1st Edition
Negotiating Linguistic and Religious Diversity A Tamil Hindu Temple in Australia
1. Language and religion in superdiverse times 2. The Lankan Tamil diaspora and Hinduism 3. Language and faith challenges at an Australian Hindu temple 4. Approaches to language policy and faith transmission 5. Talking Saivism in the temple’s Sunday school 6. Negotiating Lankan Tamil youth faith, language, and identity in the temple 7. Conclusion: The evolving koovil (temple)
Biography
Nirukshi Perera is a sociolinguist with a specialisation in language in Sri Lanka and the South Asian diaspora. Her thesis, on which this book is based, received the 2018 Australian Linguistics Society/Applied Linguistics Association Michael Clyne prize for the best thesis on immigrant bilingualism and language contact. She is interested in the interplay of social justice and language, in terms of migration and multiculturalism, in health communication for linguistically marginalised groups, and in how language is used for asserting and overcoming oppression. Niru is a Research Fellow in Linguistic Analysis at Curtin University where she analyses telephone interactions in emergency ambulance calls with a view to improving the effectiveness of communication that can help to save people's lives.
"Language and religion have ensured the continuity of each other for generations. Perera unveils new paradoxes in this dynamic in recent forms of migration. While Saivism and Tamil are changing in a new social ecology, they still anchor heritage identity and faith for diasporic Sri Lankan Tamils in Australia."---Professor Suresh Canagarajah, Pennsylvania State University, USA
"Niru Perera takes the reader on a deep dive of a Tamil Hindu Temple in Australia to discover what it means to be Lankan, Tamil, Hindu, and Australian. A gripping tale of the search for social inclusion amid shifting languages, identities, and beliefs across generations."---Distinguished Professor Ingrid Piller, Macquarie University, Australia
