Cultural hybridization moments in history and practice: change and complexity of a northern Thai-Hindu diaspora community, Chiang Mai province, Thailand

Abstract

The Thai-Indian diaspora communities in Thailand have captured the attention of Thai and international scholars for decades. However, in the past the knowledge gained from these area studies have produced an understanding of this group that has resulted in the general conclusion of a mono/dual nationalism regarding ethnicity and nationality. Whether under the concept of being Thai (Thainess) or Indian (Indianness), past research has often neglected to pay attention to the complex dimensions that arise within the Thai-Indian diasporas, who generally define themselves as a multi-national-ethnic-religious people. This dissertation will argue with these past academic works using an analysis of the northern Thai-Hindu diaspora in Chiang Mai as a case study. It aims to understand the always changing and complex nature of cultural hybridization moments in the history and practices among the northern Thai-Hindu diaspora community in the contemporary era. This research adopted qualitative research methods to complete the literature review and collect data between 2020 and 2022. The research applied the concepts of ‘new ethnicities and diaspora old-new identities’ (Hall, 1990, 1995, 2019), ‘hybridity’ (Bhabha, 1984, 1994, 1995), and the idea of three distinct meanings given to the Hindu diaspora (Vertovec, 2000) in order to conceptualize cultural hybridization moments in history and practice within postcolonial and globalization contexts. The research found that: Firstly, the historical development and migration trajectory of Thai-Hindus in Thailand before and after 1947 sets an important context for a cultural hybridization moment in history. The formation of this cultural hybridization moment in history clashes with mainstream Thai history, especially the local history of Chiang Mai, and links these particular histories to the global Hindu diasporic context. In this sense, the historical context of the northern Thai-Hindu diaspora community reflects a sociocultural complexity inherited from the history of migration of the northern Thai-Hindu diaspora rather than their assimilation into the national-local history of Thailand and Chiang Mai. Secondly, a cultural hybridization moment in practices occurs in three distinct spheres; 1) in the social sphere in which practices are perceived as an alternative Hinduism that combines traditional, hybrid and collective forms of Hinduism and which is reflected in the Dev Mandir Temple/Hindu Samaj which merges both the sacred and secular, 2) the arts sphere, in which works created by a northern Thai-Hindu artist represent a cultural hybridization moment in the multi-type diasporic consciousness, and 3) the sphere of cultural production, where the northern Thai-Hindu diaspora community challenges traditional Hinduism through political, economic, religious, social and cultural lenses. Thirdly, the discovery of cultural hybridization moments in the history and practices of the northern Thai-Hindu diaspora contributes to global Hindu studies. This contribution is especially valuable when Hinduism and diaspora studies continue to fall into the trap of viewing traditional Hinduism as static and homogeneous, with a single or double identity within the modern context of globalization and postcolonialism. In contrast, it is argued here that sociocultural change and complexity can be grasped through the everyday lives of the diaspora who fluidly adopt culture in their encounters within modern contexts, in this case that of the northern Thai-Hindu diaspora.