Agency in the Subaltern Encounter of Evil: Subverting the Dominant and Appropriating the Indigenous

This essay focuses on subaltern encounter of evil that occurred in two different religious orbits, namely, Hinduism and Christianity in India. The Hindu phenomenon to be studied is Ayya Vaḻi1 (henceforth, AV) founded by Ayya Vaikundar (1809-1851) and the Christian phenomenon, Bible Mission (henceforth, BM) established by Devadas Ayyagaru (1840-1960). While attempts have been made earlier in the writings of Chad Bauman, Zoe Sherinian, Eleanor Zeliott, Sathianathan Clarke and G.Patick2 to study the relation between religion and subaltern agency in India, this work has a different focus in that it employs the idea of subaltern agency to discuss the parallel ways through which two nominally Hindu and Christian movements, originating from two different backgrounds and time periods, have developed a subaltern theodicy, borrowing from classical and local traditions, to offer a means for critiquing domination and overcoming marginalization