Despite that fact that it occasionally reads a bit too much like the PhD thesis on which it is based, there is a lot to like about Cage of Freedom, an exemplary study of religious belief and practice among Malaysia's South Asian, mainly ethnically Tamil, Hindu minority.
First and foremost, Willford's monograph helps fill an oft-noted gap in Malaysian studies, which, with some notable exceptions, has tended to focus on the social, cultural, and religious lives of the majority Malay population; on the significant numbers of overseas Chinese, many of whom have thrived despite the heavily pro-bumiputera policies implemented in the postcolonial period; or, among anthropologists, on other so-called indigenous groups such as the Orang Asli of the peninsula or the Iban, Bidayuh, and Penan peoples of East Malaysia (northern Borneo). With all the talk, especially within Malaysia, of the marginalization of the peoples of Malaya from the...
