Foreign religious bodies: constructing the religious 'other'
This is an exploratory paper that probes the relationship between segments of the local Hindu population and small groups of Hindu transnational migrant workers, based in the predominantly Indian suburb of Reservoir Hills, Durban, in KwaZulu Natal. The paper suggests that a process of othering takes...
| Published in: | Nidān |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Univ.
2009
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| In: |
Nidān
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This is an exploratory paper that probes the relationship between segments of the local Hindu population and small groups of Hindu transnational migrant workers, based in the predominantly Indian suburb of Reservoir Hills, Durban, in KwaZulu Natal. The paper suggests that a process of othering takes place where the local Hindus construct the trans-migrant Hindus as 'foreign'. Using the ethnographic spatial locale of Reservoir Hills, it attempts to probe the modes through which this plastic othering happens, suggesting that the notion of 'gaze' may offer a means to reveal this process. The paper also suggests that structural-hole theory can assist in understanding how the migrants may inadvertently participate in allowing themselves to be 'othered'. The paper argues that that while religion functions as a form of social capital within transnational communities, such cohesive ties within particular Hindu migrant communities simultaneously act to also retard "connectivity and relationships" (Gargiulo and Benassi 2000: 183), even between members of the same religious group (but who exist outside of the immediate transnational community). |
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| ISSN: | 2414-8636 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Nidān
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.58125/nidan.2009.1 |