Sabarimala Today – Themes from Phenomenology, Politics and Diaspora
Week 7, Thursday 27 November 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library
Dr Alex Gath
Sabarimala is Kerala’s most high-profile Hindu pilgrimage. During the season, from mid-November to mid-January, millions of pilgrims undertake to travel to the mountain shrine. They proceed with a mixture of walking and bus and train transport. They dress in pilgrims’ garb and carry the traditional bag of offerings, often perched on the head. Widely seen as distinctively South Indian, the pilgrimage honours the hero-deity Sri Ayyappan. It has long been associated with an egalitarian ethos and popular with members of castes formerly subject to discrimination as well as with non-Hindus. It has been seen as a context within which both philosophical Hindu teachings and spontaneous popular piety can reach into the lives of individuals from many sectors of society. But there are intermittent problems. Some of these are common to many pilgrimages – infectious disease, accidents, environmental damage. Some are controversies and disagreements specifically concerning this tradition. Should female pilgrims of potential child-bearing age (set as 10 to 50 years of age) be permitted to participate despite a traditional exclusion? Is the former inter-religious aspect still apparent and important? What about relations with surrounding communities, including marginalised, formerly classified as ‘tribal’, groups? Sabarimala is becoming something of a global brand outside India, especially within the South Indian diaspora. And it has been an all-India talking point, as its concerns have been taken up by the Supreme Court and Central Government. In grappling with the significance of the Sabarimala pilgrimage today, it is well worth considering themes covering each of phenomenology/philosophy, politics and diaspora issues; and more besides. I hope to do this, drawing upon some thirty years of working with these themes, both through fieldwork and engaging with a variety of overlapping literatures.
Alex Gath has carried out anthropological research on contemporary Hindu culture of Kerala for some thirty years. He trained as an anthropologist at Edinburgh University after beginning his career working on topics in clinical, and philosophical, aspects of psychology (at Oxford, Sussex, Sydney Universities). In recent years he has concentrated on investigating South Indian diaspora communities, especially within UK but also USA and Europe, whilst maintaining his commitments within applied psychology. He emphasizes phenomenological approaches as a method for investigating interdisciplinary themes but also takes a strong interest in politics, history and related fields. He has published in anthropological and psychotherapy journals and, most recently, been a member of St Antony’s College, Oxford.
