Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology

3 Paraṭṭai’s Theology

3 paRat . t . ai’s tHeoloGY Greeting God in the Cēri Mr. pitchai, a non-Christian dalit landless laborer, described God from the perspective of tamil village religious practice (or adi samayam, “original religion ”), saying “God is part and parcel of life” (appavoo 1997, 283). This inspiration for appavoo, from one of his “best teachers of theology,” led him to formulate an understanding of Christian theology from dalit religions. He concluded that “theology in dalit tradition is not just speaking or writing, it is life that is lived with God. Theological expression is not just verbal, it is expression of life” (appavoo 1997, 283). From this understanding of theology as the action of holistic liberative living and his observation of dalit religion, appavoo asserts that worship is the primary means of theological expression for dalits and should be an essential part of an emerging dalit theology (appavoo 1997, 283). at the heart of dalit Christian worship lies folk music. appavoo described this when he proclaimed to me, “We are drumming our theology,” referencing the reclamation of the parai drum and drummer as a symbol of dalit cultural liberation that has occurred among Christians and in the secular dalit movement in tamil nadu. pa ˉ rai drumming had been considered the ritually degraded occupation of the pa ˉ raiyars, as members of this jāti were required to play for upper-caste funerals, thus associating the drum and the drummers with the pollution of death.1 By bringing this instrument physically into the sacred space of the church building and using it to accompany his liturgy in folk music, appavoo made significant steps toward reversing its associations with degradation , transforming the psyche of dalits with a sense of healing pride in their culture. indeed while appavoo and his students had been using the pa ˉ rai drum in liturgies at tts since the early 1990s, one of his students, s. Jebarajan, took this reclamation a step further. in 2003 he composed a Pa ˉ rai Isai Var¨ i Pād ˙ u 120 tamil Folk Music as dalit liberation Theology (or pa ˉ rai Music Worship) which required that all members of the congregation gather around a musician holding the pa ˉ rai drum during the passing of the peace (creating community through shaking hands and acknowledging each other’s presence) and touch the instrument to reaffirm their commitment to working for dalit liberation.2 an esteemed theologian and tts professor, who was a pa ˉ raiyar himself, had been attending tts folk music services for many years in which the pa ˉ rai was played, but had never touched the instrument. The experience of doing so in this worship brought him to tears, producing a cathartic release of internalized shame.3 The first section of appavoo’s Village Music Liturgy, the “Greetings and praise of God,” lies at the heart of his construction of the Christian trinity as it evolves from dalit people. My analysis of “Greetings and praise” is extensive because a complete lyrical, cultural, and musical understanding of this section is central to my discussion of the differences and similarities between appavoo ’s dalit theology and other liberation theologies. From the liturgical analysis will evolve a broader discussion of appavoo’s relationship and contribution to the history of dalit theology and the tamil dalit cultural movement. Finally, i present a comparison of appavoo’s work and that of other liberation theologians in the wider global Christian context. appavoo’s theology fulfills a holistic set of needs for the dalit community. it is a means toward empowered cultural and religious identification for dalit people and their cultural resources, in contrast to the hegemonic claims of inferiority , degradation, and inauspiciousness of the “untouchable” in indian society . Through liturgical song, appavoo reclaims dalits and their culture as valuable, auspicious, and worthy, and uses this consciousness of an affirmed identity to build unity within dalit communities. as a context for enculturated Christian worship, the liturgy is the means to (re)create spiritual, cultural, and psychological liberation. This occurs primarily through the transformative aspects of oral folk culture. The description of appavoo’s three theological tenets —oru olai, universal family, and a strategy of reversal—provide the analytical and interpretive means to show how folk music can serve as an oral system of transmission and re-creation. This is musical theology as a dialogical process of creation and re-creation. it is not a commercial product (like much indian Christian music) nor is it associated with the individual identity of a...