Religion and Colonial Modernity: Rethinking Belief and Identity Author(s): Dilip M.

Menon Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 37, No. 17 (Apr. 27 - May 3, 2002), pp. 1662-1667 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4412047 . Accessed: 07/02/2014 07:23
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BSpecial

articles

_______

Religion

and

Colonial
and

Modernity
Identity

Rethinking Belief

This paper while questioning the assumption that religious imaginarypreceded modernity,argues for the need to seriously address the fashioning of the caste self and a new collectivity within a religious imagining under colonialism. Colonial structures of governance often ignored the alternative realms - ties of locality and kinship often articulated in religious terms - which, emerged, opposed and even were antagonistic to the idea of a national identity. In the south, the attraction of the lower castes for Christianitywas partly prompted by the need to move away from the cycle of oppression and inequality and also because the religion allowed for their entry into a wider public sphere, as individuals.
DILIP M MENON of theoperation of globalcapital he term modernitycomes to us constraints within a its both its and Hence we need to masking requirements. origins distinctgeographical spaceas well begin to thinkwith the idea of a colonial almost asanimagination concerned modernity, and if we follow King we entirely and could argue that it is indeed in the witha description of changein Europe America (whatwe referto euphemistically colonies that the effects of modernity of theideamay as the west). It is precisely because the arefelt while the contours to neither temtermmodernity be be appears European. a comColonialmodernity porallyor geographically groundedthat represented thereis an increasingsuspiciontowards promise bothwithmetropolitan modernity its relevanceas a termfor understanding as well as indigenoustraditions.David historical change.DavidHarveypreferred Washbrook putsit pithilywhenheremarks a morelimitedandperhaps, moreaccurate that duringthe early 19th century,"the definition of modernity as a cultural mani- history of the world was bowdlerised to Modernity".3 Thepresumed festationof earlytwentiethcenturycapi- according thedualityinherent universalprojectof modernity talism.Heemphasised expressed in this idea; thoughit was premised on itselfwithin coloniesincontradictory ways, andpracticeat greatvariance. relationswithin the world systems as a its rhetoric whole,particularly colonialism,its mani- RanajitGuhaexploresin detail how cofestationswere more evident in Europe lonial rule was characterised less by a America.1 As Anthony andNorth Kinghas reformingurge thana "vasttoleranceof therecent claimsadvanced pre-capitalistvalues and institutionsin argued recently, whichpre- Indian could by a theoryof postmodernism society".Infact,colonialism mises itself on ideas of globalisation, have continuedin India as a relationof international and power only if the colonisingbourgeoisie hybridisation migration, so on, maybe nothingmorethana belated " shouldfail to live up to its universalist A significant recognition by western theory of 'the .project".4 examplewouldbe world outside themselves', a world al- theideaof theindividual findlegal thatdid as well as expression in thenotionof equality before readyboth forciblyintegrated fragmented by colonialism.2Any idea of the law. However,in practice,the indiwithinthe vidual was subordinated hasto be understood to a perception modernity historicaland culturalcontext of its ren- of thecommunity as theunitof socialand ditionkeepingin mind the alreadygiven politicalorder.Individuality was located in a traditional'private' sphere within whichcolonialismfearedto tread.5Similarly, the rhetoricof freedommanifested in notionsof free labour existedalongside the sanctioning and sometimes even revivalof formsof coercedservitude, even after the reluctant,formal abolition of slaveryin the mid 19thcentury.And the hierarchical andinegalitarfundamentally ian notionof castecafheto presidealongside religionas an irreducible essence of Indian amidst colonialprofescivilisation, sions of the institution of equality.6 rather than becametherhetoric Modernity the project of colonialism. Aspects of Modernity The termcolonial modernity has come to acquire a delightful vaguenessin recent it is writing.It is neververyclearwhether (i) a spatialterm,i e, modernity occurring withina colonyrather thanthe metropolis (as in ParthaChatterjee'sidea of 'our modernity'),or (ii) a temporalterm,i e, while undercoloexperienced modernity nialismor indeed(iii) some perversion of Modernity occurring in the colonies. Sometimesit is calleduponas a discursive out of a current strategy interpretive paradigm centredon elementalunits such as nations rather than relationships;tired oppositionsbetween self/other,state/na-

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tion;and the tendencyto disavow power kinshipresonances". Freitag suggeststhat differentials as in a 'simpleanti-colonial- there may have been an expansionof a ism' and the 'double-bindsof colonial 'devotional' idiom to cover a range of discourse theories'.7 One of the specific reconstructions of the self and commufeatures of a colonialmodernity thatI wish nity.9 Moreover,particularly for lower to address is the use of religionas a mode caste groups, the blandishments of the of self-fashioning,social understanding nationmeanvery little since it seemedto andpubliccritique intellectuals. involveexchangingone subsumptionof by Indian The late 19thcenturyin Indiais seen as identity (within Hinduism)for another theperiod of theemergence of nationalism (within the nation) without addressing and the imaginingof a nationalcommu- the central questions of hierarchyand nity. In Benedict Anderson'sformulaic inequality.10 modular thereis anelementin the That lower castes chose to think with account, withcolonial argumentthat is generally ignored by religionin theirengagement readers: the imagining of the nationis the modernity neednotsuggestthattheywere resultof a need to create a new kind of caughtwithin a time warp whereinthey believing communityfollowing the ero- fell back on older modes of thought. sion of religious certainty consequent Drawinginsightsfromtherecenthistorioon modernity.In Anderson's seductive graphyof Britain,Christopher Bayly has prose argued that we need to emphasise the of paradise: makes commandingimportanceof religion in Disintegration nothing morearbitrary. of sal- Britishsocial thoughtinto the 20th cenfatality Absurdity vation:nothingmakesanotherstyle of tury.The 19thcenturyimperialstatewas morenecessary.8 continuity mirrored and informedby a BritishProtThenation(andthenovel in a particular estantspiritual from empire. "Anglo-India as a exemplarof the argument)becomes an 1828 to 1857 could be characterised of the covert confessionalstate".11Missionary expressionof the disenchantment world and the need for a secularimagi- effort, both in educationas well as the nation of community. Onecannow see the creationof a vernacular press createda classic lineaments of an outmoded parallelreactionin which organisations modernisationtheory here: modernity, began to "projecta novel version of a and the nation public, all-IndiaHinduismunder attack secularism, individualism, come togetherin a seamlessand unques- from western interference".This new tioned sequence. Need modernity pre- Indianpublic sphereof the 19th century clude a religiousimaginary? I shallargue as he points out, represented a conflictotherwise. ridden of "Indian ecumenical convergence We need to addressseriouslythe fash- debateandBritishcrypto-Christian public ioningof the caste self and a new collec- doctrine".12 The debatesinformingthe creationof tivity withina religiousimaginingunder colonialism.While studyingMalayalam a 'public sphere' arose too out of these novels written of a specifically colonial by lowercaste novelistsof contradictions the 19thcentury, it becameclearto me that modernity. SandriaFreitag has argued threequestionshave to be bornein mind: that the colonial state, working on the colonialmodernity, the fashioningof the assumption that distinctions between self and the centralityof the religious 'private'and 'public' were easily made, as a way of reflectingon the identifieditself as the protector for 'genimagination socialself. Sandria makesthepoint eral' and 'public' interests, relegating Freitag thatBritishstructures of governancefol- 'private' or 'particular'interests to an lowed the lead of the stateand neglected increasingly reifiednotionof community. to integrate an alternative realmthathad This was premisedon two related asTheformsof imaginedcommu- sumptions; that the state's institutions emerged. nity that this realm generatedwere not could accommodateall 'political'issues those of nationalidentityand may even andthatissuesrelating to religion,kinship have been in antagonism to it. In contra- andso on wereapolitical. The removalof distinction to an arena constituted by thestatefromwhatit perceivedas private political discourse (nationalist rhetoric issues allowed Indiansto 'experiment inopposition tothecolonialstate, and contest freely the status and ideoimagined for instance),the otherarenarepresented logical constructs they expressed in anarena of "localised, familialandfictive public'.13 kin-based activities, frequently artiWhile in north India, such collective culated in terms with religious and activities were often connected to new Economicand PoliticalWeekly April 27, 2002

developmentsin the institutionalisation andpracticeof religion,in the souththey came to centre on the issue of caste. A centralelementin this burgeoning debate was the Christianmissionarypresence. sawinequality and Evangelical Christianity as the definingfeatures of the superstition indigenous world-view, starting off a chorus of assent as much as revivalist dissent. Missionaryrhetoricgave a new and radicalspin to the hithertoabstract idea of individuals,subjectedequally to the rule of law. To be an individualwas to constructoneself against a collective of a well-regulated imagination hierarchy; it was a matterof both affect and reason. If caste definedthe organisation of comof the indimunityandthe subordination vidual within it, missionary discourse positedthe choosing,reflectivepersonas thepremiseof a newcommunity of equalin Christ.Hindureity and brotherhood vivalismresponded itsown by announcing renewed sense of community but the question of the individual was put in asit wouldraisetheexigentissue abeyance of inequalitywithin Hindu ranks.Some were more individualthan otherswithin Hinduism. was the interfacethrough Christianity which lower castes experiencedmoderthatallowed nity. And it was Christianity for their entry into a public spheregenerated discussions. Such by inter-religious discussionas we have on the emergence of a publicsphere in late 19thcentury India concernsitself largely with the activities of elite groups,eitherprofessional classes or mercantilegroups. The idea that the lowestcastescouldbe partyto the expansion of the sphereof publicdebateseems beyond consideration.The missionary interfacemeantin a sense a proliferation of printandthe,appearance of textbooks, journalsand magazines.14A numberof thejournalsfundedby missionaries were not only purveyors of sacredinformation but more important,a secular concern withgeography, the sciencesandtheconstitution of the social world. Potheri thefirstnovelist from Kunhambu, probably a lower caste in India, wrote his pieces inveighingagainstthe inequitiesof caste in the pages of Keralapatrika, and Keralasancari.JosephMuliyil encounteredthe novel Saguna by the Christian convert KrupabaiSathianathan(which inspired him to write his own novel inthejournal The Sukumari), Keralopkari. notonlydemocratised missionary journals access to a literatesphereof debateand

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knowledge,they providedan alternative sphereof reflectionon self andsociety. It that wasnotonlyatthelevel of cerebration lowercastesentered thenewpublicsphere of debate. In colonial Madras, Paraya convertshadbeen agitatingover a whole rangeof secularconcernsincludingprotests against the delimiting of their or 'paraceris',by coloneighbourhoods nial authoritiesas well as agitating to get their caste headmen appointed as leaders of Christian convert communities.15 Christianityand caste were the motors of the public sphere in south India. Itis notthathistorians of southAsiahave ignoredthe ideaof religionundermodernity;it isjustthattheyhavetendedto study thanas religionas publicideology rather individual faith. The phenomenon of castas the Otherof a secucommunalism, lar nationalism, has been extensivelyexof hisparadigm ploredin the modernist in Indiawithinwhichreligion torywriting hasbeenseenas the marker of an atavistic not yet readyfor the abstract imagination citizenshipof the Nation. It is this that occasionedRustomBharucha'spassionate pamphlet which sought to searchfor 'new languages of faith' in order to differentiate religious belief from fundamentalism.16 Gauri Viswanathan has recentlyremarked on this reluctance to take the questionof indiof historians vidual belief seriously in the age of modernityand their proclivity to place religiousidentityat a stage of historical developmentprior to the emergence of the nation. the modernsecular Moreover, state is more comfortable with regarding religionmoreas a categoryof identification, than as a markerof subjectivity.17She drawsuponTalal Asad's suggestiveandnuancedwork, which looks at the historical changes in the understandingof religion: from a knowledge producingactivity to an otherworldly passive repository of beliefs. The of questionsof belief has marginalisation meant an inability to conceptualisethe 'position of belief in self-constitution'. She raisesthe following important questions aboutthe 'meaning'of conversion. What bethelink between thestruggle might for basicrightsandthe adoption of relicharacterised as minority gionstypically What limitations of secular ideoreligions? theserightsdo actsof logiesin ensuring conversion reveal? Does thatactof exposure alignconversion closelywithcultural criticism?18

In the colonial period, religion be- a religious icon as a secular exemplar comes a meansof reflectionboth on the towards a resource for a public identity. self as well as society- an act of cultural A look at Indulekha (1890), written by criticism. the upper caste Nair, Chandu Menon, the Study of the Self Letus taketheadvent of autobiography: a genrethatpresumes notionsnot only of anindividual self, butalsoideasof interioin a rity andthe placingof the individual historical andmoralcontinuum. How has thatwhichI recogniseas 'I', changed over time?TanikaSarkar in heraccountof the first autobiography writtenby a Bengali womanRashsundari Debi in 1868 shows how she cameto structure hernarrative on thepattern of the Chaitanya Bhagavat.'It was as if the two lives - God's and the - wereintertwined devotee's within asingle narrative frame, interanimating each other'.19 this One way of understanding renditionwould be to see it as Dipesh does; that women's narraChakrabarty tives "beingtied to the mytho-religious time of the kula...escapes and exceeds bourgeois time..."20 The casting of Rashsundari's life withinan older narrative of religiousbiography could thenbe as a resultof herbeing simplyunderstood beachedon the sands of anothertemporality.However,implicitin this are two questionable assumptions.First that a universal rendition of modernity has tocreate aclearwedgeinpeople's managed mindsbetweensecular,lineartime and a circular one. Second, mythic,presumably and even more problematic, that woman that a fraction of culturethat represents remains untouched by modernity; a gendereddenial of coeval-ness is being practisedhere. To move away from this conservative strainis to apsentimental, prehend the possibility that modes of imaginationare not directly related to changes in either political or economic conditions.That someone like Bankimchandra may seek to recastthe 'mythical' within a 'historical' mode figureof Krishna of enquirydoes not make him any more 'modem'thanRashsundari whochooses a to mode cast her 'secular' auto'religious' Thatthese modesof imagibiography.21 nationcanbe seenas incompatible is itself a resultof a false dichotomyengendered moby the discourseof a universalising dernity.Of course, there may be differences in theirreappropriation of religion. Rashsundari looks to religionas a source of her selfhood, while Bankimseems to be moreconcerned withthe fashioning of
novel seen as the icon of Malayalam literature, is instructive. The themes pointed out by Anderson find resonance here but with a marked difference. An engagement with the modernist project of secularism and rationality is evident in the 18th chapter of the novel, situated significantly in Calcutta- the space of colonial modernity. It details a nightlong conversation between the hero, Madhavan, his father Govinda Panikkar and his uncle Govindan Kutty, which culminates in a sleep born out of the exhaustion of argument. This triad forms a continuum: the unreconstructed traditionalist father, the rational but religious son, and the atheist uncle given to citing Darwin, Huxley and the English atheist Charles Bradlaugh. It is a novel that engages the disenchantment of the world but the resolution is a reconciliation of the old and the new. When Govindan Kutty asserts that, "I think that as human knowledge increases, faith in religion must decrease", Panikkar snaps, "such a monstrous doctrine as that could only be prompted by English education".22 Madhavan seeks to present Hinduism in a modern guise by arguing that the Mahabharata andthe Bhagavatamaremore works of literatureratherthan religion and should be seen as similar to the works of Milton and Shakespeare. Indian religious philosophy has both rational and atheistic traditions as seen in the Sankhya and other schools.23 He concludes by observing that "never does science teach us to deny the existence of a Supreme Power who is the first great cause of the universe".24 It is not without significance that the nascent Indian National Congress figures in the discussion as well. Again Madhavan calls for a qualified acceptance while the atheist uncle is prone to the call of the nation to be born. While the nation is an element in the imagination of Indulekha, it is only one among many and the overriding concern is with notions of the Nair self and community in the face of the modern This paperis partof my ongoing engagement with three Malayalam novels situated within the public debates on caste inequality and the position of the former slave castes within 19th century Kerala, occasioned particularly by the challenge of Christianity. Ghatakavadham (The Slayer Slain) was written in 1864-65 by an English missionary known to history as

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litwith far as rights to propertyin slaves were to starta new life withinMalayalam MrsCollinsandis as muchconcerned we have andMuslimlaw,they erature.In Saraswativijayam, of Prot- recognised issues of caste as the superiority byHindu civil courts. again, the young girl Saraswatias the estantism over the indigenous Syrian were valid in the Company's law thatthe conscience of the novel questioningthe criminal was It a few with Her husband, only through Christianity. the young couldattackslaveryby inequalityof caste. Sukumari, additionsand revisions, publishedit in Law Commission 1877. The plot deals with the change of endowingtheslavewithlegalrightsequal Christian girl and Tejopalanthe old and while destitute In Kerala, manwho adoptsherarethedyad land- to thatof theirmaster.27 heart of anarrogant SyrianChristian in as in eastern Sukumari.31 was no domestic there and the occasioned slavery lord, compassion by conslave. India;most of the slave population of hisuntouchable Pulaya generosity Death as Motif (TheVictoryof Knowl- sisted of Hinduslaves employedin agriSaraswativijayam slaves or known as field and culture written in was praeby edge) published 1893, One way into the religiousimagination of slaves in a Tiyya lower caste autodidact,Potheri dialslavesIn 1819,thenumber conversionto northern who advocated Kerala,largelybelongingto the in these novels is throughstudyingthe Kunhambu, andCherumas, central calledPulayas tropein thesenovels,thatof Death. as a cure for the social evils castegroups Christianity is suchan integral elementof the In fact it In the eviat was estimated he never 1,00,000.28 Hinduism, though besetting convertedhimself. The novel deals with dence put before the parliament priorto plots thatone maywell ask why thereare intheotherMalayalam mentioned Walker nodeaths Alexander of slavery, landlord theabolition Brahmin Namboodiri a dominant or on a journeyinto the heart drew upon his years of experience in novels of the period like 'Indulekha' who embarks Deaths figure in the observation: 'Lakshmikesavam'. withinhissoulafterhaving Malabartomakethefollowing of thedarkness areabsolute TheChermas they historicalnovels of C V Raman Pillai, occasionedthe death of a Pulaya slave. property; In writingin theprincelystateof Travancore, an estate. of the livestock on are part to converts The Pulaya,presumed dead, landit is notnecessary buthis novels areexplicitlyhistorical andbuying selling and with his own makes and tryst Christianity followthesoil;bothkinds deal with the that theyshould out of the state in carving destiny.He becomesajudgewhopresides and of property areequally disposable may blood its Sukumari fall by largerthan life kings. Both overthetrialof theNamboodiri. TheChermas hands. intodifferent may Ghatakavadham and Saraswativijayam a written is like the land be (1897) by Joseph Muliyil, sold, leased,mortgaged, and is set begin with a death.In the former,Koshy itself or like any cattleor thing.29 Tiyya convertto Christianity in a fit of ragekills a Pulaya of a thelandowner It is possibleto find the resonance withina communityof lower caste conrefuseto workon his labourers after within the of of theBaselEvan- universal vertstotheproselytising boy experience slavery gelicalMission.It is an enclosedworldof novels studiedin this paper.The experi- the Sabbath.32In Saraswativijayam,a is kickedandleft fordead Christians tryingto negotiatenew forms ence of loss, homelessness,and sudden, Pulayalabourer andis replete violentdeathloom largewithinthe texts. for the simple crime of singing before a of self,familyandcommunity In Sukumari, thereare a profuof mobilityandsalvation. The questionof literaryinfluencehere is brahmin. with anecdotes the novel, ocThe novels negotiate an uneasy terrain expressedin a radicalgestureof affilia- sion of deathsthroughout than as a matter tion. When Mrs Collins wrote Ghataka- casionedby want and illness, rather conversion betweenperceiving are andas expressing vadham, she expressly referredto the violence.Theonlypeopleleft standing illumination of spiritual or perhapswe can idenanindividual's shiftingallegianceto com- influenceof Uncle Tom'sCabin,written the protagonists, man's tify themas suchbecausetheyaretheonly ofthepoliticalcon- in a place elsewherebut recording Thisis afeature munity. andthecompro- inhumanity colonialism to man. The connectionbet- ones left! At one level thereis the simple textof British fact of death- suddenandvioandcaste/subordination empirical mise of civil law withits concernfor pro- weenrace/slavery a lent or Viswaextraterritorial As Gauri and this is quickly made, wastingone - which is partof perty and inheritance. of lower casteness.Their the the it of is one for offers a nathan experience it, puts vantage point critique. poignantly affinity whimsof distortionsof a colonial modernitythat To a large extent, missionarydiscourse lives aresubjectto the arbitrary devaluation of and a structured individuals connecof transcendence for thisfar-flung "theepiphany putatively was responsible is a life This the value of their itself. of conversion that the inner Mohan has tion. Sanal experience suggested marking canonisedin folk performances intheirdesirenottousecaste tradition becomes a meaninglessfantasy".25 missionaries, thatthethreelowercaste terms,called the convertsby such names of the 'teyyattam',in which lower caste It is significant novels of the 19thcenturythatI studyin as 'peasantChristians' and 'slave Chris- victims of unjustkilling are deified and within a communityof both this papersee slaveryas centralto their tians'. The statusof the lower caste con- worshipped While they were written be- vertsas 'freedmen' thenbecameimportant lower and uppercastes.33 narration. The questionis what are the 'deaths' authors since this discoursecould be rootedin a the1890s,their tweenthe1860sand to mean?In the novels thatwe look made of black American locate the story aroundthe time of the comparative reading as a notionof a life elseis the ren- at deathappears abolitionof slaveryin Indiaor just prior experience.30 Moreinteresting where. of the reluctant ditionof thecentral to it.26 The circumstance characters. UncleTom People die, or appearto, only to in earth intoa better life, whether abolitionof slaveryin Indiain 1843 (10 - the forgivingandcompassionate Chris- bereborn in heaven.Thereis a theodicy Act of 1833) tian slave - and Evangeline St Claire - the or, perhaps yearsaftertheEmancipation thata younggirlwhoredeems is a case in pointof the distortions herfather through in operationhere. A violent, contingent act naturalised asjustifiable modernrhetoricof freedom underwent herdeath,arerecastas the Pulayan slave, andirrational as withina colonialcontext.TheAct of 1843 Paulose and the Syrian Christian girl in termsof caste ideology, is rendered death.Withintheteyyattam, was limitedin scope since the Company Mariam.The plots of the two novels are a meaningful Theperformer as legislatorwas boundby a rulingof the different but the charactersembodying death givesaccesstopower. SudderCourtin 1798 that,inso- compassion areintroduced of the 'teyyam', while possessed by the andredemption Calcutta Economicand PoliticalWeekly April 27, 2002

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to certainformalcriteriaand hallmarks of a Christian deity, dancesto the retellingof the story answerable existencebutalso of the killing and castigatesuppercaste more as a "politicalenterprise, of modernmanin halfway the basic characteristic membersof the audience.Within these between sermon and social theory that general. novels death is given a meaningin two both codifies and attemptsto mould the In this paper,I have triedto tie up the differentways. Each deathin Sukumari, values of its time".37 In Stowe's enter- issuesof colonialmodernity andthethinkfor example is a re-embodiment of the prise,dyingbecomesthe supreme formof ingof selfaswellassocialcriticism through dramaof redemption: Thecolonialstate,whileitadopted just as Christdied heroism;it bringsan access to powernot religion. to save the sinning,so the characters die a loss of it. the rhetoricof freedom and individual to redeem. dies TheyounggirlManikkam to dismantlesocial The pureand powerless die to save the dignity,was reluctant of anillness,butin thehopeof hermother like slaverythatwouldinvolve and therebyshow structures powerfuland corrupt the love of Christ.On herdeathrealising themselves more than thosethey both a loss of revenueas well as the alpowerful bed she has Pilgrim's Progress read out save. They enact...atheoryof powerin legiance of the landedgroupswho were to her.Thebelieveris burnt whichthe ordinary and "commonplace" their bulwark. Missionaries rushed inwhere by his enemies andoutof theashesarises andwhat is not the colonial state fearedto tread.It was Hope.Manikkam viewof whatis efficacious believesthatout of the sorrowcausedby ...is simplyreversed...the ideacentral to Christianity thatappeared as the mediator Christiansoteriology,that the highest of modernity her death, her motherwill emerge as a to thosewho werewrestling humancalling is to give one's life for withtheproblem believer.34 Jnanabharanam diesto redeem of a subordinate identity. another.38 herson froma possiblelife of avariciousReligion proved good to think with. As While the centralChristian ness and deceit in the city. Tejopalanon messageof Gauri Viswanathan' s nuanced workshows allowsfor a transformation of there appearsto have been an intimate his deathbedexplicitly calls for Paul's redemption Letter to theCorinthians to be readto him: the everydaybanalityof deathwithinthe connection betweenthe socialcriticism of to consider subordinate 'Death where is thy sting, O grave thy caste system, it is interesting groups(whetheruppercaste the priest's the fact thatthe appealof social mobility womenlike Ramabai victory'?In Ghatakavadham, or lower caste men wife is transformed fromthe local gossip and wealth were as importantin these like Ambedkar)and an anguished and features persistent engagement with the emaninto a devout Christianand loving wife novels. Thereare two important of the Protestant thatcameto cipatorypotentialof religionandconverChristianity only afterthe death of her eldest son. thatwe haveto bearin mind.The sion. Of course,elite The second theme, of death as misap- Malabar to groupstoo turned first was an unequivocalopposition to a prehension,appearsin Ghatakavadham refashioning of religious tradition arrived atby (Dayananda Saraswati, Vivekananda, andSaraswativijayam. Paulosein casteunlikethecompromises Pulayan missions concerned morewith Ramakrishna the formerandMarathan in the latterare theCatholic Paramahamsa among othpresumeddead, launchingtheir antago- workingalong the faultlinesof local so- ers), but for them it was easier to find a of the Basel habitation nists on a journey into repentanceand ciety. The 1859 constitution withinthe resourcesof HinduPaulose redemption. jumpsintotheraging Evangelical Mission had stated in no ism itself.At one level thisturnto religion of Evan- mayhavearisenfromthe aborting riverto savethelife of littleMariam, terms,"anyattachment even uncertain of civil Christians to the caste her father had killed gelical systemis not societyundercolonialismthatdeniedcitithough Koshy Paulose'sgrandson. "Youkilledmy child, permissible..."The ChurchMissionary zenshipto Indians.As ParthaChatterjee extendedits activi- arguesthe loss of selfhoodin the material butI havesavedyours.We arenowequal". Societyin Travancore The"words of Paulose[fell]uponKoshy's ties to Hindusonly from 1834; till then spheremayhave signalledthe retreat into heart likehotcoalson someprecious metal theyhadbeenactiveamongSyrianChris- a questingwithin the spiritualrealm, an 35 But tians.Fromthe 1840s,the missionaries of autonomous whichmeltsaway all impurities". spherewherethe sourcesof is the idea of the death the ChurchMissionarySociety and the the self could be mined.Whatthis paper equallyimportant of the 'caste'self. At the end of Ghataka- London Missionary Society had been has suggestedis thatfor the lower castes vadham, Koshy in search of Paulose putting pressure on the monarchy for andsubordinate of groupsa refashioning stumbleson him preachingforgiveness abolitionof slaveryor at least the sirkar Hindutradition still leave unresolved may and compassionto a congregation in the giving up its slaves. The Britishmission- the question of their subalternity. They wilderness. Overcome withremorse, Koshy ary societies had a backgroundin the have to leave home.ll Revival' whichpartly explains accepts the Pulayanas his teacher and 'Evangelical their attitude towardscaste.The if not moral "From now negative equal, superior. Notes on, you are not my slave. I have known individualhad a moralobligationto live to the wordof god as revealed 1 See David Harvey, The Condition of thatyou aremoresuitedto be my master. according Postmoderity: An EnquiryInto the Origins I wish to learn from you".36Marathan, in the scriptures.39 Moreover,the Evanof Cultural Change, London, 1989. of the Basel Mission was the offfinds his to the neargelism dead, presumed way 2 Anthony D King, 'The Time and Spaces of Pietismthat was est mission,andthrough sheerapplication springof Wurttemberg Modernity' in Mike Featherstone,Scott Lash on craftsmen, elevates himself to judge the Brahmin basedprimarily pettycomet al eds, Global modernities(London, 1997) andsmallwho had condemnedhim to be killed. mercialbusinessentrepreneurs andidem, 'Spacesof Culture,Spacesof KnowItwasthebusiness Deathallowsa movement to a placeelse- scalemanufacturers.40 ledge' in AnthonyKing (ed), Culture.Globalisation and the WorldSystem(London, 1991). where,relievedof thebaggageof inequal- communitythatprovidedPietismwith a link to the colonial worldand as Fischer 3 David Washbrook, 'From Comparative ity and caste. Sociology to Global History:BritainandIndia theChristianity JaneTompkins thatwas observes, analysisof UncleTom's astutely in the Pre-historyof Modernity', Journal of Cabinis relevant here.She arguesthatthe exported emphasised "industriousness, the Economicand Social Historyof the Orient, not only as the 'sentimental novel' shouldbe seen less as efficiencyandrationality" 40, 4 (1997), p 414.

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4 RanajitGuha,DominancewithoutHegemony: History and Power in Colonial India (Delhi, 1998), p 5, 64-5. 5 See David Washbrook, 'Law, State and AgrarianSociety in Colonial India', Modern Asian Studies, 15, 3, (1981). 6 See Ronald Inden, Imagining India (Oxford, 1990); Nicholas Dirks, 'Castes of Mind', Representations,37, 1992. 7 Tani E Barlow, "Introduction: On 'Colonial Modernity"' in Formations of Colonial Modernity in East Asia (Durham, 1997). 8 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (rev edn, London, 1991), pp 11, 24-25. 9 SandriaFreitag, 'Introduction', specialvolume on Public Sphere in South Asia, South Asia, XIV, 1 (1991), p 3. 10 See Dilip M Menon, 'Caste and Colonial Modernity: Reading Saraswativijayam', Studies in History, XIII, 2, 1997. 11 ChristopherBayly, 'Returningthe British to South Asian History:The Limits of Colonial hegemony',SouthAsia,XVII,2 (1994), pp 4-5. 12 Ibid, p 25. 13 Sandria in Public:Colonial Freitag,'Contesting Communalism', Legacies and Contemporary in David Ludden (ed), Making India Hindu: Religion, Community and the Politics of Democracy in India (Delhi, 1996), p 212. 14 N Sam,KeralathileSamuhika Navotthanavum Sahityavum[Social renaissancein Keralaand literature](Kottayam, 1988). 15 See two recent unpublished MPhil. Dissertationssubmittedto the JawaharlalNehru University, New Delhi, 1999: Aparna Balachandran, 'Caste, Community and Identity Formation:The Paraiyars in Late 18th and Early 19th Century Madras' and Bhavani Raman,'The Emergenceof the Public in 19th CenturyTamil Nadu'. 16 Rustom Bharucha, The Question of Faith (Delhi, 1993), p 4, passim. 17 Viswanathan,Outside the Fold, p xii. 18 Ibid, p xvi-xvii. 19 Tanika Sarkar,'A Book of Her Own. A Life of Her Own: Autobiographyof a Nineteenth Journal, CenturyWoman',History Workshop 36, 1993, p 36. See also TanikaSarkar,Words to Win.TheMakingofAmarJiban: A Modem Autobiography(Delhi, 1999). 20 DipeshChakrabarty, 'TheDifference-Deferral of (a) Colonial Modernity:Public Debates on Domesticity in British Bengal', History WorkshopJournal, 36, 1993, p 26. 21 On Bankimchandra see Sudipta Kaviraj,The Unhappy Consciousness (Delhi, 1994). 22 0 ChanduMenon, Indulekha(Calicut, 1965), trans W Dumergue, p 301. 23 Ibid, pp 323-24. 24 Ibid, p 326. 25 Gauri Viswanathan, Outside the fold: Conversion, Modernity and Belief (Delhi, 1998), pp 88-89. 26 Ghatakavadham,begun in 1859, describes events of 'Twenty Years Earlier', Sukumari (1897) of 50 years earlier and Saraswativijayam (1893) has a direct reference to the ignorance regardingthe abolition of slavery among upper caste landowners.

27 See NancyCassels,'SocialLegislation under Travancore, 1858-1936 (New Delhi, 1998), the Company of Slavery Raj:The Abolition pp 60-62. Act V 1843',South Asia,XI, 1 (1988),p 60. 33 See Dilip M Menon, 'The Moral Community 28 Copyof despatch fromtheGovernor-General of the Teyyattam:Popular Culture in Late of Indiain Council to theCourt of Directors Colonial Malabar',Studies in History, IX, 2, of theEastIndia 1993. 8, 1841, February Company,
Parliamentary Papers 1841, XXVIII (262)

discussion 35 MrsCollins,Ghatakavadham PP].Foran excellent [henceforth [Theslayerslain] of slavery in Keralasee K Saradamoni, (Iottayam, 1977, first edn 1877), p 73.
Emergenceofa Slave Caste:PulayasofKerala

34 Sukumari,p 289.

(New Delhi, 1980). 29 Quotedin K Saradamoni, Emergence of a

36 Ibid, p 134. 37 JaneB Tompkins, 'SentimentalPower:Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Politics of Literary Slave Caste: The Pulayas of Kerala (Delhi, History', reprinted in Uncle Tom's Cabin, NortonCriticalEditioned, ElizabethAmmons 1981),p 52. 30 SanalMohan,DalitDiscourseandtheEvolving (New York, 1994), p 506. Strategies,Lateral NewSelf: Contextand Study 38 Ibid, p 507. 1994, 39 See Henriette Bugge, Mission and Tamil Series,13.M G University, Kottayam, p 18. Society:Social and Religious Changein South 31 For a very recentrepetition see Arundhati India (1840-1900) (London, 1994), pp 61-62. Roy, The God of Small Things (Delhi, 1998) 40 Quoted in Rudolph H Fischer, 'Christianisbetween littleRahelandthe ation and Social Mobility in 19th Century viz, the relation lowercaste Velutha. South Kanara and Malabar: A Look at the 32 The British Resident John Munro had Basel Mission Experience' in G A Oddie ed, exemptedChristianconvertsfrom forced Religion in SouthAsia: Religious Conversion labour(uriyam)on Sundays, andby 1857, and Revival Movements in South Asia in thispractice wasfallingintodisuse.See Koji Medieval and Modern Times (Delhi, 1991, rev edn), pp 126-7, 138. Kawashima,Missionariesand a HinduState:

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