Crossroads of Religions: Shrines, Mobility and Urban Space in Goa

Alexander Henn

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2008, vol. 32, issue 3, 658-670

Abstract: Abstract Wayside shrines — representing Hindu and Catholic divinities and saints — show an astonishing dynamic in the cities of Goa and India. Not only do they persist in a milieu of drastic modern change that often seems to be at odds with their traditional locations, aesthetics and purposes, but also some of them surpass temples, churches and mosques in popularity. The popularity of these seemingly marginal religious monuments is a response to three forms of mobility characterizing modern Indian urban environments: cultural mobility — the diversification and fluctuation of religious ideas and practices; social mobility — the diversification and fluctuation of people from different castes, social classes and geographical regions, as well as the change of caste and class status due to socio‐economic change; and physical mobility — the movement of and movement around increasingly dense and complex flows of motorized traffic. The shrines modify and transform the centuries‐old spatio‐religious system of Hindus and Catholics to fit the conditions of late‐modern city life. They allow a culturally diversifying, socially changing and geographically fluctuating population to engage with a variety of personalized deities and saints whose charismatic authority is not only quite independent from formalized local social hierarchies, but often also cuts across orthodox divisions between religious traditions. Résumé Les sanctuaires installés le long des voies de circulation — représentations de divinités et saints hindous et catholiques — présentent une dynamique étonnante dans les villes de Goa et d’Inde. D’une part, ils persistent dans un milieu qui connaît une modernisation radicale souvent en contradiction, semble‐t‐il, avec leur finalité, leur esthétique et leur emplacement traditionnels ; d’autre part, certains dépassent en popularité temples, églises ou mosquées. La fréquentation de ces monuments religieux apparemment marginaux tient à trois formes de mobilité propres aux environnements urbains indiens modernes : la mobilité culturelle (diversification et fluctuation des idées et pratiques religieuses), la mobilité sociale (diversification et fluctuation des individus venus de castes, classes sociales et régions géographiques diverses, et changement de statut de caste et de classe à cause de l’évolution socio‐économique), et la mobilité physique (mouvement et circulation autour de flux toujours plus denses et complexes de trafic motorisé). Ces sanctuaires modifient et transforment le système spatio‐religieux séculaire des hindous et des catholiques qui doit s’adapter aux conditions de la vie urbaine postmoderne. Ils permettent à une population qui se diversifie au plan culturel, évolue au plan social et fluctue au plan géographique de s’engager à l’égard de divinités ou de saints personnalisés plus variés dont l’autorité charismatique est totalement indépendante des hiérarchies sociales locales formalisées et transcende les divisions orthodoxes entre traditions religieuses.

Date: 2008
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