Study, with reference to Tamil Nadu, India.

In fulfilling the long-awaited need for a constructive and critical rethinking of Dalit theology this book offers and explores the synoptic healing stories as a relevant biblical paradigm for Dalit theology in order to help redress the lacuna between Dalit theology and the social practice of the Indian Church. Peniel Rajkumar's starting point is that the growing influence of Dalit theology in academic circles is incompatible with the praxis of the Indian Church which continues to be passive in its attitude towards the oppression of the Dalits both within and outside the Church. The theological reasons for this lacuna between Dalit theology and the Church's praxis, Rajkumar suggests, lie in the content of Dalit theology, especially the biblical paradigms explored, which do not offer adequate scope for engagement in praxis.

A second generation of emerging Dalit theology texts is re-shaping the way we think of Indian theology and liberation theology. This book is a vital part of that conversation. Taking post-colonial criticism to its logical end of criticism of statism, Keith Hebden looks at the way the emergence of India as a nation state shapes political and religious ideas. He takes a critical look at these Gods of the modern age and asks how Christians from marginalised communities might resist the temptation to be co-opted into the statist ideologies and competition for power. He does this by drawing on historical trends, Christian anarchist voices, and the religious experiences of indigenous Indians. Hebden's ability to bring together such different and challenging perspectives opens up radical new thinking in Dalit theology, inviting the Indian Church to resist the Hindu fundamentalists labelling of the Church as foreign by embracing and celebrating the anarchic foreignness of a Dalit Christian future.

Recent years have seen dawning awareness of the long-hidden suffering of India's millions of Dalit people, marginalized and oppressed as 'untouchables' falling outside the traditional Hindu caste system. Their treatment, which cuts across communal and religious lines, has become an important concern of the churches in their commitment internationally to combat all forms of racism. The author of this book, a Dalit from North India, uncovers the religious roots of this system of oppression and surveys its historical development over 3500 years, as well as the beginnings of the Dalits' struggle to free themselves from it. He also analyses the role played by missionaries, churches and Christian theology in the past and suggests what must change if Christians are to have a part in articulating and bringing about a vision of solidarity and genuine liberation.