Ayer's words continue to resonate as a minority group in a nation dominated politically by colonially derived narratives of "e race"e and ethnicity and riven by the imperatives of religion, the general trajectory of the economically and politically impotent Indian community has been one of increasing irrelevance.
Neelakanda Ayer forecast that the fate of Indians in Malaya would be to become "e Tragic orphans"e of whom India has forgotten and Malaya looks down upon with contempt"e. In 1938, noting that the bulk of the Indian population formed a "e landless proletariat"e and despairing of the ability of the factionalized Indian community to unite in pursuit of common objectives, activist K.A. In situating the festival within the context of a Malaysia dominated by Malay and Islamic power brokers, a society in which both the Indian community and Hinduism are relegated to the margins, the book explores the festival of Thaipusam as a vehicle for mobilization of religious symbols and values which not only simultaneously articulate ethnicity and thus resist the forces which threaten cultural and religious integrity, but which also ultimately signal wider allegiances to the broader politico-cultural world of an imagined, immeasurably rich, and enduring Indo-Hindu civilization. It contends that while the kavadi ritual provides profound meaning at the individual and group level, Thaipusam furnishes a public arena for and gives expression to a powerful Hindu resurgence, largely, though not exclusively, fuelled by Dravidian assertiveness. It argues that Thaipusam reflects a growing sense of Hindu identity in Malaysia and an as yet inchoate unity. This book explores the festival of Thaipusam in terms of its own inner dynamics - the traditions and belief structures which ensure the festival's continuing relevance to Malaysian Hindus.
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