Appavoo James Theophilus - Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology

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ZOE C. SHERINIAN

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sherinian, Zoe C.

Tamil folk music as Dalit liberation theology / Zoe C. Sherinian.

pages ; cm. (Ethnomusicology multimedia)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-253-00233-4 (cl : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-253-00585-4 (ebook) 1. Church musicIndiaTamil Nadu. 2. Folk musicIndiaTamil NaduHistory and criticism. 3. Folk musicReligious aspectsChristianity. 4. DalitsIndiaTamil NaduReligious life. 5. DalitsIndiaTamil NaduMusicHistory and criticism. 6. Appavoo, James Theophilus. I. Title.

ML3151.I4S44 2012

781.71'7940095482dc23

2012018988

1 2 3 4 5 19 18 17 16 15 14

To Paraai
and Elyssa

Yr vlum, eppai vlum

(Whoever wants to, can use [sing] it
however they want)

Rev. J. T. Appavoo (Paraai)

This book is an ethnomusicological ethnography of the creation, transmission, and recreation of Tamil folk music as Dalit liberation theology in India and beyond. The focus of its narrative is a heterogeneous community of poor Tamil Christian villagers, lay workers, seminary students, activists, theologians, and artists, inspired by the personality and music of a theologian/composer they call Paraai Annan (big brother with messy hair). This is an apt description and pen name for the Rev. Dr. James Theophilus Appavoo (19402005), the central trickster figure in this story. Paraai and a network of other Dalit or anti-caste actors are essential nodes in the transmission process that make up the contemporary reform movement for liturgical and theological change within the mainline Protestant Church of South India (CSI) in the state of Tamil Nadu. This movement is a grass-roots manifestation of cultural and theological agency by Dalits (or former untouchables, those oppressed by caste hierarchy from birth). While it borrows ideas from Latin American liberation theology, this movements indigenous roots lay in the Indian social gospel missions of the nineteenth century and the secular/social equality Dravidian language movement of the early twentieth century (Bate 2009, 44). Further, this Christian cultural movement takes a strong dose of intellectual inspiration from the leader of the modern Dalit movement, Dr. Bhimrao Ramjee Ambedkar, the foundational thinker who has influenced the contemporary Tamil Dalit Liberation Movement of the late twentieth century (Larbeer 2003).

This is a story about so called untouchable outcastes, those who are most socially, politically, culturally, and religiously marginalized in India through the hierarchy of caste in society and through its continued practice in the Tamil Christian churches over the last 500 years. In the last two centuries a significant number of lower- and outcastes were motivated to convert to Christianity as a means to escape at least the philosophical discourse of caste. Yet, it has only been in the last three decades that Christian outcastes, through the transformative power of Tamil folk music are changing the liturgical and political culture of the Tamil mainline churches and in the process transforming their identities This definition represents the practice of unity in resistance to oppression of all kinds including gender and class, but particularly the violent and all-pervasive system of caste hierarchy in India.

Two issues are particularly notable in Paraais music and at the center of this Dalit musico-theology movement: 1) The indigenization of Christianity through musical style, theology, and language to direct the purpose of religious discourse back to the social emancipation of the poor and oppressed in this world and in this time period; 2) the process of social identity reformation for Dalit Christians through the transformative and recreative power of music in the performance context. Appavoo developed a theory that Dalit theology should be embodied in a medium accessible to poor Dalit villagers who need it the most. While many theologians at Indian Christian seminaries experimented with creating progressive theology in musical form, or making theology singable, as Rev. Thomas Thangaraj has written (1990), it was Appavoo who transformed this idea into an accessible Dalit theologyone that is easily transmittable, usable, and thus liberating to the poor, Dalits, and women of Tamil Nadu through the alternative, recreative media of folk music and folklore (Appavoo 1986). My primary interest in studying Paraais music and its transmission is to understand through ethnographic observation and experience the efficacy of Tamil folk music to transmit a liberating theology. My intent is to understand the meaning of its use by Tamil Christians and in turn, the social dynamics in the process of creation, transmission, and re-creation of this music that Appavoo argues can result in a cultural and personal transformation from untouchable to Dalit, or liberated, through attaining an anti-caste consciousness and an active stance against caste identity.