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Book Review
Hinduism in the U.S.
SUDHAKSHINA RANGASWAMI
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Study of the U.S. socio-cultural context in developing an American Hinduism
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A PLACE AT THE MULTICULTURAL TABLE — The Development of an American Hinduism: Prema A. Kurien; Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8099. $ 26.95.
The United States July 4, 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act marks a watershed in the history of religion in the U.S. as it opened the doors to various ethnic groups, especially from Asia. The First Constitutional Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” facilitated the transformation of the religious landscape of America with this second wave of immigrants. Hinduism was no
t new to the U.S. in 1965. The Vedanta Society established in 1894 during Swami Vivekananda’s visit to the U.S to address the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, and the Self-Realization Fellowship founded by Paramahamsa Yogananda in 1920 had sown the seeds of Hinduism earlier.
The post-1965 period saw the beginning of another chapter, “American Hinduism”, a term scholars of religion have coined, which Prema A. Kurien in this book under review says developed “in response to two interrelated processes, the institutionalization of Hinduism in the United States as a repository of Indian culture, and its politicization as it becomes the means to obtain recognition and validation in multicultural America.”
On the outcome of the Harvard Pluralism Project, Diana L. Eck observes that the U.S. has become the world’s most religiously-diverse nation today and that “it is here to stay, and the most interesting and important phase our nation’s history lies ahead. The very principles on which America was founded will be tested for their strength and vision in the new religious America.”
Ethnographic study
A study of American Hinduism from the social and cultural perspectives thus becomes not only feasible but imperative, and this book is an excellent, rigorous and pioneering study in this direction. Besides, Hindus are the largest group among Indian Americans, one that has become very visible and influential both on the Capitol Hill and back in India thanks to the IT boom, and hence this is timely and will open avenues for further research.
This book contends with two distinct faces of Hinduism in the U.S. — the “popular’ and the “official”. The popular is more about the beliefs and practices, which like in its country of origin is personal and multifarious, though in the U.S. it can never reflect the diversity in India, and hence more homogeneous there. “Official”, the author notes, is the “articulation of Hinduism by leaders of organisations that claim to speak for all Hindus.” Prema has undertaken an empirical, ethnographic study by focusing on Hindu Indian American organisations represented by five major categories: satsanghs, balavihars, temples, Hindu student organisations and Hindu umbrella groups in southern California over a period of eight years during the 1990s and the early years of this century.
Transformation
Structured in three parts, the book begins with an introductory chapter on the transformation of Hinduism in the U.S., chapters two to five dealing with popular Hinduism and chapters six to nine with official Hinduism, and the two concluding chapters examining the relationship between the popular and the official, and drawing conclusions from this study.
The first two parts offer a good background about Hinduism and an in-depth analysis of how religion offers both emotional support and the socio-cultural basis to negotiate an identity outside the homeland, the differences between the post-1965 immigrants and those who came in the 1990s, and also the differences between immigrant and American-born Hindu Americans towards religion, and the development of a distinct American Hinduism to cater to their needs.
Insights
The last chapter draws these strands together to offer interesting insights: that in the U.S. the Hindu American spokespersons affirm the estimable attributes of Hinduism to secure Hindus an honoured place in society; the mass of Hindu devotees are far removed from the small group of ideologues who head the Hindu umbrella organisations mentioned in this book; “lay” Hindu Americans are uninterested in and to a large extent unaware of Hindutva politics; at the same time, only a small minority of Hindu Americans actively work to oppose the Hindutva movement; and that between these extremes lie the vast silent majority of Hindu Americans.
The case of Hindu Americans, concludes Prema, highlights the dilemmas faced by multicultural societies trying to institutionalise pluralism. In the discourse of American multiculturalism, which is premised on a “mosaic of equally valued cultures”, the time is now ripe to come to terms with the fact that Hinduism is not a monolithic religion in order to deal with the complexities, challenges and contradictions that crop up in its practice and institutionalisation. I can only add that the unique theological vision of “unity in diversity” that Hinduism espouses must be actualised at the societal level if it has to secure its rightful place at the multicultural table.
In the wake of increasing globalisation and faster communication multiculturalism is increasingly becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Each nation-state will have to learn to negotiate with religious pluralism and multiculturalism, and studies like this in the area of sociology of religion will assume significance outside the walls of academia and influence and shape public debate in the years to come.
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