Thaipusam in Malaysia: A Hindu Festival in the Tamil Diaspora

Carl Vadivella Belle's Thaipusam in Malaysia, A Hindu Festival in the Tamil Diaspora, published by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore in 2017, is an academic study of the Thaipusam festival as practiced by Malaysia's Tamil Hindu community, including the kavadi burden bearing and body piercing devotional acts performed at Batu Caves and elsewhere, tracing how the festival developed its specific Malaysian form within the diaspora rather than as a simple transplant from Tamil Nadu. Belle draws on long term fieldwork within the Malaysian Tamil community. Its strength is that diaspora specific focus, treating Malaysian Thaipusam as its own developed tradition rather than folding it into a generic account of Hindu festivals in India. Its limit is that its scope is specifically Malaysia, so a claim about Thaipusam as observed in Tamil Nadu itself or in other diaspora communities such as Singapore or Mauritius needs a source addressing that particular setting.