“Divine games and rituals: How Tamil Saiva/Hindu siblings learn faith practices through play”

This paper contributes to our understanding of how siblings in diasporic settings teach and learn from each other. It draws upon data from a longitudinal ethnographic study
(2009-2013) exploring how children become literate through faith activities across four communities in London. The study examines children’s emerging faith literacies, focusing on ways in which they are socialised into their faith at the site of worship, the religious education class and in their homes. This paper focuses on one of the four participant families who are part of the Tamil Hindu community in London and traces
how siblings begin to internalise learning through play linked to their faith at home. Using the example of two children constructing their Temple from plastic building blocks to act out appropriate religious rituals, we show how the children acquire cultural knowledge important both for faith membership and their everyday lives.