Dancing in the Fire: Ritually Constructing Hindu Identity in a Malaysian Landscape

Abstract

Hindus have been a part of the plural society of Malaysia since colonial times. Imported by the British to work on rubber plantations and to build railroads, Hindus transplanted both great tradition and little tradition practices to their new homeland. National cultural policies and local competition for social power among diverse Hindu groups places pressure on the salience of specific manifestations of Hindu culture, particularly on the form and function of temples and the performance of public rituals. Local context and the ambiance of particular landscapes situate specific acts of resistance and resolution in the forms of Sanskritization and parochialization. Thus Hindu communities in Pulau Pinang contest and recapture their interpretation of Hinduism through the renovations of temples and an annual festival that draws upon symbolic acts of both little tradition ritual performance and the Sanskritized temple so essential to their historical and contemporary identity as Hindus in Malaysia.