Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how temple visuals and imageries create multicultural space amongst South Asians in UK and how these spaces are contested by other parallel temple imageries while resisting and reconstructing the multicultural sphere.

Paper long abstract:

Temple has become a primary mode of contesting multicultural phenomenon among South Asian communities in Britain. Temple as an organizing principle not only provides the sense of belonging to a social group but also remains a reference point in everyday conversation to disclose one's social identity within the same religion. The temple imageries and symbols - constructed along religious, linguistic, regional or social basis - play a vital role in the reproduction of everyday vernaculars both in material and symbolic forms. This scenario of (re)production of 'local' invokes a new spectrum of multiculturalism conceived across its diverse symbolic and visual representations. However, this representation in essence constructs rather a singularity of narratives either excluding or 'othering' the marginalized narratives of multiculturalism. This scenario significantly masks the internal socio-cultural complexities endemic to the idea of multiculturalism amongst the South Asians. The visual depiction of temple thus not only informs religious, regional or linguistic diversity but most importantly the internal distinction which significantly reflects traditional hierarchies and differences within a particular religion (i.e. Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism). Based on my recent ethnographic field work among South Asians in UK, this paper analyses how temple imageries reproduce specific forms of multiculturalism and how these imageries and visualization construct socio-religious as well as political identities reinstating traditional norms and values in it. Through exploring temple as a primary mode of imagery and symbol, the paper brings in the marginalized narratives as a way of contesting the dominant narratives while creating an alternative space of temple imageries.