Old & new friends

India is starting to seem like a small country, after all. Or at least the TTS campus is - in addition to one of my former students from Jaffna College studying here at the seminary, there are several other familiar faces from Jaffna staying in the dorms (and studying or working at other places in Madurai). There's a young woman who spent a few months living at the girls home across the lane from me in Jaffna, and even my old neighbor and fellow teacher Victor is here doing a Masters degree program. There are a couple of others, too, who share mutual friends back in Sri Lanka. So, it's been nice to catch up on the news from my old school and village. It sounds like, in spite of the fighting there, that life pretty much continues as usual.

I've also been able to meet some new, interesting people. On my way home from visiting the TTS Rural Theological Institute (a little bit outside of Madurai), the jeep stopped to pick up another visitor from the airport, and it turned out to be a Dalit theologian whose name I had come across many times while doing my research and readings (Dr. James Massey). He was here for a seminar on "Emerging Dalit Politics," which was held yesterday on campus. A female Dalit politician has recently been elected Chief Minister in Uttar Pradesh, a state to the north of here, and has formed a coalition with some of the upper castes. So, this seminar met to discuss how these developments relate to and impact Dalit politics here in Tamil Nadu state. It was interesting, but also a little complex for me since I am not that familiar with the various Indian political parties and alliances. But the underlying issues of how much an oppressed minority should cooperate with those in power (who have excluded them for years), or how much the minority should only rely on its own resources and people, are relevant well beyond India.