About the Book
The book is about how Hinduism arrived in South Africa and has flourished in the last one-and-a-half centuries. It is a narrative of the indentured Indians who arrived in Natal in 1860 and propagated Hindu religion in Southern Africa for the first time. The book also details the unique practices that have emerged in South Africa and how Hinduism in the diaspora could be shaped by local social and political conditions as well as immigration patterns. The book reflects the diversity of Hindu practices and the survival of many village traditions that were brought to South Africa.
Contents
1. Indians: A New Community Settles in South Africa
2. A New Religious Tradition on the South African Soil
3. Consolidation of the Tradition: Temples and Priesthood
4. Centrality of Ritual: Temple and Domestic Practices
5. Religious Celebrations
6. Goddess Worship
7. Community Organisations, Schools, Rituals and Language
8. Some Reflections on the Major Neo-Hindu Organisations
9. The Arya Samajists
10. The Saiva Siddhantists
11. The Ramakrishnaites
12. The Divine Life Society
13. The Hare Krishnas
14. The Satya Sai Baba Followers
15. Afterword
About the Author / Editor
P. Pratap Kumar is an emeritus professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religions at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Besides publishing scholarly articles in international publications, he has authored and edited several books, such as The Goddess Lakshmi in South Indian Vaishnavism, South Asians in the Diaspora: Their Histories and Traditions (co-editor: Knut Jacobsen) and Religious Pluralism and the Diaspora (edited). He is the Associate Editor of the journal – South Asian Diaspora – and also serves on the editorial boards of several other distinguished journals.
