The Memory of Forgotten Religion in Postcolonial Mauritius
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Reimagining Mardévirin: The Memory of Forgotten Religion in Postcolonial Mauritius Marek Ahnee 260357527 Faculty of Religious Studies McGill University Montréal, Canada March 2016 _______________________________________________________________________ A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies © 2016 Marek Ahnee Abstract This research is a contribution to the study of diasporic Hinduism. It draws on historical documentation and ethnographic fieldwork, focusing on the evolution of the cult of deity Mardévirin/Maduraivīraṉ, between South India where it originates and Mauritius Island, one of nineteenth-century plantation societies where it was transplanted following indenture. My research is an attempt to write a cultural history around the cult of Mardévirin. I first locate the latter’s origins in precolonial South India, in order to map out important themes - such as political symbolism, moral ambiguity and antinomian religiosity - that are mirrored and subverted on Mauritius Island. In the second part of the thesis, I argue that the colonial period was fertile ground for Mardévirin’s growing popularity, as the god’s legendary narrative and worship echoed the indentured plantation’s world and social reality. Under the influence of Indian religious nationalisms and the arrival of Mauritian independence, Mardévirin worship lost ground, the deity’s figure failing to fit in with the religious sensitivities of a new, nascent, “global” order. Finally, mainly through fieldwork, I have inquired about what subsists of Mardévirin in today’s Mauritius. I found that although the worship is now marginal and residual, Mardévirin is still remembered as a symbol of subaltern religious identity. Globally, this research insists, through the figure of Mardévirin, on the importance that guardian deity worship played in the liminal religious life that connected South India and colonial Mauritius Island. It also highlights the way the religious economy was radically transformed by postcolonial modernity. ii Résumé Cette recherche entend contribuer à l’étude de l’hindouisme en diaspora. Elle s’appuie sur une documentation historique et un travail de terrain de caractère ethnographique. Elle est centrée sur l’évolution du culte de la divinité Mardévirin/Maduraivīraṉ entre l’Inde du Sud où il prend naissance et l’île Maurice, une des sociétés de plantation du XIXe siècle où l’a amené l’engagisme. Ma recherche m’a conduit à une étude parallèle de l’histoire culturelle des communautés pratiquant le culte de Mardévirin. J’ai d’abord replacé les origines de ce culte dans l’Inde précoloniale afin de pouvoir situer certains thèmes importants, tels que le symbolisme politique, l’ambiguïté morale et l’antinomisme religieux, thèmes reproduits et subvertis à l’île Maurice. Dans un deuxième temps, j’ai exploré le développement et le déclin du culte dans leurs contextes politiques et religieux respectifs. Je soutiens que la période coloniale a été un terrain fertile pour la popularité de Mardévirin, sa légende et son culte faisant écho aux réalités sociales de l’époque. Avec l’influence des nationalismes religieux indiens et l’arrivée de l’indépendance mauricienne, le culte de Mardévirin perd de sa popularité, n’étant plus compatible avec la sensibilité religieuse du nouvel ordre « mondial ». Finalement, principalement à travers un travail de terrain, j’ai enquêté sur ce qui subsiste du culte dans l’île Maurice d’aujourd’hui. J’avance que même s’il n’est plus que marginal et résiduel, la figure de Mardévirin est rappelée comme un symbole d’indentité religieuse subalterne. Globalement, cette recherche insiste, à travers Mardévirin, sur l’importance des divinités gardiennes entre l’Inde de l’engagisme et l’Ile Maurice coloniale. Est aussi mise en avant la transformation radicale de cette économie religieuse par la modernité postcoloniale. iii Acknowledgments The documentation and drafting of this thesis would not have been possible without the loving generosity of my grandfather Maurice. As a child, I dreamed of becoming a painter like him, so that one day, in my turn, I could also meticulously reproduce the complex beauty surrounding me. This is why I would like to dedicate this work to him. I owe tremendous thanks to my supervisor Davesh Soneji, naṭṭuvaṉār extraordinaire, for guiding me in academia for many years now. I must also thank Andrea Marion Pinkney and Pasha Mohammad Khan for their advice and encouragement. I cannot salute them all in these lines but I need to acknowledge that this work owes much to the precious contribution of many wonderful people. Among the latter, I cannot fail to mention my dear “Tambi” Kavinien Karupudayyan for having given so much of his time to help me deal with Tamil sources. Last but not least, I thank my amazing colleague and comadre Henria Aton whose unflinching support, humour and affection all helped keeping me sane. iv Contents Introduction 1 1. Horseman and Avenger: Maturaivīraṉ in the Early Modern Tamil world 9 2. From Watchman to Witchcraft: The Worship and Representation of Mardévirin in Colonial Mauritius 28 3. Vellan versus Vīraṇ: Mardévirin, the Tamil Renewal and Postcolonial Religion 62 4. Dismembered Memories; Fragmented Images: Recollecting Mardévirin in Glocal Mauritius 83 Final Conclusion: The Never Ending Katai 114 Bibliography 116 v Introduction Who is Mardévirin? If the question were asked on the twin Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Réunion, the answers may vary: “a spirit,” “a demon,” “a saint,” “a God.” Mardévirin is inextricably linked to Tamil communities on these two islands, the name “Mardévirin” being derivative of the name of the preindenture Tamil village deity Maturaivīraṉ (“Hero of the City of Madurai”). In his catechism entitled Le Symbolisme dans l’Himdouisme, influential Mauritian educationist and Tamil Hindu reformer Mootoocomaren Sangeelee (1987) mentions Mardévirin under the heading “minor god.” Il y a quelques autres dieux qu’on appelle dieux mineurs ou même dieux méchants (doushta dévatha). Ce sont principalement, Maduréi Vîren (Mardévirin). Mounsvaren (Minisprin), Câttéri et Pétchai. Ces dieux sont reconnus surtout par les tamouls. Les esprits simples s’adressent à eux, soit pour être protégés contre le mal que voudraient leur faire les autres, soit pour faire du mal à leurs ennemis. Ce sont des dieux des temps primitifs, à qui on sacrifie des animaux. Les sages conseillent fortement de ne pas les adorer. Ces dieux-là ne trouvent pas de place à l’intérieur des temples. On les loge généralement dans de misérables petits sanctuaires construits contre le mur d’enclos où on expose leurs images en plein air. Câtteri et Pétchai sont généralement représentées par une pierre noire entourée d’un bout de toile. A Maurice, le culte de ces dieux a considérablement diminué. Il est évident que dans un avenir non lointain, ces dieux-là auront été oubliés. (Sangeelee 1994, 87)1. 1 There are some other gods which are called minor gods or even malevolent gods (dousthta devatha). They are principally Madurei Virên (Mardévirin), Mounsvaren (Minisprin), Catteri and Petchai. These gods are acknowledged mainly by Tamilians. Simple minded people turn to them, either to be protected from the evil which others want to inflict upon them, either to deal evil upon their enemies. These are gods of primitive times, to which animals are sacrificed. The wise strongly advise to refrain from worshipping them. These gods find no place inside temples. They are usually placed in miserable small sanctuaries built against the enclosure wall where their images are exposed in open air. Catteri and Petchai are usually represented by a black stone wrapped in a piece of cloth. In Mauritius, these gods’ cult has considerably diminished. It is obvious that in a not so far future, these gods will have been forgotten. (Sangeelee, 1994, 87) Sangeelee’s words reflect the official Mauritian representation of Mardévirin and of the other guardian deities of Tamil origin. Many of the themes that the reformer mentions in his rather dismissive appraisal of the role of the “minor gods” are central themes in my study, namely the gods’ ambivalent if not malevolent status, as well as rites of animal sacrifice, and deity possession. Having been raised in the Créole community of Mauritius, I had only a vague idea of who Mardévirin was, usually encountering him as a frightening boogeyman mentioned by older relatives. It was only much later, while reading about the creolization of the Hindu pantheon in Réunion, that I understood that he was the postindenture manifestation of the Tamil village deity Maturaivīraṉ. Intrigued by Sangeelee’s five short paragraphs, I embarked on a research that led me, as from May 2014 to July 2015, to commute between South India and its Indian Ocean diaspora on Mauritius Island. This thesis is an attempt to unpack the dense and complex historical and cultural narratives that contribute in the making of a Tamil deity in a “créole” milieu. My work proposes a religious history of Mauritian Tamil Hinduism through the lens of a cultural biography of Mardévirin and his cultic/cultural afterlives, enabling us to map the complex changes in Tamil Hinduism in Mauritius over the past two hundred years. Creole diasporic Hinduism itself has received little scholarly attention. Concerning the “French” creole insular societies of the Caribbean and Indian Ocean in particular, there has been only a handful of studies dedicated to the religious traditions of people of South Indian descent.2 All are faithfully indebted to Jean Benoist’s “field- naming” text Hindouismes Créoles (1998). In my opinion, this scholarship arguably suffers from important shortcomings that obfuscate a thorough and critical study of 2 This scholarship includes the works of Christian Barat (1989), Monique Desroches (1996), Pierre Singaravelou (1975) and Gerry L’Etang (2004). 2 Creole Hinduisms. From broad to specific, four main issues appear as the most problematic, and these form the primary signposts of my work.