Call for Chapters: Faith, Identity, and Resistance: Religion, Conversion, and Cultural Memory in Indo-Caribbean Women’s Writing
Call for Chapters: Faith, Identity, and Resistance: Religion, Conversion, and Cultural Memory in Indo-Caribbean Women’s Writing
Edited by:
Prof. Nandini C. Sen, University of Delhi
Sahin Shah, University of Delhi
We invite chapter proposals for an edited scholarly collection that critically examines the religious dimensions of Indo-Caribbean women’s literature, with a specific focus on conversion, resistance, and cultural memory. This volume will explore how Indo-Caribbean women writers engage with Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam, addressing the gendered and ideological tensions of community rupture, religious fidelity, and transgenerational transmission in diasporic settings.
Although the field has seen increasing attention to Indo-Caribbean women’s narratives, the only existing anthology, Critical Perspectives on Indo-Caribbean Women’s Literature (Routledge, 2013), edited by Joy Mahabir and Mariam Pirbhai, offers a seminal and comprehensive view of the field, but does not focus specifically on religion or religious conversion. This proposed volume responds directly to that scholarly gap by centering faith, religious identity, and community resistance as its main analytical frameworks.
We seek essays that analyze conversion to Christianity—often framed as a path to education or scholarship—as a literary motif that reveals trauma, survival, loss, or reinvention. We are also interested in how Indo-Caribbean women’s literature articulates resistance to conversion through the active preservation of ancestral faiths, oral traditions, and ritual practices. Particular attention is given to the Hindu katha tradition, Muslim hosay, food habits, wedding and other celebratory songs as modes of storytelling and resistance embedded in community life, especially among women.
Crucially, the volume also investigates how Hindu nationalism and Islamic revivalism, emerging strongly in early 20th-century India, influence diasporic religious consciousness in Indo-Caribbean writing. Drawing on frameworks such as Steven Vertovec’s The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns (Routledge, 2000), contributors may consider how transnational flows of ideology shape narratives of belonging, identity politics, and cultural purity in the Indo-Caribbean context. Writers such as Lakshmi Persaud, Shani Mootoo, and Ryhaan Shah explore these tensions explicitly, navigating between cultural heritage and religious imposition.
We welcome proposals that explore individual or comparative perspectives on novels, poetry, short fiction, memoir, and oral narratives that reflect these concerns.
Suggested Authors (not limited to):
Lakshmi Persaud, Ramabai Espinet, Peggy Mohan, Ryhaan Shah, Anna Mahase, Mahadai Das, Rajkumari Singh, Shani Mootoo, Jan Shinebourne, Oonya Kempadoo, Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming, Rajandaye Ramkissoon-Chen, Ismene Krishnadath, Narmala Shewcharan
Suggested Topics (include but are not limited to):
* Representations of conversion to Christianity in Indo-Caribbean women’s fiction
* Resistance to conversion through religious storytelling, memory, and community activities
* Katha, hosay, phagwa, matikor as literary and cultural repositories of resistance
* Role of folk songs, orality, and language in sustaining spiritual traditions
* Influence of Hindu nationalism and Islamic revivalism on diasporic identities
* Role of Arya Samaj and Hindu Mahasabha in identity formation
* The gendered impact of missionary education and Christian moral codes
* Caste, patriarchy, and religious hierarchy in plantation and post-indenture societies
* Queer subjectivities and religious identity formation
* Syncretism, dual faith, or dislocation in diasporic women’s narratives
* Churches, mandirs, and mosques as contested sites in fiction
* Literary responses to diasporic religious policing or orthodoxy
* Generational tensions around ancestral religion
Notification of acceptance will be sent by April 15, 2026. Final chapters (5,000–6,000 words) will be due by July 31, 2026.
Time and Place:
Date: Thursday, Jan 01, 2026
Venue: Book Proposal
Address: Book Proposal
City/Twon: Book Proposal