ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on fieldwork carried out with autorickshaw drivers (autowallahs) in Chennai, India. To begin with, the chapter reflects on where empirical fieldwork methodology sits in relation to other methods normally associated with biblical exegesis, and also in relation to Dalit Hermeneutics. The chapter then proceeds to introduce ‘the target group’ amongst whom the work took place, and relays how access was gained to the research participants and how the research proceeded. The aim through formal and informal interactions and conversations is to identify how the autorickshaw drivers read the text and to discover the reasons from their social world for their unique and particular readings and how they apply those meanings to their situation and personal lives. Though auto drivers were seen as cheaters by other people, their own portrayal displays them as some of the needy and poor people of the city. The social conditioning of their reading is uncovered empirically through the use of ethnographic methods and would not otherwise be known.
