Antony's "honored" earthly with the vow-taker since the saint's representatives as a thanksgiving gesture for blessings also accrue to the entire family. favors already received or as a promissory Then the sacrificial animal, usually a he offering for blessings hoped for. Ordinarily, goat or a fowl, is similarly bathed with these "honored guests" are beggars and thirteen buckets of water and garlanded. destitutes selected by the shrine lay staff. Accompanied now by family members Each "guest" is given a meal token that carrying rice, vegetables, and other items, entitles them to the ritual meal. A crucial the devotee and the goat - both drenched in part of the ritual meal is the rubrics and water - circumambulate the shrine thirteen etiquette goveming the feeding of thirteen times. When this is concluded, the entire "honored beggars," a number significant to group assembles in front of St. Antony's _ St. Antony. Family members take special altar to offer thanks for favor(s) received care to treat these thirteen persons with and to signal its resolve to fulfil the vow utmost respect, reverence, and honor promised to the saint. Family members then because, devotees say, they are the saint's guide the goat/fowl to the slaughter house "ritual surrogates." Devotees insist that located behind the shrine where it is religious identities, caste considerations, and slaughtered and skinned. Whereas the skin is social distinctions do not play, at least for usually donated to the church, the meat is the duration of the ceremonies, any role in used to prepare an elaborate meal. that the treatment of the guests. A popular legend invariably includes a meat dish.4 Devotees recounted by an elderly villager stresses this pay a nominal fee to. the church to rent idea: "Many decades ago a poor Harijan cooking utensils and space in the large [untouchable] man had cooked a meal and community kitchen. On any Tuesday one offered it to others. Nobody was willing to can see several pilgrim families, Hindu and eat it. He cried before the Lord. He then dug Catholic alike, preparing the ritual meal in a hole in front of the church, spread some the community kitchen where all family leaves in it, put the food and covered it with I' members - men and women, young boys and leaves. He then covered up the pit and went I girls - help with the preparation of the ritual home." At this point, the village elder's eyes meal. Sharing communal kitchen space lit up and his voice broke as he related, "Six provides an opportunity for these families, months later they were digging a pit to hoist particularly women, to share stories about ,the flag for the festival. Vapor rose from the the special favors they have received or food which was still fresh. Devotees hoped to receive from St. Antony which scrambled to eat it. After that incident helps reinforce their faith in the efficacy of people accept food here from everybody the rites and the saint's sacral powers. irrespective of caste, creed, colour or riches" Communal cooking also creates among (Nadar 1998).5 Those selected for the ritual pilgrims of diverse religions and castes a honor may be Hindus, Muslims, and feeling of spontaneous - albeit temporary - Catholics. Thus, Hindus may partake of the communitas across religious and social asanam meal hosted by a Catholic family, boundaries. It is not uncommon for pilgrim and vice versa. During my field research in families to share the ritual meal with fellow the summer of 2000 and winter of 2003, I

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attended several asanams where Catholics not to be taken back home but distributed to were fed by Hindu devotees and Hindu and the poor. In addition to the meal, some Muslim beggars were fed by Hindu and families also offer cash and/or clothing to Catholic devotees. the "ritual guests." The pilgrim families themselves have no As we come to the end of this discourse part or say in who gets selected for the ritual on ritual food illustrated in the asanam rites honor. The selection of "guests" is and review their principal actors, two supervised by the shrine's lay staff who questions linger in our minds. First, who detennine eligibility, assign a specific stands to gain the most from this ritual pilgrim family, and distribute meal tokens. drama? Second, what does the ritual Tradition requires that those selected exchange between Hindus and Catholic represent the poorest of the poor - usually devotees reveal about their religious beggars - irrespective of caste and creed. identities and, by extension, the type of However, today local residents complain dialogue implicit in Hindu-Catholic about a general decline in the appreciation relationship in Tamil Nadu? Let me of the spiritual values and ideals of asanam therefore close this section with some ritual. According to a long-time parishioner comments on the ultimate winner of this of Dvari, the token system has recently been ritual drama, postponing my reflections on abused by the shrine lay staff who tend to the second question to the final section of favor their own friends and relatives. "This this paper. takes away the very spirit of asanam meal," Evidently, the socially inferior beggar he said. 6 Another villager echoed this from the street gains a hearty meal and sentiment: "Today asanam has lost its temporary respect and elevation from his spiritual character. It has become a party, an social superiors. Through the transgressive occasion for family get-together and· ritual meal, he has an opportunity to engage celebrations. The truly deserving are not the in social commerce with his superiors in the ones who receive the meal. In fact, some intimate context of eating which otherwise is beggars choose not to go for asanam meal as a litual and social taboo. The saintly patron - it causes a dent into their potential reVenue the primary focus of the entire ritual - from beggingc',7 rec~ives special honor and devotional Asanam tradition requires the vow-taker attention from his loyal clients as well as to serve the food himself/herself to the public recognition for his sacral powers that thirteen honored "ritual guests." As per local in return enhances his spiritual fame and custom, the meal is "to be served on banana gains him some new devotees. To the shrine, leaves as is the nonn for auspicious its keepers - clerical and lay - and the occasions like weddings. When the meal is institutional church that provide legitimacy served on banana leaves, a thanksgiving and ecclesiastical approval, the" asanam prayer is offered to St. Antony. Following tradition brings additional revenue, this, the vow-taker who is the principal increased social influence, and greater sponsor of the feast kneels in front of the spiritual power. However, it appears that the thirteen "honored beggars" and begs for a devotee who sponsors the meal comes out as handful of food from each of them to whom the ultimate wilmer. In addition to garnering he has just served the meal. With the food the saint's spiritual and earthly blessings for collected through reverse begging, s/he sits himself and his family, he manages to beside the thirteen beggars, and eats the elevate his spiritual and social status by ritual meal. Only after the "ritual guests" extending ritual hospitality to the saint have been fed to their satisfaction, can through feeding his ritual surrogate. The family members partake of the ritual meal. economic hardships and the temporary Asanam rules dictate that the leftovers are reduction in social status predicated by the

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol17/iss1/7 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1316 6 Raj: Dialogue 'On The Ground': The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South India Dialogue 'On the Ground' 39

ritual are offset by - indeed far outweigh - social relations, so that other redemptive the spiritual and earthly blessings he reaps possibilities may be glimpsed or briefly from the ritual. Perhaps this is why pilgrim experienced (Turner 1974: 231-270; centers like Uvari continue to be such Kinsley: 207). In the asanam tradition, the powerful spiritual magnets for the religious transgression and mixing up of social masses. relations and religious distinctions is effected through the medium of the ritual Ritual Food: A Temporary Equalizer meal in such wise that two disparate of Social and Religious Distinctions? categories of people, i.e. the socially and economically superior host [ritual donor] What interpretive paradigms might assist us and the inferior guest [recipient], are in delineating the social and religious temporarily brought together in the mutually themes embedded in the asanam tradition in dependent relationship of the donor and general and in its food rituals in particular? donee in which both are simultaneously Following Claude Levi-Strauss, who givers as well as receivers. maintained that the empirical category of Additionally, the reverse or inverse food can reveal a society's intricate set of begging in the asanam sequence exhibits the abstract ideas, anthropologists like Firth classic traits Turner associates with role (1973: 253, 261) have shown that ritual reversal and status elevation. As Firth has foods not only serve as social codes suggested (1973), begging food especially revealing a culture's or group's social from a social inferior - in this case, beggars - relationships but also function as social evidently marks a temporary reduction in mediators when prepared and consumed in social status. On the other hand, the beggar specific ritual contexts by certain categories who receives ritual honor from his of people (Thompson 1988: 71-108).8 While traditionally social and economic superior they often serve to reinforce social gains temporary status elevation insofar as relationships and identities, ritual foods can the social inferior is treated as social also serve to defy and transcend - albeit superior with special ritual honor and temporarily neatly defined social deference until the meal is completed. In this relationships, codes, and distinctions. Such reverse begging, the usual power differential deliberate transgressions of food rules and between the donor and the recipient is etiquette are a way to establish a new mode deliberately effaced or· transgressed if not of relationship or to transform an existing permanently but at least functionally (Ulrich relationship. 'These are abundantly evident 2004). The temporary state of liminality that in the asqnam ritual tradition. Victor the ritual host and guest find themselves in Turner's structure-anti-structure paradigm during the ritual also paves the way for a and his discussion of role reversal and status temporary state of transgression and a mood elevation rituals elucidated in his seminal of communitas among two categories of work (1969) provide the conceptual people between whom such social and ritual framework to interpret this dialectic of interactions are not commonplace. reinforcement and transgression of structure. Therefore, it seems to me that one of the Turner has argued that the ongoing well social functions served by this rite is its being of a society and culture requires ability to provide the devotees a religious periodic excursion into chaos and disorder context and ritual platform to temporarily traditionally accomplished through transcend the neatly defined social, caste, pilgrimage rituals and religious festivals. For and religious identities and strictures that Turner, these provide a context for the normally define human relationships in breaking out of confining social roles, for south India. It also enables its participants to the breaking up and mixing up of expected experiment with socially tabooed

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anti structural interactions and reciprocities theory is a valuable interpretive tool for in an attempt to temporarily level social and decoding the social themes and significance religious differences in order to gain or embedded in the reverse begging ritual at ensure certain earthly benefits from a Uvari. spiritual patron. The Turnerian theory falls short, Such anti-structural ritual expressions of however, when it comes to assessing the transgressions of social norms and ritual's religious impact on both Hindu and prescriptions and the resulting communitas Catholic devotees. Unlike the beggar - a have positive benefits for the principal poster child for Turner's status elevation actors in this role reversal ritual as well as theory who undergoes only temporary social for the larger society, since these help change - the ritual produces significant reaffinn and reinforce social order and attitudinal, behavioral, relational, and distinctions, in our case, the social perspectival shifts, in many cases permanent distinctions of class and caste. "Not only do and substantive, among the devotees. While they [rituals of status reversal] reaffirm the most visible when they are in the shrine, order of structure" writes Turner, "they also these also endure after they return home.9 restore relations between the actual and When Hindu and Catholic devotees historical individuals who occupy positions converge in the shrine, it ushers in a in that structure" (Turner 1969: 177). Such harmonious collision - more precisely, a sort reversal rituals bring "social structure and of communion - of religious identities that communitas into right mutual relations once reveal the fluidity and blurring of boundaries again" (178). In the final analysis, therefore, between Hindu and Catholic. At the shrine, the inverse or reverse begging undertaken in religious distinctions are neither dismissed the ritual context has the social benefit of nor forgotten but temporarily obliterated and reordering structure and reinforcing social transcended as irrelevant to their pragmatic hierarchy human concerns and existential religious A key argument in the Turnerian theory experiences. The ongoing relationship of is that role reversal and status elevation reciprocity and mutuality characteristic of rituals help reinforce hierarchy and order Hindu and Catholic relations among the insofar as participants return to their socially laity,. that gains public manifestation during defined position with a renewed fervor and the role reversal ritual in particular and the commitment to upholding structure. In the asanam ritual sequence in general, is case of the asanam ritual, it is true that role deepened and renewed. This is especially reversal cements hierarchical order in that at visible in their religious behavior and ritual the conclusion of the ritual the beggars performance at the shrine when Hindu resume their pre-ritual humble status as devotees participate in Catholic rituals like beggars with no palpable or impalpable reciting the Hail Mary pefore the meal and change in social status. This is evident when when Catholic devotees perform Hindu-like they rejoin the beggars' line in front of the rituals like animal sacrifice and hair sIrrine soon after the ritual meal. Just as the shaving. Through these rituals, both groups temporary ritual elevation of the beggars has demonstrate their new-found shared identity no enduring impact on their social and as St. Antony's devotees, an identity that economic status, the temporary reduction of transcends and complements their usual status willingly embraced by the ritual hosts identities as Hindus and Catholics. does not have significant impact on their Furthennore, the ritual food consumed by post-ritual social and economic status. Like . Hindus and Catholics, and the ritual the beggars, the devotees too return to their hospitality shared by the resident Catholic ascribed or previously held social and devotees with visiting Hindu pilgrims in the economic status. To this extent, Turner's liminal space of the shrine, forge new - often

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol17/iss1/7 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1316 8 L Raj: Dialogue 'On The Ground': The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South India Dialogue 'On the Ground' 41

lasting - relationships that yield much social The ritual life of the laity, both Hindu and dividends beyond the ritual moment and Catholic, exemplified in the asanam ritual context. tradition at the shrine of St. Antony at Uvari, The impact of the ritual is also serves as a textbook case for dialogue "on discernible in the devotees long after they the ground." Dialogue "on the ground" return home. Upon returning home, many refers to the ritual encounter and exchange Hindu devotees co-opt St. Antony into their between Hindu and Catholic laity - often in pantheon of kula teyvam (clan deity) or ista opposition to and defiance of institutional devata (chosen deity), enthroning his statue norms and ecclesial prescriptions - that or his picture in their domestic shrines. occurs at the grassroots level in the arena of Others become return pilgrims to the shrine. popular piety and rituals (Dempsey 2000; Similarly, Catholic devotees continue to 2002: 115-139; Raj 1994; Waghorne 2002: draw - as and when dictated by existential 11-37). This type of dialogue gains realities and needs - from the Hindu ritual prominence especially during life-cycle tradition that defined their transgressive ceremonies and crisis situations such as ritual perfonnance at the shrine. The ritual sudden illness or death. As illustrated above, exchange at the shrine also exerts a a salient aspect of this dialogical form is the profound effect on Hindu and Catholic exchange across religious boundaries. devotees' perceptions and assumptions Specifically, at Catholic sacred sites like the about themselves, their personal religious shrine of St. Antony at Uvari, Catholics identities, and their relationship with perform a series of rites that either are "religious others." The "religious other" is simply adopted from popular Hinduism or not viewed as an alien, stranger, or enemy patterned after Hindu rites. These include but as a fellow-pilgrim, as a member of such devotional exercises as the offering of one's "ritual household and fraternity." hair, the sacrifice of animals, and various Their newfound, shared identity as St. fertility and healing rites. Conversely, many Antony's devotees, their pragmatic approach Hindu devotees at Uvari and elsewhere to finding solutions to their shared earthly perform Catholic rituals in Catholic shrines concerns like health and healing, and their to gain emihly favors and blessings from co-dependence on shared sacred figures who Catholic sacred figures. These include resonate with their religious ideas and reciting the Catholic rosary, partaking of the human needs bring them in a functional, Eucharist, and dedicating an assortment of living dialogical relationship. Thus, the votive offerings to Catholic saints. Not only as an am tradition renews and strengthens do Hindus and Catholics transcend the rigid their commitment to and faith in the power, and apparently impermeable ritual necessity, and efficacy of ritual mutuality boundaries of their respective traditions, but and reciprocity, of dialogue on the ground. their rihlal performance also reflects an As such, the asanam meal serves as a openness to incorporate the religious metaphor for Hindu-Christian dialogue at assumptions that undergird these rituals. The the grassroots level. It also serves as a ritual fluidity and hybridity characteristic of metaphor for the liminality and for the popular religion provide clues to the complicated identities and complex complex relationships and the complicated relationships between Hindus and Catholics identities of lay Hindus and Catholics in in south India that defy rigid, normative, and south India. institutional definitions. At the meta-level, the dialogue on the ground also demonstrates that an Dialogue On The Ground: An, extraordinarily productive locus for Alternative Model For Dialogue efficacious dialogue is the world of rituals rather than the sophisticated world of

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! i Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 17 [2004], Art. 7 42 Selva J. Raj

theological concepts and categories. Tumer from their lived experience and human (1985) and Driver (1991) have convincingly needs. These two dialogical models also shown the power of ritual to transform the reflect the power struggles and tensions spiritual and social condition of the between the center and the periphery, performer and the audience. I suggest that between the religious elite and the masses. the perfonnance of other's rituals has also a transfonning effect on one's or a group's Conclusion individual and collective identity, their understanding of, and attitudes and The enduring vitality and pervasiveness of relationships toward the "other." In this grassroots dialogue offers four valuable sense, ritual also functions as a medium for insights for interreligious dialogue and the encountering the "other" and a model for study of religion in India. First, genuine dialogue on a profoundly experiential and Hindu-Christian dialogue occurs primarily existential level (Raj 2002b: 55-56). in the existential human and spiritual Unlike the contrived, structured, experiences of the religious folk, in the institutional dialogical initiatives engineered periphery, rather than in established and pursued by the religious elite, as a institutions and their contrived experiments. grassroots phenomenon the dialogue on the Second, the efficacious and productive locus ground organically emerges from the lived for dialogue is the world of rituals rather experience, existential concems, and than the world of theological concepts and human/spiritual needs of Catholic laity and categories. Although the institutional model their Hindu neighbors with whom they live recognizes the efficacy and dialogical value in daily dialogical relationship. They draw of ritual, it has had only limited success and from each other's ritual and religious appeal because of its inherent elitism, and resources and their common, shared cultural more importantly, because of the church's and linguistic data bank. Whereas the aggressive missionary approach in the past conceptual institutional dialogue generally and, in some instances, even today. has little or no real impact on the day-to-day Third, anchored in religious praxis experiences and concems of dialogical rather than on abstract theological concepts, partners or religious practitioners, the ritual the dialogue on the ground is preeminently a exchange among the laity, as noted above, dialogue of rituals., As I have argued effects a certain organic transformation in elsewhere (2000: 333-353; 2002b: 55-56), the participants' perception of the "religious this ritual dialogue is the lived and living other" that- transcends temporal, spatial, ecumenism of the laity. It is dialogue in ritual, and, religious boundaries. Moreover, action. Recent ethnographic studies on while institutional dialogical experiments popular religion in south India suggest that rely heavily on Brahminic and Sanskritic the dialogical ideals and goals advocated by Hinduism, grassroots dialogue draws from the religious elite and implemented through popular lay Hinduism. Additionally, institutional experiments are in fact whereas the fonner relies on Hindu textual, concretely realized, lived, and enacted by metaphysical, theological, and mystical the grassroots dialogue in action. Effectively tradition as the axis of dialogue, the latter is pursued and vigorously defended by the grounded in lay ritual, in lay praxis. In short, laity - in opposition to institutional norms , it is a practice-centered paradigm. More and ecclesiastical misgivings - this dialogue ' importantly, the institutional model is a on the groll1d is a meta-tradition in its own contrived, top-down strategy initiated by the right organically emerging from its elite whereas the dialogue on the ground is a religiously pluralistic context. As such it grass-roots experience of the laity or acts as a corrective and complement to the religious masses that organically emerges conceptual, elitist, institutional dialogue that

I , i i' https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol17/iss1/7 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1316 10 1 Raj: Dialogue 'On The Ground': The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South India Dialogue 'On the Ground' 43

has been found wanting, as it tends to be Isakki who became pregnant. divorced from the existential experiences Upon hearing that she was and concerns of the masses and as an pregnant, the pujari kills her by alternative model that is neither arrogant nor hitting her with a rock and one-sided. It calls ·{or a shift in focus away pushing her into a well. Not from institutionally contrived, top-down long after the pujari also dies. dialogical experiments to bottom-up He is reborn in a chettiar dialogue on the ground. Finally, the dialogue (merchant caste) family. Isakki on the ground discourages "the tendency to who was also reborn takes draw absolute contrasts or stark oppositions revenge on the chettiar family between coexisting groups and ideologies" and the entire chettiar village. and challenges absolute, rigid understanding She is called neeli and thusta of authenticity, purity, and identity devatai (evil goddess). (Dempsey 2000: 4). As such, it calls for a Menstruating and pregnant shift in the academic study of religion in women are forbidden to pass by general and of Indian religions in particular, her shrine. Black bangles, saris, a shift away from the traditional focus on and thread and oil are the sacred text and theological reflections to common items offered to Isakki lived practice. Amman. Women seeking a child usually tie black bangles Notes on the doors of her temple/shrine in hopes of 1. I am grateful to Albion College getting a child. The usual for the Hewlett-Mellon Grant sacrificial items include pigs that funded the field-research in and goats. Oral tradition claims the summer of 2000. A version that she is an avatar, incarnation of this essay was presented at· of goddess Parvati. Although the annual meeting of the Isakkai Amman and Association for Asian Studies in Chutalaidaimadan are San Diego, CA (March 6, frequently placed next to each 2004). In this essay, I use other in many village temples "dialogue on the ground" and and are the two most feared "grassroots dialogue" as village deities in Tirunelveli iIiterchangeable categories. district, there is no relationship between these two deities. 2. The following account Chutalimadan is considered paraphrases Isakki Amman locally as one of the sons of legend in circulation in Siva born from his third eye. Tirunelveli district in Tamil Isakkai Amman is a destructive, Nadu. Isakki was born in a vengeful goddess but she is also devadasi family. When she was believed to be protective of her a· young woman, the local devotees and those who please temple pujari visits her often her through animal sacrifices. bringing jewels stolen from the In her ambivalence, she temple where he is a pujari. She resembles another local goddess refuses to accept them but her in Tamil Nadu, Mariamman, the mother compels her to accept goddess of disease and healing. them. As a result, a relationship (Based' on interview with a develops between the pujari and temple priest at an Isakki

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Amman temple near Nagercoil John de Britto (Raj, 1994: 150- on June 13,2000). 151).

3. Intervie'\;'V with Marion Courier 6. Interview with Thomas on June at Uvari, June 4, 2000. 6,2000. , I ! 4. Though the vast majority of 7. Interview with Harold on June devotees comes from humble 6,2000. arid modest economic situations, asanam meals are generally 8. Thompson's thorough analysis I quite· elaborate that includes a of Chinese funerary rites meat dish, rice, and two or more provides etlmographic support vegetarian dishes. For example, for this argument. during my field-research I met I at least two families that had 9. I am grateful to my colleague brought seventy five kilos of Bindu Madhok for her insightful rice for the asanam meal. observations that aided this analysis. 5. I have heard a nearly identical story related at the shrine of St.

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