A. Maria Arul Raja S. J.
Any comprehensive discourse on spirituality is to have an integrated vision of the divine-human-cosmic realities. While incorporating the triple dimensions of the past-present-future, it is at once rooted within and beyond the grip of space-time. While dwelling upon the anatomy and the function of the spiritual world of the marginalized people, one needs to have a sharp focus on the dynamics of their hope-generating struggles for establishing a harmonious integration in life. The interaction between their crushed victimhood, assertive subjecthood, and constructive communityhood has to be closely probed into. In identifying the life-generating energies emerging out of the spiritual struggles of the marginalized, we could name some of the salient features as follows: (1) Acknowledgement of Conflict, (2) Exploratory Ethics, and (3) Cry for Reconciliation.
Acknowledgement of Conflict: Victimhood
In every fragmented society, conflicts are created and resolved both from the side of the dominant and the marginalized. In every such exercise, the agenda of perpetuation and consolidation of the powers is pursued by the dominant. But the spirit of participation and democratization is present amidst the marginalized. Quite often, the dominant discourses on peace and non-violence have the hidden agenda of silencing the marginalized. But the issues of the history of violence, denial of relational anthropology, critical consciousness are underscored by the marginalized for eventually building up egalitarian communities. This is often labelled by the dominant as deviant behaviour disrupting peace, harmony, law and order. But for the marginalized, no genuine harmony can be ever achieved without appropriately identifying, naming and encountering such conflicts in their spiritual discourses.
Exploratory Ethics: Subjecthood
The wounded psyche of the marginalized people struggles a lot in discerning and choosing the right course of actions at every turn of their on-going history of dehumanization. When the ready-made package of moral prescriptions are imposed on them in the name of religion, faith, tradition or nationalism, then the marginalized people suspect the genuineness of the dominant discourses on peace, obedience, harmony, reconciliation, silence, or diplomacy. That is why the battered consciousness of the marginalized is forced into the process of exploratory ethics in their spiritual journey.
Cry for Reconciliation: Communityhood
In every transaction of conflict between the dominant and the marginalized, the latter initiate the necessity of reconciliation between them by ending up the structural and physical violence. For instance, in the case of feminism, the women envisage a right relationship without gender-bias; the blacks dream of an equal footing with no colour-prejudice; the untouchables envision a caste-free society; and the tribals dream of an egalitarian society. But the dominant people refuse to listen to their cry for fraternity, liberty, and equality, by unleashing violent exhortations on non-violence for perpetuating the existing power structures. From the depths of the collective assertion of the marginalized, though stifled, one has to identify the cry for ultimate reconciliation towards compassionate justice for healing the broken world. This spiritual cry of the marginalized plays a vital role in creating new heavens and new earth.
About the Author:
Dr. A. Maria Arul Raja SJ (amarajasj@gmail.com) is the Director of the IDCR (Institute of Dialogue with Cultures and Religions), Loyola College- Chennai for the doctoral studies on Comparative Religions and Cultures affiliated to Madras University. As the Dean of Studies for 20 years in Arul Kadal Jesuit Theology Centre, Chennai, he has been lecturing on Theology, Sacred Scriptures, and Religious Studies for 27 years both within and outside India. With interdisciplinary approaches, he has come out with research publications voicing out the agenda of the marginalized.
