Hindouisme et pratiques spatiales des Tamouls en Île-de-France

Abstract

Since the 1980s, refugees from Sri Lanka have been living in France and make up the largest Hindu group. In recent years this migration, and more generally the South Asian migration, has radically transformed the French social landscape. In a context of dramatic growth in religious diversity, Hinduism represents not only a minority religious tradition but also a challenge to French laïcité. A new visibility/invisibility dialectical relation has also become a major issue. Although the presence of religion may be discreet and hidden, religious processions make a powerful comeback, such as Ganesh Caturthi organized by Sri Manicka vinayakar Alayam every year in the streets of Paris. I will tackle the changing dimension of religious questions in an urban environment through the articulation between immigration, religion and space. Between the local (the street, the « quartier ») and the global (transnational migration nexus), I will analyze space as a medium of social connections which shed new light on the reconfiguration of religion. Through the study of the internal multiplicity of Tamil immigration and of the localization of places of worship, this paper will explore the development of Sri Lankan Hinduism in Paris and its metropolitan region. I will also show how Hindus have to negotiate their status and sometimes transform their practices to be accepted by the host state.

Keywords

• Hinduism
• Tamils
• Migration
• Transnationalisation