How Gujarati Hindu Migrant Women Negotiate Identity and Belonging within their Religious Community: An Ethnographic Study

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which a group of Gujarati migrant women in Sydney, Australia, negotiate belonging within the context of their religious community or satsang. Using multi-sited ethnography in India and in Australia, the work interrogates the religious community as the institutional site in which boundaries of belonging and identity are delineated. It reveals that women negotiate belonging in the temple space around three primary areas: foodwork, bodily practices such as headcovering and information communication technologies or virtual space. Results indicate the ways in which women construct themselves as cultural gatekeepers around foodwork practices and the way in which headcovering becomes a site of contestation over claims of doctrinal or cultural authority. Finally, the study reveals the way in which women's participation in virtual religious space opens up possibilities for multi-layered ways of belonging and new ritual practices that challenge gendered norms.

Keywords:

• Identity
• Belonging
• Religion
• Gender
• Hindu