What Numbers Never Revealed: Tracing Dalit Christian Modernity Through Malayalam Literature

Title

What Numbers Never Revealed: Tracing Dalit Christian Modernity Through Malayalam Literature

Creator

Romeo C.; Nayar A.

Description

Kerala has a long-standing history of Christianity as well as conversions. Conversions can be dated back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which saw a large number of slave caste conversions. For the slave castes of KeralaPulayas and ParayasChristianity offered a salvation from the circle of pollution. Scriptures provided the slave castes new vistas of knowledge which they encultured to form a counter discourse against the public sphere set up by the dominant castes. The public sphere of the Malayalee psyche was formed by the ideas of caste pollution, which restricted the slave castes from accessing the social space. A new Dalit perspective on the religious consciousness of the converted Christians will show the role of the Bible, Original Sin, and Repentance on their daily lives. Dalit Christian literature becomes the primary source where Christianity metamorphoses into an oppositional force in resisting oppression as well as in creating a social space with agency. 2022 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Source

Contemporary Voice of Dalit

Date

2022-01-01

Publisher

SAGE Publications Inc.

Subject

conversions; counterpublics; Dalit Christians; Malayalam literature; religious consciousness

Coverage

Romeo C., Department of English and Cultural Studies, Christ University, Karnataka, Bangalore, India; Nayar A., Department of English and Cultural Studies, Christ University, Karnataka, Bangalore, India

Rights

Restricted Access

Relation

ISSN: 2455328X

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Article

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328X211069497

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85124601784&doi=10.1177%2f2455328X211069497&partnerID=40&md5=770d9d63d3e6f63bb73534e75e206961