ABSTRACT
Religious processions, involving the physical movement of the sacred through a designated territory, continue to be integral to Hindu religious life both in India and among Hindu communities in the diaspora. Whatever their size and scale, the enactment of processions potentially serves a multitude of functions: spreading divine power, marking territory, enhancing unity and solidarity within the community, registering religious distinction and difference, to mention just a few. Furthermore, their analysis reveals complex socio-cultural and political dynamics at work. Using these theoretical possibilities as starting points of my enquiry and drawing on primary ethnographic data, I theorize the phenomenon of chariot processions in Singaporean Hindu domains. However, I first provide some brief but necessary contextual and historical grounding.
