Cleanliness in a Caste-less Context: Collective Negotiations of Purity and Pollution among Indo-Fijian Hindus

Abstract

Despite the near elimination of caste in Fiji, Indo-Fijian Hindus widely adhere to pollution ideologies that were once associated with caste hierarchies. In this paper, I analyse how such ideologies have been transformed from demarcating caste status to indexing Hindu identity. Examining a hotly contested community debate that took place when members of a Hindu devotional singing group in Fiji were accused of praying while being 'unclean', I argue that the intense local interest incited by such allegations-along with highly creative acts of adherence that many Indo-Fijian women undertake to avoid similar accusations-can illuminate largely unexamined aspects of how women collectively comply with pollution prohibitions, while simultaneously investing them with further social and moral force.On the outskirts of the Fijian capital of Suva, a local Hindu women's prayer group was in the midst of a group shopping expedition when a vociferous dispute broke out, threatening to tear apart not only the prayer group, but also putting relations to the test in the small, predominantly Hindu village in which most of its members lived. The argument was sparked off when a group of women from the local Hindu kirtan club, a devotional singing group, went to purchase items for an upcoming religious ceremony and lost track of a relatively minor amount of money (less than six Fijian dollars). What followed was a series of increasingly serious accusations of wrongdoing: over the next few months allegations and counter-allegations of immoral conduct were flung back and forth across the village. Many of the allegations involved the women's upholding of pollution taboos, including their responses to death and menstrual pollution, as a growing number of women were accused of

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“…There are 13 urban and rural marketplaces in Fiji, serving the island nation's ethnolinguistic groups and linking rural producers, urban consumers, and suburban wholesalers (Lateef, ). Postindependence in 1970, Fiji's population incorporated three distinct categories—European, (Indigenous) Fijian, and Indo‐Fijian—which influence economic regulation, access to resources (e.g., land), and political representation (Trnka, , ). These divisions continue to date, with 37 percent of the population being Indo‐Fijians (Hindi speakers), 57 percent Indigenous Fijians (Fijian speakers), and 6 percent European or other (Trnka, , ).…”

“…Postindependence in 1970, Fiji's population incorporated three distinct categories—European, (Indigenous) Fijian, and Indo‐Fijian—which influence economic regulation, access to resources (e.g., land), and political representation (Trnka, , ). These divisions continue to date, with 37 percent of the population being Indo‐Fijians (Hindi speakers), 57 percent Indigenous Fijians (Fijian speakers), and 6 percent European or other (Trnka, , ). Over 43 percent of Fiji's population, across these groups, lives in poverty and lacks formal education (Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics).…”