Religion

In the colonial period the combined effect of missionary activity and Creolization converted some Indo-Caribbeans to Christianity, but most retained their ancestral faiths – Hinduism and Islam. This is significant because most other Caribbean groups tend to be Christian, at least on the surface. Asian Indians are therefore clearly distinguished from other sections of the Caribbean population by their religious beliefs and practices.

Nothing identified Asian Indians more clearly as alien, “uncivilized,” heathen outsiders than their adherence to non-Christian religions. The fact that only Christian festivals – Christmas and Easter – had official sanction as religious holidays, together with the general awareness among Asian Indians that conversion would ease their way into better jobs and social acceptability, encouraged a flexible attitude toward religion. Some Indians outwardly converted to Christianity, mainly for official or career purposes, but inwardly retained their traditional faith. Others, although they did not convert, were familiar with Christian worship because they attended Christian schools or took part in Christian festivals and social activities. In the Caribbean, much of this has changed today, and a Hindu festival such as Divali has become an official religious holiday in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Flexibility in religion, however, remains a characteristic of Indo-Caribbeans. It is quite common to attend Indo-Caribbean funerals in Toronto, for example, where both Hindu and Christian rites are observed.

Before 1967 the majority of Indo-Caribbean Canadians would probably have been Christians, who were more likely to be Westernized or have professional status. But since the large-scale immigration of close relatives and extended family members became possible after 1967, the Hindu/Muslim/Christian ratio among Indo-Caribbean Canadians is similar to the ratio in the Caribbean itself – Hindus being the most numerous, followed by Muslims, with the Christians third. This is borne out by the recent appearance of a large number of Hindu temples and Muslim mosques in Toronto.

There is considerable fluidity in the intraethnic relations of Indo-Caribbean Canadians in Canada, in religion as in other areas. Indo-Caribbeans are different from South Asians in important respects yet similar to them in race and ethnicity and in religious practice. The membership in Toronto’s Hindu temples reflects the cultural dualism among Indo-Caribbean Canadians. For instance, the president of Vishnu Mandir, one of the largest Hindu temples in Toronto, is a medical doctor from Guyana, but his congregation consists of Hindus not only from the Caribbean but also from other sections of the South Asian community in Canada. The same fluidity is evident in the joint worship of Indo-Caribbean Muslims with other South Asians and people from Africa and the Middle East. If their classification as “Indo-Caribbean” separates Indians of Caribbean origin from other South Asians, it does not do so completely, just as it does not completely separate them from black Afro-Caribbeans with whom they share many linguistic and other cultural traits.