Brahmanism Abroad: On Caribbean Hinduism as an Ethnic Religion

Abstract

Outside of India, Hinduism plays a central role in organizing and orienting communities of Indian migrants and their descendants. Since Indians have migrated to all parts of the world, Hinduism has become unambiguously a distinct world religion. It is therefore important that the study of Hinduism does not remain confined to the Indian subcontinent. In this essay, we consider the development of Hinduism in the Caribbean context and specifically in Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad. Our discussion of Caribbean Hinduism is predicated on the assumption that to be a Hindu is neither an unchanging, primordial identity nor an infinitely flexible one which one can adopt or shed at will, depending on circumstances. It is an identity acquired through social practice and, as such, constantly negotiated in changing contexts. Our argument is that the evolution of Caribbean Hinduism can be interpreted as an ethnicization of religion under Brahman leadership. In Caribbean Hinduism differences in social and religious practice have been underplayed in the course of a long-term historical process in which a homogeneous Hindu community has been constructed. Within the Caribbean states of Trinidad, Guyana, and Suriname, Hindus traditionally regard themselves, and are regarded by others, as a distinct ethnic group marked not only by names and religious beliefs, but by criteria of language, kinship, values and aspirations, and social status. In the past, Brahmans have played a major role in consolidating and formulating important symbolic, ideological, and organizational features of Hindu ethnicity in each of the countries concerned. Such features have not only had consequences for ethnic relations and the practice of Hinduism in the Caribbean, they may be seen to carry theoretical relevance to the study of Hinduism in India and to broader studies of religion and social change.