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Muharram Rituals and the Carnivalesque in Trinidad

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Muharram Rituals and the Carnivalesque in Trinidad 3 8 Regional issues I S I M NEWSLETTER 3 / 9 9 The Carribean GUSTAV THAISS Muharram Rituals Beginning in the 19t h century, a wave of indentured workers were brought by the British from India to Trinidad to work the plantations which had been abandoned by former slaves who had been freed by and the the abolition of slavery in 1838. By 1917, the end of indentureship, nearly 144,000 workers had been brought to Trinidad. The majority came from the North Indian areas of Agra and Oudh (Awadh), and while most were Hindu, there were Muslims among Carnivalesque them, a minority of whom were Shi’a. The Muslims brought their devotional practices with them to the Caribbean and they continued to commemorate the Mu- in Trinidad harram rituals on the plantations. Workers on the estates, including Muslims, Hindus, Interestingly, despite the violence often The battle drums evoke a feeling of great the broader multicultural unity of the coun- Creoles and Chinese, donated funds for the associated with Muharram rituals, the day of excitement and are evaluated by the spec- try and hence a value to be exploited. In construction of the t acz i y a h s, which were cAshura itself (the tenth of Muharram) has a tators in terms of the ‘sweetness’ of their many respects the t acz i y a h has become a carried in processions. Competition (some- somewhat ambiguous meaning in the Mus- sounds. Many of the t a s s a drums have iden- moving, processional exhibit, an objectifica- times violent) often arose between the es- lim world. It is a day on which numerous rit- tifying ‘names’ painted on them as do the tion not only of the architectural beauty, tates for the most attractive t acz i y a h, or uals of joy and happiness have been cele- p a n or steel drums in Carnival. Some are tra- colours and display of the t acz i y a h, but also, Hosay as it was often called (a colloquial brated for centuries throughout the Sunni ditional such as ‘Husayn’, ‘Karbala’, or to the government of Trinidad as well as to pronunciation of Husayn). In Trinidad, as in world, especially in North Africa and Egypt. ‘Hasan’, while others have such ‘names’ as the people themselves (the Shi’a and non- India, a t acz i y a h (also known as t a d j a h) is an On the other hand cAshura, for the Shi’a, is a ‘Conan’, ‘Rock and Roll’, or ‘Poison’. The lat- Muslim participants), an embodiment of the elaborately decorated, colourful simulacrum day for rituals of remembrance and mourn- ter is an interesting double-entendre in the ethos of the f ê t e Ð the oneness and brother- of the tomb of Husayn which is conveyed in ing commemorating the tragic martyrdom best tradition of Calypso, representing both hood of a heterogeneous society. p r o c e s s i o n s .1 In Iran, of course, t acz i y a h r e f e r s and self-sacrifice of Husayn at the battle of a significant word in the Muharram tradi- to ritual dramatic performances or ‘passion- Karbala in 61/680. Indeed, some medieval tion, namely the poison associated with the To whom does the Hosay plays’. scholars such as Ibn Taymiyya and al- death of Hasan, as well as being the name of b e l o n g ? The Muharram rituals quickly became the Maqrizi have even suggested that the joy- a currently popular hard-rock group. As the What is presently occurring in Trinidad is main symbol of Indian nationalism in the ous celebration of cAshura among the Sunni Shi’a chant ‘Hosay’, ‘Hosay’, ‘Hosay’, specta- an implicit process of negotiation, which is face of British colonialism and of a sense of was a later ‘innovative’ attempt to insult the tors join in with slight, quickly spoken mod- defining and socially creating the reality of identity vis-à-vis Indian minority status in Shi’a followers of Husayn ibn cAli, since such ifications such as ‘Hosay, I say’, ‘Hosay, I say’, Hosay. But who ‘owns’ the ‘rights’ to a reli- the Black Caribbean. Despite their differ- joyful practices are not supported by au- the rhyming patterns of which are bor- gious ritual? It may seem a patently ridicu- ences, however, the Creoles, Indians and thentic h a d i t h.3 In India, many of the Muhar- rowed from the Calypso tradition in lous question, but the issue of authenticity others joined together in the Hosay proces- ram commemorations bring together both Trinidad. and multi-vocality lies at its very core. If vari- sions to protest various injustices, including sorrowful and festive features. Popular foods, soft drinks, rum and beer ous religious and ethnic groups participate the reduction of wages on the plantations are available from street vendors, unlike in a ritual such as the Hosay and give it idio- and the concomitant increase in workload. Muharram and the water, which was traditionally available as a syncratic meanings, is it then not ‘theirs’, as It has even been said that the Hosay gave carnivalesque in Trinidad remembrance of the thirst of the martyrs. well as belonging to organizers and spon- symbolic form to a growing working-class Over the last century or so, what has been The Shi’a recognize that changes are occur- sors, who have a different meaning of its consciousness throughout the Caribbean.2 the major tragic event in the Shi’a Muslim ring over which they seem to have little con- ‘truth’? In a very real sense the Hosay is an ar- Such activities began to cause anxiety be- ritual calendar has been increasingly trans- trol; but at the same time they say ‘We are ticulation of socio-cultural differences and cause of the allegedly increasing tendency formed into a ‘ f ê t e ’ with a carnival-like ambi- living in Trinidad where 45% of the popula- similarities. In the discursive process, a ritual to riotous behaviour. Throughout the 19th ence, second only to the main carnival in tion is Negro and 42% is Indian, we must in- and social world is given meaning, but one century, great alarm was expressed by the festival schedule of Trinidad. The Shi’a tegrate. I’ve always maintained that the which is always contestable and open to re- British authorities and other colonists over Muslim organizers deeply believe in the reli- t acz i y a h in itself is a form of togetherness. It articulation. It is a never-ending process of the threat to public order of the Muharram gious significance of this event while the 30- keeps us together’. This new multicultural negotiation. What t acz i y a h once was in India, rituals (as well as Carnival celebrations) cul- 40,000 spectators/participants have little interpretation of the Hosay is also reflected it is not today; and what it is today, it will not ‘Hosay’ domes minating in the Hosay massacre of 1884 (re- knowledge of its religious purpose. The in the views of others. A Hindu Sadhu, for be tomorrow, although in that process vari- u n d e r ferred to by the British as the ‘Coolie Distur- non-Muslim spectators/participants (Afro- example, understood the Hosay to be a ritu- ous participants try to fix its meaning to re- c o n s t r u c t i o n bances in Trinidad’). Trinidadians, Hindus, some Sunni and oth- al remembrance of a conflict between two flect their view of the world. ♦ ers) treat it as a f ê t e, using terms borrowed brothers, Hasan and Hosayn, one of whom from carnival such as ‘bacchanal’, ‘jump-up’, had been a Muslim and the other a Hindu, ‘shake-up’, and ‘mas’, which are appropriate and ‘they died together battling over their to their definition of the situation. They Faiths. People now make the tadjahs to view the Muharram rituals in this way par- commemorate their deaths, and “to show tially because of the actions of the Shi’a we should all live in unity together”.’5 themselves who borrow aspects of Carnival Sunni Muslims in Guyana, Fiji and else- Gustav Thaiss is professor at the Department of in the construction, style of public presenta- where were able to have similar t acz i y a h e d- Anthropology, York University, Toronto, Canada. tion and decoration. The Hosay is built in ifices and processions banned in their coun- H e has conducted research on Shi’a rituals in Iran the I m a m b a r a in the ‘y a r d ’ of the builder tries as un-Islamic and a ‘mockery’ of a ‘pure’ and Trinidad. E-Mail: [email protected] and when they ‘come out’ onto the streets Islam. The Sunni in Trinidad, despite pro- on Tasuca and cAshura, the event is trans- tests for the past century, have not been N o t e s formed into public entertainment, into successful in banning the Hosay. One rea- 1 . On the t acz i y a h in India, see Shakeel Hossain, street theatre. son for this is government recognition, es- ‘Tazia: Ephemeral Architecture in India’, M i m a r : The Hosay/t acz i y a h structure varies in pecially in recent years, of the value of Architecture in Development, 35, June, 1990, height, averaging 10 to 15 feet and is totally t o u r i s m .
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