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Community and Christianity in a Secular South Indian Homeless Shelter

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Community and Christianity in a Secular South Indian Homeless Shelter Syracuse University SURFACE Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Anthropology - Dissertations Affairs 5-2012 "Women With No One": Community and Christianity in a Secular South Indian Homeless Shelter Connie Etter Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/ant_etd Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Etter, Connie, ""Women With No One": Community and Christianity in a Secular South Indian Homeless Shelter" (2012). Anthropology - Dissertations. 96. https://surface.syr.edu/ant_etd/96 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology - Dissertations by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines daily life and social service practices in a secular homeless shelter for women in Tamil Nadu, south India. The residents of the shelter have diverse backgrounds but local staff members and volunteers describe them collectively as “women with no one”: unwed mothers, orphans, widows, women abandoned or abused by husbands and lovers, former sex workers, prisoners’ wives, and women deemed mentally or physically unfit for marriage. Daily negotiations of belonging take place among this transient and diverse group of marginalized women and equally diverse and transnational care providers. The closed shelter campus provides an opportunity to query the everyday experience of secularism and pluralism. Shelter board members emphasize these concepts as guiding principles of the institution. Indeed, they are touted in many settings as a necessary and laudable framework for democratic life in globalized and increasingly diverse populations. But how do individuals and communities, in everyday life and interactions, understand and engage with such abstract ideals? Ethnographic research, conducted between August 2008 and August 2009, revealed important insights regarding the ideals shaping the secular goals of the shelter, namely women’s social rehabilitation. First, the definition of secularism cannot be assumed and is not universal. Inline with commonsense equations of secularism and pluralism in India, the secular goals of the shelter involved passionate displays of religious conviction, continuous ethical deliberation, and reflection on cultural ideals of womanhood and family. Secularism, in other words, was a religious, cultural, and gendered idea and practice. Second, just as there were many secularisms, many Christianities were embodied and articulated within the shelter. The institution depended on various local and international Christian communities for donations of time and money. They each had different understandings of the relationship between Christianity and women’s social rehabilitation. Third, cultural ideals are fragile. The social stigma faced by women living outside of patriarchal family structures and the forced intimacy of women with diverse backgrounds living together on a closed campus emphasized this fact. Faced with the fragility of social and cultural ideals, women at the shelter took great risks to forge new terms of belonging, community, and womanhood. “WOMEN WITH NO ONE”: COMMUNITY AND CHRISTIANITY IN A SECULAR SOUTH INDIAN HOMELESS SHELTER By Connie Etter B.A. Concordia College, 2002 M.A. Syracuse University, 2007 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate School of Syracuse University May 2012 Copyright 2012 Connie Etter All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS From offices and conference rooms to back porches and downtown Syracuse to auto rickshaws and the shade of a tamarind tree, many people have listened to my questions and thoughts about gender, religion, secularism, and the work of social rehabilitation. Their insights constantly opened new avenues for exploration and consistently pushed me to refine my writing and analysis. More often than not, this support transcended intellectual concerns of punctuation and theory. My advisor, Susan Wadley, is a perfect example. She offered critical feedback on papers, proposals, and chapters, a phone for interviews, theatre tickets, and a home during my first weeks in Syracuse. I’m thankful for her guidance, mentorship, and hospitality, all of which contributed to a successful and rich academic experience at Syracuse University. I am grateful to the members of my committee: Ann Grodzins Gold, John Burdick, Cecilia Van Hollen, and Corinne Dempsey. They encouraged me through each stage of this project and have been remarkably engaged with my writing and thinking. Their insights and suggestions have improved this dissertation and given me direction for continued revisions and new projects. I also thank Anoop Sadanandan who chaired my defense. We survived the fire drill! Lori Klivak, Karen McNamara, Emera Bridger Wilson, and Ian Wilson provided important moral support and careful reading in our writing group. Conversations and dinners with Bethany Bloomston, Adam Arbree, Carolina Arango Vargas, Julian Velandia Arango, and Jesse Harasta at 610 Fellows helped me clarify my thoughts and enjoy the process. Special thanks also to friends who have discussed this dissertation with me at baseball stadiums, in classrooms, and on rooftops in Madurai: Trudy DeLong, v Nicole Wilson, Laurah Klepinger-Mathew, Chris Klivak, Liza Gijanto, Steve Lenik, Holly Norton, and Dale Theiling. This research would not have been possible without the patience, friendship, and support of countless people in Madurai. My deepest gratitude goes to all the residents, staff members, board members, and volunteers at Arulagam who participated in this research and shared their lives, hopes and frustrations with me. I thank my dear friend Priyadharsini for her companionship and research assistance. I thank Dr. Bharathy and all of the teachers, staff, and students at American Institute of Indian Studies. They helped me immeasurably, as I slowly slowly learned Tamil and made a home in Madurai. Viji Lakshmi and all the staff and students at Sudar were gracious and welcoming neighbors and provided help with transcriptions. I thank Rev. Margaret Kalaiselvi and all the faculty, staff, and students at Tamilnadu Theological Seminary for supporting my research with their time, honest conversation, and archival resources. Material support from several institutions made this dissertation possible. Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships from Syracuse University supported my coursework and Tamil language studies from 2004-2007. Numerous grants from Syracuse University enabled me to carry out preliminary fieldwork studies during the summers of 2006 and 2007. American Institute of Indian Studies supported my Tamil language studies in Madurai during the 2007-2008 academic year. This research was carried out from 2008-2009 with the generous support of a Fulbright-Hayes Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad grant, # P022A080039. Sara and Clark Olson-Smith and Elaine Olson always know how to celebrate the milestones. Thank you for the ice-cream cakes, baseball art, cards, and love. vi I learned the importance of constructive criticism early on from my dad, on rides home from my basketball games. He might be a tough coach, but I’m so much better for it! I’m grateful for his insistence that I finish, his reminders that I’m too hard on myself, and for his pride in my work. My mom has absolutely no doubt in my abilities. Her calm, yet overwhelming, belief in me is a constant source of support. Thank you for always knowing and saying exactly what I need to hear. Finally, I cannot thank Brent Olson enough for the sense of curiosity and adventure he has brought not only to this intellectual project, but my life. Thank you. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: You Have to Adjust . 1 Chapter 2: Pastor, Prisoner, Wife . 13 Today I am Like an Orphan: Ladha, a long-term resident’s story . 37 Chapter 3: You Will Write Negative Things Too . 40 Do You Know How Many Difficulties I Have?: Aameena, a short-term resident’s story . 67 Chapter 4: Trading Fanatics for Father, Wolves for Husbands . 70 I Will Not Be in the House and Simply Waste My Life: Deborah, a long-term staff member’s story . 99 Chapter 5: Building a Wall for Freedom . 106 I Would Laugh Like an Insane Person: Lakshmi, the new live-in superintendent’s story . 136 Chapter 6: Secular Ethics and Strange Visions . 148 Chapter 7: Hallelujah Morning . 175 I Will Also Go: Fathima, a long-term resident’s story . 203 Chapter 8: A Goodbye Kiss . 206 Chapter 9: Conclusion . 226 Bibliography . 238 Curriculum Vitae . 257 viii 1 1: You Have to Adjust Three women and two children had run away from Arulagam [Home of Grace], a women’s homeless shelter in Tamil Nadu, during the night. When I arrived in the morning, staff members were still reacting to the news. They accused each other of not watching the residents, of not being vigilant. The live-in superintendent, Lakshmi, targeted Sundari in particular. Sundari had grown up in the shelter and now served as a live-in mat weaving teacher and warden. “Why wasn’t she watching? What work does she do?” Trusted residents were consulted. When did they leave? How did they escape? Who helped them? “There’s a wall all around. How did they go?” asked Lakshmi. She contemplated the need for more security. The warden could lock the residents inside their rooms at night, she thought out loud. The idea received a skeptical look from Deborah, shelter secretary. “That is too much,” she replied. Talking to no one in particular, Deborah asked sadly, “What were they thinking?” Her voice trailed off, head shaking, “Devil . .” Lakshmi left the office, where Deborah and I continued to sit and talk. “They have run since the beginning,” said Deborah. “Lakshmi has been here three months. I have been here thirty years! I have seen many women run away.” She smiled. “A thought comes to leave. A memory of family, of home comes. And they look around this way and that.” Deborah hunched her shoulders in her chair, looking slyly in both directions as she turned her head slowly.
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