Images of the Body in the Life and Death of a North Indian Catholic Catechist

Mathew N. Schmalz
1999 History of Religions  
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more » ... N THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A NORTH INDIAN CATHOLIC CATECHIST I. A WHITE CLOTH In the North Indian diocese of Varanasi the priest leading the charismatic retreat motioned for Ghiir Master to be brought to the stage. Ghiir Master's head was shrouded by a long white cloth, and his eyes were covered by dark glasses, which were necessary not only to protect him from the blazing heat but to shield him from the curious gaze of people in the crowd. Ghura Master was led to the microphone mounted on the podium and then he began his testimony with his Hindi deep and strong. Ghura Master introduced himself by saying that he was a member of the caste that both Hindus and Muslims despised: a Camar, an untouchable Names of living persons who appear in this article have been changed to protect their anonymity. Translations of Ghura Master's songs are my own and are based on transcriptions of my tape-recorded interviews with him. Quotations attributed to Ghiur Master in the article also derive from my interviews with him. This content downloaded from 192.133.83.139 on Sat, 25 Jul 2015 15:34:30 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Images of the Body tanner and field laborer. In his youth, he joined the communists who were fighting for the poor and oppressed. But he eventually met a priest who told him that if he truly wanted to defend the poor, he must do so peacefully and renounce violence. Ghiira Master then became a Catholic Christian and worked to spread the gospel. He soon earned the title "Master" in recognition of his position as a catechist and teacher of Catholic belief. He recalled how much the people of his village loved him and held him in such high esteem that they elected him headman, orpradhdn. But when he won reelection by a wide margin, the village's wealthy landowners began to grow concerned. Ghuira Master then paused and recounted how he was sleeping outdoors one night five years earlier only to awake screaming in agony. The landowners, with members of "his own people," had conspired against him and poured acid over his body, leaving him blind and disfigured. When Ghiira Master said this, a great cry went up from the audience and many women raised their hands in charismatic style and began to pray in tongues. To many of them, the story of an untouchable leader being brought down by the landowners was all too familiar. As the cacophony of glossolalia rose from the crowd, Ghura Master also opened the palms of his hands and raised them to the sky. He then proclaimed that he had forgiven his attackers and that even in his blindness he understood how God is an "ocean of mercy" who fulfills all desires. Ghiir Master says he wears a cloth to cover his face in order to protect himself from the "hatred" of society. Indeed, some understand his untouchable body as defiling while others see his scars as marks of his own depravity. But Ghura Master is also aware of how his body has become emblematic of an idealized Christian narrative of redemption. Indeed, an article about Ghura Master's talk appears in a Catholic newspaper under the title "The Acid That Could Not Burn the Soul."1 In reporting Ghira Master's testimony, the article implied that there was another reality in which the physical marks of suffering point to the possibility of salvation. Of course, Ghiira Master himself quite consciously draws on Christian narrative tropes by identifying his irenic response to the acid attack with the crucified Jesus who forgave his executioners. Ghura Master's body thus becomes a locus of contestation between competing understandings of the body's significance as a social and religious symbol. Ghuira Master did not live to hear the stories of violence against Indian Christians that gained international attention in the early months
doi:10.1086/463586 fatcat:cefv2b3nh5a25eihkrdxbt2wpy