Being Saivite, the South African Way: Questioning Authenticity and Canon from the Margins of the Saiva World.

Modern Tamil Saivism as a global discourse emerged concurrently in India as well as in other places. Yet, recent scholarship has barely given attention to these global entanglements and their wider consequences for conceptualising Saiva Siddhanta and Saivite religious practice today. This article focuses on reformist Tamil Saivite movements in South Africa and explores their origins and development during colonial and Apartheid South Africa in the twentieth century. It will discuss the complex interplay between modern interpretations of Saiva Siddhanta philosophy and notions of a contextualised 'Tamilness' in the South African setting. It will further explore how Saivism in South Africa relates to back to Saivite scriptural traditions from South India and elaborate how the close but hybrid connection between local and global forms of Tamil religious identity is mirrored by questions of authenticity and canon as well as recent attempts to reframe relations between the (perceived) 'centres' and 'peripheries' of Saivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]