The thesis consists of nine chapters.
Chapter 1, Introduction, predominantly sets out the context of the research and the Festival under investigation. It begins by providing a background of the political, economic and social context of Mauritius and the Mauritian society and then provides a description of the Festival and its four components. This is followed by the rationales for the study explaining the academic, applied and personal reasons for undertaking this particular study. It concludes by presenting the aim and objectives guiding the research.
Chapter 2, Literature review, consists of five main sections. It relates to the key concepts and the theoretical frameworks that underpin the research. It starts by giving an overview of what is Hinduism and the significance of festivals, pilgrimages and sacred sites in the Hindu religion. It
synthesising the nature of experience and the three levels of a product in order to understand festival as a product experience. This is followed by a debate on authenticity of experience and commoditisation of experience. It ends with a conceptualisation, developed from the literature review, to guide the research foci.
Chapter 3, Methodology, outlines the aim and objectives of this research followed by an overview and use of stakeholder theory in this research stating briefly the three sets of stakeholders involved in the study. It then moves to the research methods adopted for the research, explaining the use of a mixed methods strategy as an appropriate method for the study. The research adopted a sequential stage approach, Stage One was an exploratory exercise conducted through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with twelve Hindu Mauritian expatriates living in the United Kingdom who had attended the Festival at least once within the last 10 years. Stages Two and Three were the main data collection conducted in Mauritius. Stage Two involved in-depth face-to-face interviews with eleven key informants who represented a range of religious and secular organisations that were/are involved in the development and management of the Festival. Stage Three involved a quantitative survey for the Mauritian Hindu residents who had attended the festival. In addition to providing the data collection as well as the data analysis techniques, this chapter also includes the ethical issues and limitations of this study.
Chapter 4, entitled ‘Perceptions of the Mauritian religious authorities in respect of the core and the augmented religious experiences offered by the Festival’, is the first of the qualitative findings. It provides an in-depth understanding of what the eight representatives of the Mauritian Religious Authorities (RA), comprising both the ‘on-site’ religious authorities (ORA) and the ‘off-site’ religious-cultural organisations (ORO), involved in delivering, managing and advising on the Festival, consider being the religious significance of the Festival for the participants and the local Hindu community. From the lenses of the RAs, it also critically explores the overall core and augmented religious experiences for the participants during the Festival.
Chapter 5, titled ‘The activities performed by local Hindu residents and their religious experiences during the Festival’, is the first quantitative chapter. It explores the participation characteristics of the local Hindu residents in terms of when they last participated in the Festival, who they participated with and their reasons for participation. Next, it investigates the actual religious experiences experienced by the Hindu residents and their behaviour while participating in the four components of the Festival (the preparation, the journey to and from Ganga Talao, the visit to Ganga Talao and the Char Pahar ki Pooja). A total of 412 useable questionnaires form the basis of the analysis of both the quantitative Chapters 5 and 7.
Chapter 6, named ‘Perceptions of the Mauritian Authorities on the authenticity of religious experiences and the possible outcomes from commoditising the Festival’ is the second of the qualitative chapters. It uses the views of the Mauritian Religious Authorities (RA), both the
‘on-site’ religious authorities (ORA) and the ‘off-‘on-site’ religious-cultural organisations (ORO), and the Public Sector’ organisations (PS) on the authentic religious experiences of the Mauritian participants in the Festival as well as on the perceived possible outcomes of the impacts of developing the Festival and sacred site, Ganga Talao, in order to increase the number of tourists not of the Hindu faith in respect of the authenticity of the religious experiences. In doing so, it identifies the authenticity of the religious experiences for the local Hindu community and participants which, if lost or changed significantly, would have a significant detrimental impact on their religious experiences. It then presents the findings of the views of the RA and the PS on the possible impacts on promoting and developing the Festival and its site for more tourists not of the Hindu faith, the perceived outcomes of an increased number of these tourists on the authentic nature of the religious experiences at the Festival and its site, and the possible outcomes/broader impacts that may result from such development of the Festival.
Chapter 7, entitled ‘The attitudes of Mauritian Hindu residents on the authenticity and commoditisation of the Festival and site’, is the second of the quantitative chapters. It focuses on identifying the authentic character of the Festival, as perceived by the local Hindu residents. It then looks at the residents’ attitudes towards the commoditisation of the site, and of the Festival, upon their religious experiences and the trade-off between the benefits and the undesirable consequences resulting from an increase in the number of tourists.
Chapter 8, Discussion, presents the discussion for the qualitative and quantitative findings from Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7. It critically reviews and discusses the key research findings in terms of similarities and differences in the attitudes of the different stakeholders - the Mauritian Religious Authorities (RA), the local Hindu residents and the ‘Public Sector’ organisations (PS) - in the light of previous theories, research and practices from the existing literature.
Chapter 9, Conclusion, denotes the final chapter. It concludes this Thesis by reviewing the gaps in the literature and underlining how the research meets the aim and objectives identified in Chapter 1. It then sets out the academic, knowledge and practical contributions of this research. This chapter also outlines the limitations and the potential future areas of research.
1.6 CONCLUSION
This study aims to critically evaluate the nature of the religious experiences offered by the religious festival and pilgrimage of Maha Shivaratri to Mauritian Hindu participants and their perceptions of the possible impacts on these religious experiences resulting from any future commoditisation of the Festival and its site. This chapter provides the background and context of this research. Firstly, it provides an overview of the political, economic and social context of Mauritius and Mauritian society. In doing so, it helps to establish key external factors that would potentially influence the
the Hindu participants. Secondly, the background of the Festival and its four components are introduced. This helps to develop our understanding as to how the Festival is celebrated by the local Hindu community and the importance attached to the sacred site. Thirdly, the rationale of the study is briefly discussed in terms of the academic and applied contexts as well as the personal interests of this topic for the researcher. As there is a possible attempt by the Government of Mauritius and other organisations to commoditise the Festival and its site for more tourists, there is a growing concern that this may bring about possible challenges in maintaining the authenticity of the religious experiences and the sanctity and sacredness of the site.
The next chapter, the literature review, will critically explore existing literature to identify gaps and opportunities and the theoretical underpinnings relevant to this research.