Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2017. xxxii, 400 pp., [16] pp. of plates. US$45.90, paper. ISBN 978-981-4695-75-6.
Carl Vadivella Belle’s book, Thaipusam in Malaysia: A Hindu Festival in the Tamil Diaspora, has a slightly misleading title. This reviewer expected a highly focused and Malaysia-centric study of an immensely popular Hindu religious festival, with perhaps some theological explication situating the Malaysian manifestation of this ritual vis-à-vis comparisons with the Tamil heartlands in India and Sri Lanka. This book easily accomplishes this but offers so much more. What unfolds is a book that marks a major contribution not only to studies of Hinduism in Malaysia, but more broadly, Tamil Saivism, variants within Hindu philosophy, and the complex web of Sanskritic and Tamil sources that comprise, over the longue durée, the corpus of beliefs surrounding the worship of Lord Murugan, the son of Shiva, and the focus of devotion within the Thaipusam ritual. The book also provides an insider’s view of the ritual. As Belle is a Hindu, and an annual participant in this ritual for decades, he is able to provide an incomparable perspective. The result is a work of passion, first-person experience, and exceptional scholarship.
One of the many unusual aspects of this study is its juxtaposition of ethnographic observation, personal experience, and rigorous textual analysis. Belle is able to map out, with admirable judiciousness and clarity, the heterogeneity and dissonance that exists under the big tent of Hindu thought and belief. For example, throughout the text he is able to show that within the bhakti or devotional traditions that evolved in South India during the times of the great empires of the South, there were elements of heterodoxy that challenged both dynastic and Brahminical orthodoxies. At the heart of the Murugan cult is an idiom of egalitarian protest against the iniquities of caste and human claims of sovereignty. The very act of carrying the kavadi, an act of penance and self-mortification, is an offering to the Lord that lies at the heart of the Thaipusam ritual, and, moreover, draws from a deep well of bhakti theology that encompasses anti-hierarchical tendencies in this tradition without invalidating Hindu notions of a divine hierarchy. With precision, Belle guides the reader through key religious texts, myths, and scholarly analyses of these same sources. A great portion of the book is devoted to historical and theological analysis, making it quite useful for scholars of Tamil and Hindu devotional traditions, more broadly, rather than to a narrow subset of scholars who study Malaysian Tamils.
In order to achieve the synthesis of ritual analysis and the deep dive into Tamil Saivism, Belle first provides the reader with a historical summary of Tamil culture and traditions in India, drawing upon authoritative sources in the literature. Belle also discusses Hindu nationalist and reform movements that emerged in the late nineteenth century that were critical of the more theistic and devotional ritualistic traditions that thrived within popular Hinduism, and continue to manifest at Thaipusam. He then provides a brief history of Tamil migration to Malaysia, followed by an overview of the Hinduism practiced there. In this context, we also learn about the political and religious landscape in Malaysia and how it has made Thaipusam, and Hindu revivalism, more resonant in the context of Islamic resurgence and ethnic nationalism.
The heart of the argument within this book emerges in the latter half, when Belle describes the spiritual transformation of the devotee who undertakes this pilgrimage to Batu Caves, the site of the largest Thaipusam celebration in Malaysia. Belle is able to demonstrate that the ritual is rooted in a religiosity that subsists within the symbolism and mythology of Lord Murugan. The deeper significance these afford for the devotee is his central concern. Moreover, the ritual and pilgrimage itself brings the devotee face to face with the central tenets of Hindu thought regarding mukti (liberation and enlightenment) and moksha (release from all karmic bonds) through the practice of surrender and devotion (bhakti) to the Lord. The author’s prose in this section on the phenomenology of the ritual and its subsequent analysis is inspired yet detailed, beautifully capturing the ethos of the ritual.
Belle takes exception with scholars who place emphasis on the psychological and socio-political aspects of the ritual. In short, a small body of scholarship has focused on the emotional and cathartic dimensions of the ritual through the lens of psychoanalysis, and/or aspects of political resistance and protest that might frame the ritual in light of ethnic politics in Malaysia. Belle provides the needed counter, arguing that psychological and political dimensions are subordinate to the spiritual odyssey embedded within and motivating the majority of participants. And while this is a needed corrective, Belle perhaps downplays the anti-hierarchical political dimensions, which are, arguably, important, as noted by the dramatic increase in participation correlating with both the urban migration of Tamils after plantation retrenchments and the rise of Islamic ethno-nationalism since the 1980s, both of which culminate with Hindu resurgence and popular ritualism, particularly at Thaipusam. Moreover, within the ancient bhakti traditions were what might be called deconstructive anti-hierarchical impulses and political critique, as Belle is well aware and discusses in the book. Human motivations can be a complex layering of conscious (normative) and unconscious (irrational or emotional) dimensions. In that sense, Thaipusam is certainly all that Belle says it is, but, perhaps also manifests other dimensions of human motivation tied to social tensions and political frustrations. This said, Belle argues that the scholarly and ethical imperative remains the explication of what the ritual means to the devotees, first and foremost.
It should also be mentioned that Belle discusses at some length Thaipusam celebrations in India, Sri Lanka, and other sites within the Tamil diaspora in order to suggest continuities in theology and practice that are not particular to Malaysia. These sections generally support his primary arguments that the ritual is grounded in Tamil Saivism, and not forged out of the diasporic experience. If true, however, it does make one wonder why the word “diaspora” appears in the title of the book, as it is not a particularly important analytic within it. Arguably, “diaspora” refers to a kind of displacement and doubling of identity that is never quite right at home, as imagined and/or real. Here, diaspora simply refers to the presence of Tamils outside of India and Sri Lanka.
In sum, Carl Vadivella Belle has written the most important and accomplished book on Malaysian Hinduism to yet appear. It is a tremendous and brilliant synthesis of scholarship, theology, and descriptive detail, and a work of passion that should be read by all scholars of Tamil Saivism, and Hinduism more broadly.
Andrew C. Willford
Cornell University, Ithaca, USA