Temple Tracks

Vineeta Sinha is Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. Her publications include A New God in the Diaspora? Muneeswaran Worship in Contemporary Singapore (2005) and Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon (with S.F. Alatas, 2017).

“This is a text that meditates and demonstrates deeply on the relationship between history and anthropology (278) studying how they draw from each other but showing readers how productive these con- versations are…Sinha’s detailed and sophisticated analysis of religionmaking and understanding of infrastructure as sacred sites allows us to see immigrant struggles in an intimate sense —the result is a book that is as exhilarating as the train journeys that inspired the book. It deserves the widest possible readership among scholars of migration and diaspora, religion, infrastructure, and railway studies, and beyond.” • Asian Journal of Social Science“Vineeta Sinha’s book is a truly original and compelling study which combines railway studies, labour history and Hindu diaspora studies to tell a fascinating story about colonial railway building, Indian labour migration and Hindu religion-making in Malaysia and Singapore.” • Knut A. Jacobsen, University of Bergen“Vineeta Sinha pioneers an inspiring new direction in the anthropology of diaspora. In this ethnographically rich, consistently insightful book, Sinha shows that the sacred landscapes forged by Indian migrant railway workers in Malaysia and Singapore have in many cases outlasted the colonial infrastructures that the labourers went to build.” • Sunil Amrith, Yale University

• List of IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Methodological Musings, Analytical SignpostsChapter 1. Retelling Railway Histories: Centring LabourChapter 2. Constructing Colonial Railway Networks in MalayaChapter 3. Work and Living Spaces of Railway LabourChapter 4. Mapping ‘Railwaymen Temples’ in Singapore and MalaysiaChapter 5. Sojourneying with Muṉīsvaraṉ the ‘Railway God’Chapter 6. Railways and Religion: Negotiating Colonial and Post-colonial ModernitiesConclusion: Sedimented, Intertwined HistoriesAppendicesGlossaryIndex