Indian and Chinese Immigrant Communities by Jayati Bhattacharya Coonoor Kripalani

Author:Jayati Bhattacharya, Coonoor Kripalani [Jayati Bhattacharya, Coonoor Kripalani]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783083626
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: 2015-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Singaporean Hinduism” is subject to a variety of regulative, administrative and disciplinary mechanisms particularly in its public and official manifestation. The bureaucratic logic often at work is conditioned by the call for a specific kind of Hinduism appropriate for Singapore and Singaporean Hindus, given the nature of Singapore society as multi-ethnic and multi-religious, and her citizens as modern, urban, rational and literate. These articulated self perceptions culminate in the insistence that Hinduism in Singapore must be constituted and presented in a certain mode, one that distances its current construction from any superstitious, overly ritualistic or emotional dimension. While these features may have been normal and legitimate for previous generations in India or Singapore of the old days, they have no place in modern Hinduism and modern society. I argue that in this regulation and disciplining process exercised through Hindu administrative bodies, management committee of temples, and elites of the Hindu community, there is an embedded ideological position about what is “real” Hinduism. If put into practice, such a stance may potentially eradicate a variety of ritual practices that are deemed legitimate by other sections of the Hindu community in Singapore.11

Here, the idea of pluralism and syncretism is underscored; it is a defining factor of how Hinduism in Singapore has evolved in the last two hundred years. For village gods to survive and find new meaning in the urban and multicultural society of Singapore indeed needs further research on religious identity in a multifaith, multi-ethnic society where holding onto one’s beliefs is seen as a matter of natural selection and a reflection of economic and social background.

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