ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the connection between Christians and classical performing arts in South India that goes back more than 200 years. It also focuses on the personal and affectionate relationship between the dancer’s mother and her daughter’s teacher. Such relationships between Hindus and Christians can be multiplied manifold across India, and close friendships are seen between neighbors and colleagues in schools, colleges, and workplaces. The chapter then focuses on the shared spaces, both intellectual and physical. It explores the areas of dissatisfaction and anger for Hindus that affect their relationships with Christians and other religious minorities, such as the lack of a uniform civil code and perceptions of inequality in the government’s treatment of Hindu institutions relative to their treatment of other religious institutions. The chapter discusses the contested areas of culture, along with issues of inculturation and conversion, as they are manifest in classical music and dance.
