Religion and gender: the Hindu diaspora in Portugal

Abstract

As perpetuators of what is considered traditional knowledge, Hindu women in Portugal are assigned a new status through religion, thus replacing the male pujari. This article focuses on the Hindu diaspora in Portugal, and specifically on the role played by women in the construction of gender and religious identities, who, entrusted with new social and ritual responsibilities, contribute towards the cultural replication of their traditional community. As anthropological studies on gender in diaspora show us, the assignment of religious roles are used to recreate women’s social status in the ‘host’ country.

Keywords:

• Hindu diaspora
• Hinduism
• gender
• Portugal
• India
• postcolonialism

Notes

1. Socio‐cosmic order or moral duty the individual must comply to in order to respect his/her individual and social condition.

2. The terms ‘high tradition’ and ‘low tradition’ were made popular by the Chicago school, particularly by Robert Redfield and Milton Singer (1954) to designate in the first case a set of canonical texts, religious practices and ritual representatives associated with the historical past of a particular group, and in the second case, a group of ‘low’ local religious traditions expressed by local dialects, which differ from the unified body of the ‘high traditions’ of Hindu Sanskrit. Cristopher Fuller emphasizes the need to not separate these two levels of Hinduism, calling our attention to their complementary nature: ‘It is now generally accepted that the religion is not split into two (or more) separate strata, each with its own body of distinctive beliefs and practices. In fairness to Srinivas, Redfield and Singer, it must be said that they always insisted that the higher and lower strata are interconnected’ (Fuller 2004, p. 26).

3. Bhakti means devotion and expresses the relationship between the devotee and a particular deity. This current was revealed in the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna, the central character of this odyssey, expresses each individual’s need to fulfill their dharma, while at the same time he teaches the secret of the encounter with the divine by assuming a universal form. This message encourages harmony between the bhakti and the dharma. The utmost example of devotion towards the deity is fulfilling the dharma, however difficult or painful it turns out to be.

4. The Sanskrit term to designate the spiritual master, whose task is to guide the disciple through his teachings and religious knowledge.

5. In the process of interpreting Hinduism, Kurien, regarding the reading and discussion of the Hindu religious texts, highlights women’s interpretation of the female characters through a feminist perspective which heightens their power (Kurien 1998, p. 54).

6. Sanskrit term (meaning colour) used to describe the four classifying units that comprise the Hindu social hierarchy: Brahmins (priests), Kshatryia, (aristocracy), Vaishya (merchants and farmers) and Shudra (services castes).

7. It is not possible to cite a fixed number given the frequent mobility of these women between Portugal, India and other countries where contacts with the Hindu diaspora in Portugal are deeper, as is the case with the UK.

8. The cult of fire through a Vedic ritual.

9. A history with a moral lesson usually implying a ritual that includes making offerings to the deities.

10. The female role in India that finds an approximate Portuguese counterpart is that of ‘temple attendants’ or ‘pujarini’ (cf. Marglin 1985, p. 54) in certain tasks where we register the participation of post‐menopausal widows aiding in the temples religious duties, which they are allowed to do because, despite their widowhood, their advanced age confers them a status of purity. Such tasks are usually minor duties and never imply – similarly to what we observe in Portugal – presiding over rituals that require the presence of a male priest.

11. Television shows such as the serial on the Ramayana epic convey a conservative image of women of which Sita is the perfect model.

12. Group of women aged over 50 who meet to carry out devotional gatherings (satsang), and the main focus of my research.

13. Also called ekadashi, the eleventh day of each lunar phase.

14. Means month in Gujarati.

15. This term expresses the Hindu essence, the link between Hindu religious heritage and India’s national identity. This notion finds its foremost expression in the context of Indian political and religious nationalism connected with the ideological structure of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). The movement known as hindutva intervenes through campaigns that trigger feelings of Hindu revivalism, proclaiming this religious source as the foundation of Indian nationalism. Besides their action in Indian Territory, this movement is active in most transnational Hindu communities.

16. Being young in diaspora in many cases implies searching for stable points of reference, in a context where religion emerges as a national language (Shukla 2005, p. 233). As Shukla points out, some young people reject the flexibility of cosmopolitan identity and try to organize themselves around the identification with the cultural values of the subcontinent, although not those necessarily associated with nationalist movements. However, Shukla points out that: ‘In all these cases, movements in the subcontinent reach out to their wayward sons, even if they are in a new generation and have a relatively abstracted relationship to the nation’ (Shukla 2005, p. 233).