Definition
Hinduism in Trinidad and Tobago is a practically and discursively confected “world religion” produced beginning in the early twentieth century from a heterogeneous set of local Hindu practices and international models for Hindu social formation. This was accomplished through the work of a Hindu-identified Indian Trinidadian middle class, Indian missionaries, and the disciplining effects of colonial institutions. Trinidadians have continued to reproduce and contest the limits and contours of Hinduism into the postcolonial present.
Introduction
From 1838 to 1917, Indians spread around the world as indentured laborers, with approximately 144,000 of them coming to the British colony of Trinidad in the West Indies (Tobago did not receive Indian laborers). There is a great deal of heterogeneity among peoples across South Asia, who divide themselves by caste, sectarian, tribal, ethnic, linguistic, regional, and village identities. These modes of identification were in flux during...
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Rocklin, A. (2019). Hinduism in Trinidad and Tobago. In: Gooren, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. Religions of the World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27078-4_154
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