'Temple of my Heart': Understanding Religious Space in Montreal's Hindu Bangladeshi Community

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
'Temple of my Heart': Understanding Religious Space in Montreal's Hindu Bangladeshi Community
Abstract
The author offers new insight into the Hindu Bangladeshi community of Montreal, and its relationship to community religious space. The author's thesis centers on the role of the Montreal Sanatan Dharma Temple (MSDT), located on Monk Boulevard and formally inaugurated in 2014, as a community locus for Montreal's Hindu Bangladeshis. The author contends that owning temple space is deeply tied to the community's mission to preserve what its leaders term "cultural authenticity" while at the same time allowing this emerging community to emplace itself in innovative ways in Canada. The author documents how the acquisition of community space in Montreal has emerged as a central strategy to emplace and renew Hindu Bangladeshi culture in Canada. The author notes that, paradoxically, the creation of a distinct Hindu Bangladeshi temple and the 'traditional' rites enacted there promote the integration and belonging of Bangladeshi Hindus in Canada. The author concludes that the relationship of Hindu-Bangladeshi migrants to community religious space offers useful insight on a contemporary vision of Hindu authenticity in a transnational context.
Type
Master's Thesis
University
McGill University
Place
Montreal
Date
2017
# of Pages
123p.
Language
en
URL
Citation
Bhattacharjee, Aditya. “‘Temple of My Heart’: Understanding Religious Space in Montreal’s Hindu Bangladeshi Community.” Master’s Thesis, McGill University, 2017. https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/gq67jt81f.
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