Contestation and transformation

Abstract

Indian indentured workers were recruited from the 1830s to labour on sugar plantations across the British Empire, replacing freed slave labour. They carried many aspects of their culture and religion with them. These practices served as an important instrument of survival in often harsh conditions and helped uplift spirits and provide communal solidarity, while also providing a tool of resistance. The most popular festival among Indian migrants, both Hindu and Muslim, was arguably the Muslim festival of Muḥarram, which was a well-established festival in India by the time that the indentured were making their way across the ‘kala pani.’ This chapter examines transformations in Muḥarram practices in South Africa from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Participants in Muḥarram have constantly re-negotiated its meanings, rituals, and symbolism, and re-created authenticity in terms of their changing notion of what constitutes correct belief, rituals and practices. Changes in understandings of Muḥarram and its practices reflect broader contestation over what constitutes ‘authentic’ Islamic practices, raising the fundamental question over whether a hegemonic, authoritative Islamic tradition can ever exist.