This paper endeavors to examine various levels of religious transformation that was evident withinthe Hindu community in Trinidad from the end of the system of Indian indenture in 1917 to 1945. By the 1920s, factors such as acceptance of Trinidad as homeland by those Indian indentured laborers who had opted to remain in the colony, the leavening out of the male-female ratio and the age imbalance and the noticeable increase in the birth rate of Indians contributed to the characterization of the Indian population as a `whole' population, a vehicle and a receptacle for cultural ferment and effort. This `wholeness' would facilitate the establishment of a community. This would, in turn, generate a focus on and acceleration of social and religious change, which would, ultimately, contribute to the process of identity formation within the Hindu community. With most of the fundamental, inherently Indian social, religious, economic and political structures in place, the drive towards personal and communal advancement saw a dynamic interplay between `Indian' and `Trinidadian', the traditional and the modern, the religious and the secular, and retention and transformation, between the theory of being `free' and the reality of restrictions. This paper, thus, attempts to explore this social intercourse in the areas of religion, internal organization and social change within the traditional caste system and the attempts of the Hindu community at visibility, mobility and self-definition within the larger Trinidad society.

During the period of Indian indenture, a total of 143,939 Indians migrated to Trinidad, approximately 88% of these practised various facets of Hinduism. Of this number, 12.03% belonged to the Brahmins and other high castes, 36.82% belonged to the agricultural castes, 6.39% belonged to the artisan castes and 33.16% belonged to the low castes. Despite the trying conditions experienced under the indenture system, about four of every five Indian immigrants chose, at the end of their contracted periods of indenture, made Trinidad their permanent home. Right from the beginning, Hindus were engaged in the practice of many aspects of their religion. This was especially so of the more private aspects that could be observed within either the home or the immediate Hindu/Indian community. However, although Hindu immigrants, as it has been argued, `carried a slice' of their society and, hence, religion with them, uprooting from the Indian context necessitated attempts at community and religious reconstruction. In Trinidad, elements of religion were variously truncated, modified, diluted, intensified or excised. Thus, reconstitution and telescoping, rather than transplanting, were two of the dominant processes that could be observed. This subsequently yielded a form of Hinduism in which some of the more visible and tangible elements were markedly modified. This applied to the caste system, Hindu priesthood, the institution of marriage, gender roles and many of the religious rites, rituals and observances.

Since Indian indentured immigration encompassed a wide sweep of the Indian subcontinent, there was a remarkable degree of social, religious and cultural diversity within the immigrant population in Trinidad. This was evident in areas such as, language, kinship ideology, social and economic structures, values, and general attitudes, lifestyle and behavior. This social and geographical diversity also underscored a "jumbled medley of beliefs, doctrines, rites, experiences, relationships, restrictions, polities, economies and orientations regarding matters supernatural and spiritual." Specific regions in India yielded particular religious traditions which, inevitably, were transportedalbeit often in highly attenuated forms, to the Trinidad context with the indentured immigrants. The Bengal, Bihar and Orissa regions were dominated by Shaktism (ecstatic type worship of the Mother Goddess) and, to a lesser extent, by Vaishnavism (worship of the various forms of the God Vishnu). Eastern and Western Uttar Pradesh were also primarily Vaisnavite and permeated by the Bhakti tradition. Yet, some of these regions were also strongholds of Shaivism (worship of the God Shiva).

History and Culture Journal, Religious Transformations, Trinidad Hinduism, Economic Structures, Traditional Caste System, Sanskritization, Socio-Religious Organizations, Social Constraints, Hindu Organizational Structures, Hindu Community, Socio-Religious Groups.