To Be Cared For

The Power of Conversion and Foreignness of Belonging in an Indian Slum

Nathaniel Roberts

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780520288812
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520963634
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Antropologia culturale e sociale

To Be Cared For offers a unique view into the conceptual and moral world of slum-bound Dalits (“untouchables”) in the South Indian city of Chennai. Focusing on the decision by many women to embrace locally specific forms of Pentecostal Christianity, Nathaniel Roberts challenges dominant anthropological understandings of religion as a matter of culture and identity, as well as Indian nationalist narratives of Christianity as a “foreign” ideology that disrupts local communities. Far from being a divisive force, conversion integrates the slum community—Christians and Hindus alike—by addressing hidden moral fault lines that subtly pit residents against one another in a national context that renders Dalits outsiders in their own land."

Read an interview with the author on the Association for Asian Studies' #AsiaNow blog.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Terminological Notes
• Introduction
• 1 Outsiders
• 2 Caste, Care, and the Human
• 3 Sharing, Caring, and Supernatural Attack
• 4 Religion, Conversion, and the National Frame
• 5 The Logic of Slum Religion
• 6 Pastoral Power and the Miracles of Christ
• 7 Salvation, Knowledge, and Suffering
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2002
• Notes
• References
• Index