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‘The Old Gods Are Losing Power!’: Theologies of power and rituals of productivity in a Tamil Nadu village*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2015

INDIRA ARUMUGAM
INDIRA ARUMUGAM*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Some Hindus are killing animals in larger numbers, more regularly, and in more spectacular fashions than they have ever done before. In contradiction of the ethnographic record asserting the diminishing significance of ritual killing since the nineteenth century, sacrifices to tutelary deities that had long been abandoned are being reactivated or enacted for the first time. However, such a counter-intuitive surge in the popularity of sacrifices is occurring at a time when the very deities to whom they are dedicated are apparently losing their potency. This seeming paradox, this article proposes, is an implication of both the entrenchment of electoral democracy and the material transformations accompanying economic liberalization in rural Tamil Nadu. In an electoral democracy, the political significance of tutelary deities—and consequently their charisma—has diminished. Their productive valence however, as exemplified in ritual sacrifices, has become ever more resonant in India's post-liberalization milieu, with its heightened sense of opportunity but also competitiveness and uncertainty.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , May 2015 , pp. 753 - 786
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

This article is based on 20 months (October 2005–May 2007) of ethnographic fieldwork as part of my PhD dissertation in anthropology. The research was funded primarily by an ORSAS scholarship from the HEFCE, a small grant from the Central Research Fund, University of London, and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi and Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. I would like to thank C. J. Fuller, Laura Bear, and the participants of the Research Seminar on Anthropological Theory, Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics as well as Vineeta Sinha, Roxana Waterson, and the participants of the Anthropology Group at the National University of Singapore for their valuable critiques. I am, as ever, beholden to the people of Vaduvur for their erudition and patience.

References

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12 Similarly, at the start of the fishing season, the first big fish that is caught must be released back into the pond. This is considered part of the minis' share. Some of the fish from this first catch must also be cooked and presented (together with other offerings) as part of a feast in a worship ceremony dedicated to the minis. Ensuring first and foremost that the minis get their share of the best of the piscine harvest is believed to be critical to ensuring the success of future fishing endeavours.

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22 The headmen from the constituent villages form the government of the Vaduvur nadu. During their regular assemblies under the banyan tree next to the Pidari Amman Temple, the headmen come to decisions about the allocation and use of communal resources, the administration of Vaduvur's temples, and the sponsorship of public religious rituals as well as arbitration of disputes among the residents of Vaduvur. This mode of localized self-governance and statecraft was especially significant in this case because the Vaduvur nadu had been a sovereign body relatively free from the interference of centralized authorities such as the pre-colonial king as well as the colonial state.

23 This account is from a woman who lives near the Pidari Amman Temple and has done so for decades.

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