This book presents an original and comprehensive reading of the contemporary Mauritian society where Hinduism is practised by more than half of the population. It discusses themes such as the genesis of the Mauritian multicultural society; religious and cultural transformations; the cult of kalimai; the building of social relations and the birth of associations; and the link between Mauritian Hinduism and sugar plantation economy to highlight the interactions of the religious with the political economy of the nation. First of its kind, this book, with its rich ethnographic accounts, will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of religion, Hinduism, social anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, diaspora studies, sociology of religion and African studies.

This book presents an original and comprehensive overview of the transformation of Mauritian Hinduism against the backdrop of globalisation. It discusses themes such as the cult of Baharia Puja; the cult of “Camp De Masque”; changes in popular cults; temples and associative strategies of social integration; emergence of Hanuman; ritual innovations in politics and, religious and political transformation due to globalisation to highlight the link between the reinvention of Hinduism and Mauritian capitalism. The first of its kind, this book with its rich ethnographic accounts, will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of religion, Hinduism, social anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, diaspora studies, sociology of religion and African studies.

"The Oxford Handbook of Modern Indian Literatures is a compilation of scholarship on Indian literature from the 19th century to the present in a range of Indian languages. On one hand, because of reasons associated with national academic structures, publishing resources, and global visibility, English writing gets privileged over all the other linguistic traditions in the scholarship on Indian literatures. On the other hand, within the scholarship on regional language literary productions (in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, etc.), the critical works and the surveys focus only on that particular language and therefore frequently suffer from a lack of comparative breadth and/or global access. Both reflect the paradigm of monolingualism within which much literary scholarship on Indian literature takes place. This handbook instead focuses on the multilingual pathways through which modern Indian literature gets constituted. It features cutting-edge literary criticism from at least seventeen languages, and on traditional literary genres as well as more recent ones like graphic novels. It shows the deep connections and collaborations across genres, languages, nations, and regions that produce a literature of diverse contact zones, generating innovations on form, aesthetics, and technique. Foregrounding themes such as modernity and modernism, gender, caste, diaspora, and political resistance, the book collects an array of perspectives on this vast topic"--

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.

This multidisciplinary collection presents 11 essays ranging from the pre-Vedic to the modern era and incorporating research on Hindu, Buddhist and tribal cultures. Authors ask whether the worship of goddesses, strongly linked to fertility rituals, might have mitigated the ecological decline of South Asia in the pre-British and post-colonial eras.

Speaking of Mauritius as an economic miracle has become a cliché, and with good reason: Its development since Independence in 1968 can easily be narrated as a rags-to-riches story. In addition, it is a stable democracy capable of containing the conflict potential inherent in its complex ethnic and religious demography. This book brings together some of the finest scholarship, domestic as well as foreign, on contemporary Mauritius, offering perspectives from constitutional law, cultural studies, sociology, archaeology, economics, social anthropology and more. While celebrating the indisputable, and impressive, achievements of the Mauritian nation on its fiftieth birthday, this book is far from toothless. Looking back inevitably implies looking ahead, and in order to do so, critical self-scrutiny is essential, to be able to learn from the mistakes of the past. The contributors raise fundamental questions concerning a broad range of issues, from the dilemmas of multiculturalism to the marginal role of women in public life, from the question of constitutional reform and the continued problem of corruption to the slow destruction of Mauritius’ joy and pride, namely the beauty and purity of its natural scenery. Taking stock of the first fifty years, this book also looks ahead to the next fifty years, giving some cues as to where Mauritius can and should aim in the next decades.

The narratives under consideration in Rainbow Colors depict Mauritius's history of competing colonial forces, describe its intricate social geography of free and forced migrations, and portray the anxieties of mixed race persons and cultures in postcolonies.Through a rigorous analysis of novels from Loys Masson's L'etoile et la clef (1945) to Ananda Devi's Moi, l'interdite (2000), this study argues that there is no single grand narrative of cultural hybridity and ethnic pluralism in Mauritius. By conceptualizing literature as the overlapping space of ethnic-cultural realities, national and transnational identities, and a poetics of alterity, Rainbow Colors explores how different literary ethno-topographies of Mauritius are produced at this intersection. This original work considers Mauritian writing in French in its own right and not as a minor literature within the Francophone tradition. Furthermore, while significant monographs on ethnicity and nation have been published on the African and Caribbean novel (in English and in French), this is the first such single-authored book-length study on Mauritian novels to date.

Hindus will be valuable on more than one level: as a source of instruction, as a basis for discussion, seminars and further study, even as a challenge for further research. It provides a new perspective on what it means to live as a Hindu and enables readers to appreciate this great and marvellous religious phenomenon, its extraordinary richness, and the way it encompasses the diversity of human experience.

Mauritius : a parallel society -- Guyana : invented traditions -- Trinidad : ethnic religion -- South Africa : reform religion -- Fiji : a segregated society -- East Africa : caste religion.