| Summary: | The cosmopolitan character of Lisbon along with the process of touristification and
gentrification of the city in the past ten years has changed its cultural activities. It also
influenced the way in which the Lisbon City Council decided to integrate (or not) immigrant
communities into a social and cultural policy focusing on “interculturality”. Immigrant
neighbourhoods become tourist districts with “diversity”, changing the inhabitants’ very
relationship with the city. Through the Yatra Ratha Festival, Hare Krishna devotees and
Hindu immigrants together appropriate the public space to express themselves in the city
where they live. I propose to discuss the role of performance in the public space as an
expressive practice that provides moments of union between a diverse group of immigrants
living in Lisbon who, despite having similar religious practices associated with Hinduism,
belong to different religious groups and countries of origin. I argue that through the Ratha
Yatra, participatory performance in the form of collective mantras, singing and dancing,
becomes fundamental to creating a sense of belonging to the city of Lisbon.
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