Theologising With the Sacred Prostitutes of South India Towards an Indecent Dalit Theology

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I am extremely grateful to Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary (TTS), to the students, staff and wider community of Madurai. My first visit to TTS was in October 2013, when I was working for the Council for World Mission (CWM), and responsible for the Training in Mission programme that was being held at the college. I am very grateful for this opportunity that sparked my passion for India and where I first met John Samuel Ponnusamy, M. Gnanavaram, Jay achitra Lalitha, and the many other faculty members and college students who inspired me and taught me a great deal about Indian Christian Theology, the history of Christianity in India, and the contextual difficulties faced by the Church and in particular Dalit Christians.

I returned to India in January 2011, this time to Aizawl Theological Seminary in Mizoram, where I am thankful in particular for meeting Lalrindiki Ralte, who introduced me to the tribal justice issues experienced by Mizo people and the battle for gender justice in the region. I left Mizoram to visit Bishop's College, Kolkata, as part of my role in being responsible for the theology pro grammes of cwm, where I will be forever grateful for meeting Isaac Devadoss and the wonderful Dalit rights activist and theologian, Philip Vinod Peacock - who has since become one of my greatest friends.

In March zou, I returned to Madurai, this time to the slums of Chennai, where students of TTS were placed for a semester of practical theology. In the slums, unlike in the comfort of the colleges, there were no flushing toilets, or running water, and no air conditioning. I also witnessed slum segregation based upon caste discrimination and how Christian Dalits were further marginalised for their 'strange' beliefs, and further, how life and religion for people in the slums was shaped around their daily struggles. I am extremely grateful to TTS for this experience, it took me out of my comfort zone and challenged me to further grapple with the socio-economic realities of the people I stayed with, it was here that I began to learn the true meaning of practical theology in the South Indian context.

The following year I was reunited with Philip Peacock in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for a World Council of Churches (WCC) conference on 'International Financial Transformation for the Economy of Life', held between 29 September to 5 October. This opportunity enabled me to re-connect with Philip whilst writing the Sao Paulo statement together, fuelled by coffee we bonded over a shared love of Marcella Althaus-Reid. In December 2012, I was asked by Philip and the Dalit theologian Satianathan Clarke to participate in a conference of Dalit theologians in New Delhi and deliver a paper on the future of Dalit Theology.

Oh, Mother, my life has been only pain and sorrow. Death is far better than this wretched life. With beads and nose rings and arms full of green bangles, They make me believe that God is my husband. Oh, Mother, pain and sorrow burn my life!

... Renukaa, Jagadambaa, Renukaa, Jagadambaa, Renuka, mother of the world; Renuka, mother of the world, Your name is very sacred, Your feet are very sacred. Daily for you seve, leaves and flowers are needed; rose-water for your bath, pujaris for your seve. 1, thinking you were mine, went about trusting them, but my people were not for me a refuge. We gather in devotion, make pilgrimage to you, Seek boons, seek compassion from you..... Living among seven lakes, born in Nandipur, Protect us, we pray. I remember you, I sing your praises...

It took three different trains from Chennai, a two-hour bus journey and a long moped ride through the stunning rice fields and swamp lands of the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, before I reached the rural village of Nagalpurum.