num_pages: 187
description: Singing with Sai Baba explores the implications and conse- quences of the emergence in the West Indian nation of Trinidad and Tobago of a new, universalistic religion centered on the adoration of a living South Indian holy man--Sathya Sai Baba--as God. This religion has been transformed into an ethnic-exclusive, elite revitalization movement among Trinidadians of South Asian descent. Klass explores issues surrounding socioeconomic change--from dependence on indentured cane labor to an "oil boom" society--and he analyzes religious and political conflict, particularly the tensions between Indo- and Afro-Trinidadians and between Brahmans and non-Brahmans. The book addresses such problems as changing ethnicity in an immigrant population; conflict in one of the now independent nations formed from what was once a "plural society" colony; and the attractions of Hindu-derived religious movements for people in the West.
language: English
title: Singing With Sai Baba: Politics of Revitalization in Trinidad
titlecomplete: Singing With Sai Baba: Politics of Revitalization in Trinidad
publisher: Waveland Pr Inc