To Be Cared For: The Power of Conversion and Foreignness of Belonging in an Indian Slum

The Anthropology of Christianity

by Nathaniel Roberts

To Be Cared For offers a unique view into the conceptual and moral world of slum-bound Dalits (“untouchables”) in the South Indian city of Chennai. Focusing on the decision by many women to embrace locally specific forms of Pentecostal Christianity, Nathaniel Roberts challenges dominant anthropological understandings of religion as a matter of culture and identity, as well as Indian nationalist narratives of Christianity as a “foreign” ideology that disrupts local communities. Far from being a divisive force, conversion integrates the slum community—Christians and Hindus alike—by addressing hidden moral fault lines that subtly pit residents against one another in a national context that renders Dalits outsiders in their own land."

Read an with the author on the Association for Asian Studies' #AsiaNow blog.

Genres: Nonfiction, India, Ethnography, Anthropology, Religion

306 pages, Paperback

Published April 26, 2016

Reviews

[Conrad Barwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best ethnographies on India, the author spends 2 years in a predominantly Dalit slum in north Chennai and catologues meticulously the inter-relationship between Pentecostal Christianity, Dalitness and the grim working class existence of many of the slum dwellers. A fascinating read that shatters many commonly held scholarly assumptions on a wide range of topics.

[Chinar Mehta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read the introduction to this book during my graduate studies; it left an imprint on me such that I could not forget it and picked it up again a few years later, intending this time to get through it. The introduction itself made me like the author (AND the professor who made us read it), and the rest of the book simply sealed it in. This is a wonderful ethnography - Roberts lived for almost two years in a Dalit slum in Chennai and describes in detail the faith and the working-class condition of the residents of the area. When I read the book, it destabilised many existing notions about conversion and faith for me, and I can imagine that that would happen with anyone who reads it. Roberts writes with a kindness I have seldom read from ethnographers, particularly because of the nature of that kind of inquiry - it positions the ethnographer in a particularly powerful position, capable of interpreting everything that the subjects do or say. Roberts, however, seems doubtful and meticulous, even careful. His work is situated politically, and he seems to have done the work to understand the lives of the slum dwellers in the context of local, national, and international discourses.

Particularly, if you are interested in being challenged, Chapter 4 - Religion, Conversation, and the National Frame - is the chapter to read. It is not very heavy on the ethnography - there is almost no mention of the slum in this chapter - but really lays out how conversion is usually written about in public discourse, how this discourse developed, and what may be a better way to look at it. The rest of the book is also definitely worth reading, as it goes into fair detail about the lives that Roberts is observing, but this chapter may be the easiest to read.

[Magic Birdie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well organized and cool topic. I'm glad to have learned what this book taught me.

[RYAN PHAM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dust cover or unjacketed hardcover

So this book is my third book on Tamil Christianity

Generally, Tamil Catholicism has such close proximity to Hinduism that it is trapped in a process of assimilation and differentiation. It takes on some of the characteristics of Hinduism to appear more Indian but at the same time it also takes on some of the characteristics of international Catholicism. The negotiation process creates a faith that has many flavors, all within the same province of India, Tamil Nadu. I am guessing that something along the same lines happens with Tamil Christianity.

My first book was Catholic Shrines in Chennai, India. It was about how the administrators want to position their religion as less foreign to the Indian continent, their attempts to avoid persecution by the Hindu Nationalists that try to brand Catholicism as un-Indian, and the attempt to pull off a religious revival by having one of the three only Apostolic Shrines in the world and renewing a devotion to Saint Thomas, the Apostle. It is a book that captures how the administrators of Tamil Catholicism think.

My second book was Possessed by the Virgin: Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, and Marian Possession in South India. This book was about the Catholics in the middle castes see religion. In the Hindu religion, there is a tradition of believing in pey, or spirits that can possess you. They can be good spirits, bad spirits, or even gods. That carried over into the religious beliefs of some uneducated Tamil Catholics who believe that Marian possessions are frequently happening, much to the chagrin of the church administrators who feel like their power to steer the religion into more orthodox is slipping every time a new unsanctioned "Marian possession" happens.

This third book is To Be Cared For: The Power of Conversion and Foreignness of Belonging in an Indian Slum is about the spirituality of the Dalit or the Untouchables in Tamil Nadu. It takes place in the slums of Andu Nagar, outside of Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu. The inhabitants of Andu Nagar are overwhelmingly Dalit or Untouchables. They fled to the slums of the city since it sort of allows them to escape being labelled Dalit. At home, in the rural countryside, they are humiliated on a daily basis and are not even allowed to walk on the same sidewalks as higher caste people. They prefer to live in slums since it allows them to somewhat escape their caste identity. Being poor is better than caste humiliation. Even though they have a habit of saying that caste does not matter on the surface, they secretly aspire to be more like the city-dwellers in Chennai. The author documents how premarital sex, while discouraged, happens all the time in the slums. Heavy alcohol consumption is also somewhat tolerated, mainly since the men partake in heavy labor and the alcohol helps numb physical pain.

The higher caste people look down on the Dalits. They blame Dalits for their own poverty and the occasional fires that break out on the Dalits' celebrations. The higher caste people see the meat that the Dalits eat during their celebrations as low culture and see vegetarianism as higher culture (Conspicuous Non-Consumption). They look down on and infantilize the Dalits. Dalits in response to this say that their living conditions suck due to being exploited for their labor by the higher castes and being unable to pay for improvements.

As for how the Dalits see Christianity... It's complicated. Since there is such close proximity between Hinduism and Christianity, they can't enforce religious boundaries and it kind of comes down to personal choice. Children of mixed religious marriages not practicing one of their parents' religions is common. The Dalits of this community practice a type of theological realism. It means being willing to switch between gods, saints, pastors, religions, and groups for the one that will be able to provide the most benefits. Oftentimes, this boils down to who can get me/my husband to stop drinking. As a result of this, pastors have to heavily sell people on their ability to pray, heal others, stop people from drinking, or perform miracles. It kind of turns pastors into aggressive salesmen. On one occurrence, when one pastor got old and was unable to pray on his knees for hours at a time anymore, all his younger followers left and all that was left were his sick and infirm followers. I mean, the Dalit followers are in a slum and as a result, they are in constant survival mode. They do not have a surplus in time and when they commit to a pastor, religion, or god, it is often to the exclusion of other religious practices. They do not have time and have to make conscious decisions about what to follow in their time-strained lives.

Another part of the Dalit belief system in these slums is primitive universal moralism, or a rudimentary version of all religions are sort of benign social forces. They believe that all religions are more or less good and that no god would ever do anything bad. 

[Meghana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting look into how caste interacts with religion in one Dalit community in Chennai. I think all Indians should read this book. It points out in painful clarity that even well meaning privileged caste people who try to improve the circumstances of Dalit often fail to truely understand them and their value system. If you were raised without much awareness of caste as I was, it causes you to look your own caste privilege in the face

[Ethan Fortes · Rating 4 out of 5]

To Be Cared For is a good ethnographic study on the Dalits' view on Christianity. Though it has been taken from the an experience of one living in a slum in Tamil Nadu, it kind of brings about the general idea of how the oppressed see Christianity and how many get concerted to it to. At the end of it is all about taking care of the other, from where the book gets its title. It is a serious and scholarly read so one got to keep up to it.