Transcendence of caste ideology in the realm of spirits and Muslim faith healers of Malabar: social contexts, meanings and religious rituals in contemporary Kerala

Abstract

Scholarship on faith healing and spirit-possession often overlookssignificant influence of caste and its diverse expressions.Through ethnographic study, we explore how Muslim faith healers in Kerala’s Malabar region integrate caste notions into healing practices, and also normalizing them as an effective strategy for healing. Caste’s role in healing rituals and at faith healing sites is located within the context of lived Islam, lacking ritual legitimacy from institutional religion. This prompts us to consider how caste ideology extends beyond human material conditions into the spiritual realm, notably on sites of healing, with long-term implications on the political Islam in the region. It further explores how the caste has been altered temporarily on healing sites in terms of categories of spirits, types of healers, social categories of possessed people and how political Islam have approached caste and faith healing in the context of reformist and revivalist movement in the region. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.