Panel Organizer:
Prof. Knut A. Jacobsen - Department of the History of Religions, University of Bergen, Norway

Abstract
   

Processions have been a significant dimension of religion in South Asia and in the South Asian diaspora for a long time. The last years, however, have seen an increase of processions both in South Asia and in the diaspora. This panel looks at these processions and the reasons for this increase in activity. Different dimensions of processions are analysed. Processions are understood as a particular form of public religion that creates sacred space, brings about feelings of unity and identity, strengthens common beliefs and traditions, but also make manifest inter-group relations and can function as platforms of protest and division. Processions are often among the most visible of religious activities in public spaces, and to that extent, have the greatest opportunity for contact with secular activities and religious practices of other faiths. Processions therefore are directed as much to the insiders as to the outsiders. As a public ritual it is typically aimed at the ‘Others'. Processions reinforce religious boundaries and distinctions. Strengthening of the traditions of processions the last years, therefore, may be a function of specific aspects of religious pluralism: it might be related to generation and reinforcement of religious identities, to religious rivalry, and to religious boundaries. This panel brings together scholars doing empirical research on processions in contemporary South Asia and in the diaspora to investigate these dimensions of religious processions.

Isabelle Clark-Deces, Princeton University, Department of Anthropology, Princeton, United States
The Re-invention of Tamil Funeral Processions

Whenever a death occurred in the Tamil village where I conducted fieldwork in 1990, it was the duty of the local Dalit (or untouchable) men to play drums and sing "death songs." Leading the all-male funeral procession to the cremation grounds, these men would dance and sing along the village main's streets to the accompaniments of their drums. Although his lyrics were sad and ominous, the lead singer took them lightly, mocking them with a racking, inconsolable sob that was unmistakably exaggerated. In the characteristic style of Tamil oral performance, he periodically engaged in humorous dialogue with the drummers, and the dance steps that accompanied his lyrics were loaded with obvious sexual imagery and innuendo. It was impossible not to laugh at his playful skits, teasing smiles and occasional hip wiggles. The deceased's male relatives and friends who followed the procession made no attempt at concealing their amusement. Gathering around the singer, they compulsively paid him to chant their favorite "death songs," so that the procession progressed very slowly to the cremation grounds.
When I returned to Tamilnadu in 2000, the Dalits were in the midst of freeing themselves from most of their old caste obligations. They no longer performed tasks of scavenging and knackery that were incumbent on them in the past. Many young Dalits refused to beat drums and sing at funerals of caste Hindus or they were replacing the old funeral troupe (melam) with what they called the "band," which was strictly instrumental.
My paper explores the ritual and emotional impact of this "band." I suggest that in barring the expression of drunken clamors, burlesque acts, vociferous bids for "death songs" and lewd dancing from the funeral procession, this new band has radically transformed the meaning and experience of Tamil death.

Knut A. Jacobsen, University of Bergen, Department of the History of Religions, Bergen, Norway
Processions, Public Space and Sacred Space in the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Norway

Processions have been a significant dimension of religion in South Asia and in the South Asian diaspora for a long time. The last years, however, have seen an increase of processions both in South Asia and in the diaspora. The main festival of the Hindus in Norway, mainly Tamil Hindus from Sri Lanka, is the 12 day annual temple festival, the mahotsav. of which processions is the main feature.  It is the main annual ritual gathering of the Tamil Hindus in Norway. One of its functions is to strengthen the Tamil community, but as a public ritual it is typically also aimed at the 'Others'. Processions confirm identity, but also reinforce religious boundaries and distinctions. Strengthening of the traditions of processions the last years, therefore, may be a function of specific aspects of religious pluralism: it might be related to generation and reinforcement of religious identities, to religious rivalry, and to religious boundaries. This paper tries to explain the increase of processions by looking at the growth of the main Hindu processions in Norway.

Brigitte Luchesi, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Parading Hindu Gods in Public: New Festival Traditions of Tamil Hindus in Germany

Since the 1980s, refugees from Sri Lanka have been living in Germany, high percentages of them being Tamil Hindus. Whereas the early immigrants had no public religious institutions at all, through time Tamil Hindus have created possibilities to practise their faith also outside their homes. They have set up prayer halls and temples in a number of places. The establishments of temples has brought about the celebration of yearly temple festivals and other main religious events which in turn called for special festival activities in the South Asian tradition. The most important are public processions which since the early 1990s are increasingly organised by a number of temple committees. The contribution concentrates on these public phenomena looking at the patterns of Hindu Tamil processions in several European cities. Attention is paid to the self-interpretation of the organisers and participants but also to the reactions of the host society. The history of different processions are explored to illuminate the negotiations that took place with regard to the contested public space.

Matthias Frenz, Indology, Social Anthropology, Religious Studies, Bonn, Germany
The Virgin and Her "Relations": Reflections on Processions at a Catholic Shrine in Southern India

The paper investigates the referential structure of religious processions from a socio-historic perspective, based on research done at the shrine of the Virgin Mary at Velankanni, southern India. It is argued that processions may serve to establish a relationship between a locally rooted cult and other cults or social bodies to which a higher status is ascribed. Thus the community at the local shrine will share in the prestige of the entity related to. As will be shown in examples from the Marian shrine at Velankanni, the perception of such external references may change over time and make way to a different understanding of the relation. The re-reading of the relationship allows for an interpretation that places the local shrine at the most prestigious position. The other cults and bodies referred to in these processions are thus perceived as subsidiary phenomena.

Pratap Kumar, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa
The Annual Rathayâtra of the Hare Krishnas in Durban

The annual rathayâtra festival is a famous religious procession that takes place internationally from Orissa in India to New York among several international cities today. Even though it had its origins in the context of the Caitanaya school of Bengal Vaishnavism (also known as Guaóîya Vaishnavism), since the missionary work of Swami Prabhupada in the USA and later on in many other countries, the festival became part of the international religious landscape. A procession (yâtra) has its place in the actual performance of the ritual by the adherents and it is primarily intended as a religious activity for their religious edification. But in the context of a global city environment where not only are there other religious groups but also those who do not have any religious orientation in their lives, the religious procession which forms integral to the ritual takes on other dimensions, albeit unintended. One of the questions that social scientists looked at vis ... vis ritual performances is whether or not such ritual enactments and so on are intended to pass on religious values and ideas. If so, whether or not in modern society when such religious activities cease to be important and gradually decline, the religious ideology and the religion itself could decline. Scholars such as Steve Bruce and Luckmann have argued that in the absence of religious practice religion could decline in the modern society as it has happened in most of Europe and the US. The other question is whether rituals have the role of pass on values at all or are they simply acts in themselves with no meaning outside of it. Frits Stall contested that rituals do not have such roles of passing on values. If they do not have such role attached to them, what then might be the unintended consequences of performing a ritual in public space on a grand scale and to what extent such consequences then shape and reshape the ritual itself. These are some of the questions that I wish to explore in this paper.
Stig Toft Madsen, NIAS - the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark
A Note on the Modernization of Muharram

Some time back I wrote a small note called "The Blood of the mourneres" with Muhammad Hasan. It is available at http://www.sydasien.se/0303muharram.html

I would like to offer a sligthly rewritten version of that note for the panel.
The note discusses the tradition of flagellation during Muharram processions in the Muslim world. It then notes that more recently in Pakistan (and probably in Iran), a reform is taking place: Instead of self-flagellation being the goal in itself, mourners may offer their blood for a blood bank. Systems have apparently been set up to allow the faithful to donate blood to hospitals under hygienic conditions. In my opinion, this may constitute an example of progress or modernization in the sphere of religion.

Hugh van Skyhawk
Cleansing and Protecting the Field for Another Year: The Processions of Hazrat Bandah Nawaz (Gulbarga) and Sri Sant Ekanath (Paithan)

Samadhis or dargahs of great saints in India usually form the focal points of the communities that have grown up around them. While the shrine itself embodies the highest degree of sacredness (often perceived in a material sense and thus transferable by touch), the community surrounding the shrine is also perceived by believers to embody sacredness, the difference being that this element of sacredness must be renewed annually by a procession in which sacred objects or persons are taken out from the shrines and brought in procession around the physical limits of the community. This practice is common both in Hindu and Muslim holy places in the Deccan, there being indigenous terms to describe it both in Dakhni-Urdu and Marathi. In the proposed paper I will compare the practice of regenerative processions at two major shrines in the Deccan: one Hindu, one Muslim, and show the common perceptions of sacredness that underlie the procession practices in both communities.