The Regulation of Religion and the Making of Hinduism in Colonial Trinidad

The Regulation of Religion and the Making of Hinduism in Colonial Trinidad PDF Author: Alexander Rocklin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781469648736
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description

The Regulation of Religion and the Making of Hinduism in Colonial Trinidad

The Regulation of Religion and the Making of Hinduism in Colonial Trinidad PDF Author: Alexander Rocklin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781469648736
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description


Religion Under Contract: The Regulation of Religion and the Making of Hinduism in Colonial Trinidad

Religion Under Contract: The Regulation of Religion and the Making of Hinduism in Colonial Trinidad PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781321033816
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
This dissertation analyzes the role of the category religion in the regulation of the lives of Indian indentured laborers in colonial Trinidad from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. It contributes an on-the-ground, detailed history of the ways in which the colonial regime and its subjects in Trinidad helped to produce iterations of South Asian religions. Looking at the establishment of policies to regulate public ritual, statutes outlawing witchcraft, and the effects that colonial institutions like prisons and schools had on the lives of Indians, this dissertation examines the ways in which Indian Trinidadians had to engage in the discourse on religion in order to make a place for themselves on the island. It argues that "religion" was not simply a superimposed product of "the West" in the colonies. Rather, the dissertation argues it was a joint, if highly contentious and unequal, venture, on the part of both colonizers and colonized. Taking examples of fire walking, the ritual theater of Ramlila, Muharram or Hosay, and heterogeneous healing and spirit working practices, among others, it looks at how religion was negotiated, as European categories were in turn disputed and reworked in and through the emerging discourse and practice of Indians. It then investigates the changing role of the categories Hindu and Hinduism and disputes over their meaning in the formation of regional Hindu organizations, as Indians in Trinidad struggled and collaborated among themselves, reforming and standardizing Hindu practices and institutions, attempting to make them into a modern religion, a coherent, even global, Hinduism.

The Regulation of Religion and the Making of Hinduism in Colonial Trinidad

The Regulation of Religion and the Making of Hinduism in Colonial Trinidad PDF Author: Alexander Rocklin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781469648705
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
How can religious freedom be granted to people who do not have a religion? While Indian indentured workers in colonial Trinidad practiced cherished rituals, "Hinduism" was not a widespread category in India at the time. On this Caribbean island, people of South Asian descent and African descent came together--under the watchful eyes of the British rulers--to walk on hot coals for fierce goddesses, summon spirits of the dead, or honor Muslim martyrs, practices that challenged colonial norms for religion and race. Drawing deeply on colonial archives, Alexander Rocklin examines the role of the category of religion in the regulation of the lives of Indian laborers struggling for autonomy. Gradually, Indians learned to narrate the origins, similarities, and differences among their fellows' cosmological views, and to define Hindus, Muslims, and Christians as distinct groups. Their goal in doing this work of subaltern comparative religion, as Rocklin puts it, was to avoid criminalization and to have their rituals authorized as legitimate religion--they wanted nothing less than to gain access to the British promise of religious freedom. With the indenture system's end, the culmination of this politics of recognition was the gradual transformation of Hindus' rituals and the reorganization of their lives--they fabricated a "world religion" called Hinduism.

The Regulation of Religion and the Making of Hinduism in Colonial Trinidad

The Regulation of Religion and the Making of Hinduism in Colonial Trinidad PDF Author: Alexander Rocklin
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469648725
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
How can religious freedom be granted to people who do not have a religion? While Indian indentured workers in colonial Trinidad practiced cherished rituals, "Hinduism" was not a widespread category in India at the time. On this Caribbean island, people of South Asian descent and African descent came together—under the watchful eyes of the British rulers—to walk on hot coals for fierce goddesses, summon spirits of the dead, or honor Muslim martyrs, practices that challenged colonial norms for religion and race. Drawing deeply on colonial archives, Alexander Rocklin examines the role of the category of religion in the regulation of the lives of Indian laborers struggling for autonomy. Gradually, Indians learned to narrate the origins, similarities, and differences among their fellows' cosmological views, and to define Hindus, Muslims, and Christians as distinct groups. Their goal in doing this work of subaltern comparative religion, as Rocklin puts it, was to avoid criminalization and to have their rituals authorized as legitimate religion—they wanted nothing less than to gain access to the British promise of religious freedom. With the indenture system's end, the culmination of this politics of recognition was the gradual transformation of Hindus' rituals and the reorganization of their lives—they fabricated a "world religion" called Hinduism.

Identifying and Regulating Religion in India

Identifying and Regulating Religion in India PDF Author: Geetanjali Srikantan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108901158
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Judicial debates on the regulation of religion in post-colonial India have been characterised by the inability of courts to identify religion as a governable phenomenon. This book investigates the identification and regulation of religion through an intellectual history of law's creation of religion from the colonial to the post-colonial. Moving beyond conventional explanations on the failure of secularism and the secular state, it argues that the impasse in the legal regulation of religion lies in the methodologies and frameworks used by British colonial administrators in identifying and governing religion. Drawing on insights from post-colonial theory and religious studies, it demonstrates the role of secular legal reasoning in the background of Western intellectual history and Christian theology through an illustration of the place of worship. It is a contribution to South Asian legal history and sociolegal studies analysing court archives, colonial narratives and legislative documents.

Experiments with Power

Experiments with Power PDF Author: J. Brent Crosson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022670548X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
In 2011, Trinidad declared a state of emergency. This massive state intervention lasted for 108 days and led to the rounding up of over 7,000 people in areas the state deemed “crime hot spots.” The government justified this action and subsequent police violence on the grounds that these measures were restoring “the rule of law.” In this milieu of expanded policing powers, protests occasioned by police violence against lower-class black people have often garnered little sympathy. But in an improbable turn of events, six officers involved in the shooting of three young people were charged with murder at the height of the state of emergency. To explain this, the host of Crime Watch, the nation’s most popular television show, alleged that there must be a special power at work: obeah. From eighteenth-century slave rebellions to contemporary responses to police brutality, Caribbean methods of problem-solving “spiritual work” have been criminalized under the label of “obeah.” Connected to a justice-making force, obeah remains a crime in many parts of the anglophone Caribbean. In Experiments with Power, J. Brent Crosson addresses the complex question of what obeah is. Redescribing obeah as “science” and “experiments,” Caribbean spiritual workers unsettle the moral and racial foundations of Western categories of religion. Based on more than a decade of conversations with spiritual workers during and after the state of emergency, this book shows how the reframing of religious practice as an experiment with power transforms conceptions of religion and law in modern nation-states.

The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Diasporas

The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Diasporas PDF Author: Knut A. Jacobsen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198867697
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
Hindu Diasporas presents the histories and religious traditions of Hindus with a South Asian ancestral background living outside of South Asia. Hinduism is a global religion with a significant presence in many countries throughout the world. The most important cause of this global expansion is migration. This book presents and analyses the most important of the geographies, migration histories, religious traditions and developments, rituals, places, institutions, and representations of Hinduism in the diasporas, capturing some of the great plurality of Hindu religious traditions. The first part of the book concentrates on the major regions in the world in which Hindu diasporas are found. The main focus is the modern period, but the book discusses also the possibility of premodern Hindu diasporas in Southeast Asia. The second part focuses on specific central themes such as Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta traditions in diasporas, temples, and traditions of sacred sites and pilgrimage outside of South Asia, Hindutva organizations and the diaspora, as well as relations between Hindu diasporas and new followers of Hindu traditions. The chapters in this book show some of the global presence of the Hindu diasporas and some of the dynamic developments in multiple geographical spaces. Analysing specific spaces and themes, the chapters of the book offer a foundation for understanding the Hindu traditions in its most important global diasporic contexts and the dynamic developments around the world.

The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Religions

The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Religions PDF Author: Michelle A. Gonzalez
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190916966
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 569

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Book Description
"The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Religions offers a comprehensive overview of Caribbean religions. The Caribbean is a microcosm of the world's religions, but the small geographic space resulted in the encounter of global religions and indigenous religious practices. The racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of this region makes brief introductions to Caribbean religions incapable of truly addressing its complex and diverse religious landscape. The Handbook also elaborates on the diversity of the religious traditions and the national particularity of the region while also considering multiple geographic settings. It mentions how often Caribbean religion is studied through the perspective of a discrete religious tradition or geographic setting"--

The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Cities

The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Cities PDF Author: Katie Day
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000289265
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
Like an ecosystem, cities develop, change, thrive, adapt, expand, and contract through the interaction of myriad components. Religion is one of those living parts, shaping and being shaped by urban contexts. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Cities is an outstanding interdisciplinary reference source to the key topics, problems, and methodologies of this cutting-edge subject. Representing a diverse array of cities and religions, the common analytical approach is ecological and spatial. It is the first collection of its kind and reflects state-of-the-art research focusing on the interaction of religions and their urban contexts. Comprising 29 chapters, by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into three parts: Research methodologies Religious frameworks and ideologies in urban contexts Contemporary issues in religion and cities Within these sections, emerging research and analysis of current dynamics of urban religions are examined, including: housing, economics, and gentrification; sacred ritual and public space; immigration and the refugee crisis; political conflicts and social change; ethnic and religious diversity; urban policy and religion; racial justice; architecture and the built environment; religious art and symbology; religion and urban violence; technology and smart cities; the challenge of climate change for global cities; and religious meaning-making of the city. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Cities is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies and urban studies. The Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as sociology, history, architecture, urban planning, theology, social work, and cultural studies.

Independence, Colonial Relics, and Monuments in the Caribbean

Independence, Colonial Relics, and Monuments in the Caribbean PDF Author: Allison O. Ramsay
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1666943983
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Independence, Colonial Relics, and Monuments in the Caribbean is a collection of critical perspectives on independence and the legacies of colonialism in the post-colonial Caribbean. The contributors examine themes relating to culture, identity, gender, nationhood, heritage and historic preservation in the post-independent Caribbean. In a twenty-first century context where calls for reparatory justice for the people of the Caribbean who have been disadvantaged by the effects of colonialism have intensified, this book is quite relevant as some chapters examine colonialism through relics, laws, statues and monuments, while other chapters explore the implications of African enslavement, the role of Indian indentureship, the Federation of the West Indies and the effect of the American based Black Lives Movement on the Caribbean.