Powerful landscapes: squatting, space and religiosity in urban Malaysia

Abstract

Based on archival, library and ethnographic research, this thesis recasts the notion of "everyday resistance" (as propounded by James Scott) in terms of the landscape and spatiality of an urban Indian squatter settlement in Malaysia.In postcolonial Malaysia, managing different and often competing ethnic and religious identities in a Furnivallian "plural society" presents administrative problems as well as a resource for political legitimation. Arguably, this is most starkly embodied in "squatter colonies", often perceived as potential sites of urban discontent and unrest whilst at the same time providing significant sources of urban labour and important political votebanks.The first part of the thesis examines historically how categories like "squatting", "religion" and "ethnicity" are rendered discursively meaningful. Attention is then shifted to the "ethnographic present" of the fieldwork squatter settlement. I examine varied everyday routines, social practices, and the use of space in juxtaposition to wider cultural and urban processes. Tamil and Telegu Indians comprising two distinct religious groups - Hindu devotees of the goddess Mariyamman and Seventh-Day Adventist Christians - are the main foci of discussion. Descriptions of the celebration of the annual goddess festival (for the former) and the weekly Sabbath services (for the latter) bring out the substantive differences of these two groups in terms of culturally specific spatial idioms, and the theoretical implications they pose for the study of "everyday resistance"