How Hinduism has captured the American imagination 

The roots of Hinduism successful America

Although galore of the practices of Hinduism day backmost millennia, the word itself was lone coined successful the precocious 18th century. As an intelligence concept, its instauration to America tin beryllium attributed to 3 men, the transcendentalists of New England, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. Beginning successful 1820, Emerson demonstrated a keen involvement successful India, and implicit the adjacent decade, extensively work texts specified arsenic the Upanishads and the Laws of Manu. In 1937, a twelvemonth aft founding the Transcendental Club successful Concord, Massachusetts, Emerson delivered a lecture connected Hindu theology to a radical of Harvard seniors, 1 of whom was Thoreau.

In time, Thoreau would work each measurement of Indian doctrine helium could find, leaving down a immense postulation of Oriental literature. Thoreau successful crook was followed by Whitman, 1 of the foremost American poets. Whitman came crossed Emerson’s essays connected theology successful 1854 and wholeheartedly embraced the transcendentalist worldview. As the 20th century historiographer Malcolm Cowly observed successful a literate nine code successful 1959, “Most of Whitman’s doctrines, though by nary means each of them, beryllium to the mainstream of Indian philosophy.”

According to Philip Goldberg, the author of American Veda (2010), portion determination were nary yoga studios, gurus oregon adjacent Indians during this time, these men incorporated what they learnt astir Hinduism from books into their ain writings. The interaction was truthful profound that “all the students successful America contiguous volition work Emerson and Thoreau and get immoderate Indian philosophy, whether they realise it oregon not.”

The literate contented of Hinduism would beryllium accelerated further by America’s adjacent procreation of intellectuals specified arsenic Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell and JD Salinger, each of whom received mentoring from Vedanta Society swamis. However, successful betwixt the 2 cohorts came Swami Vivekananda.

Parliament of the World’s Religions (Wikimedia Commons)

When Vivekananda arrived successful Boston successful 1893, astir Americans had small to nary interaction with Hinduism oregon Indians. Therefore, erstwhile helium spoke astatine the World’s Parliament of Religions successful Chicago, clad successful a silk tunic and turban, his connection of pluralism and tolerance was received with enthusiasm crossed the country. According to Wendy Doniger, a retired prof of Divinity astatine the University of Chicago, Vivekananda’s “personal charisma” made headlines and started the survey of Indian doctrine successful America.

Goldberg states that Vivekananda presented Hindu doctrine successful a mode that could beryllium adapted to American spiritual traditions, making it appealing to the broader public.

After Vivekananda introduced Hindu theology to America, Paramahansa Yogananda arrived to extol its practices. Called the ‘Father of Yoga successful the West’, Yogananda founded the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) successful Los Angeles successful 1925. At the clip of his decease successful 1952, Yogananda’s SRF was the astir important and extended Hindu organisation successful the United States, partially owed to the popularity of his book, An Autobiography of a Yogi (1946).

The crushed Hindu teaching proved truthful fashionable is due to the fact that the aboriginal gurus ne'er tried to vie with Christianity. As Long states, “The archetypal teachers presented it arsenic thing rational, thing scientific, a signifier of wellness much than an organised religion.” However, Hinduism remained connected the fringes of American nine until the 1960s, erstwhile its popularity was supercharged by the wide migration of Indians and wide taste changes.

Post-1965 migration and the maturation of Hindu communities

In the 1910s and 1920s, US populist rhetoric became progressively nativist successful effect to rising immigration. This nativism peaked with the 1927 work of Katherine Mayo’s Mother India, which blamed India’s problems connected the sexuality of Indian men and argued Indians were unfit for self-governance. Wendell Thomas’s Hinduism Invades America (1930) reinforced this view, echoing long-standing critiques by American Christian missionaries astir Hinduism’s shortcomings.

This changed aft World War II, erstwhile India fought connected the broadside of the allies. Following the war, the American Foreign Department funded the American Institute of Indian Studies which successful crook catalysed the enactment of Indian Studies departments crossed academia. Doniger, who was a beneficiary of this funding, says this is erstwhile Americans stopped seeing India arsenic immoderate “exotic, weird onshore afloat of dark-skinned radical speaking a comic language.” As scholars discovered the parallels betwixt Indian and Greek philosophy, Hinduism’s banal was further elevated.

During the 1960s and 1970s, students and professionals from India were attracted to America’s caller policies, specifically the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which encouraged the migration of professionals. These immigrants retained overmuch of their taste practice and went to large lengths to walk it on to their children. As Suhag Shukla, co-founder of the Hindu American Foundation said successful an interrogation with indianexpress.com, amongst the diaspora determination was a request to explicate Hindu traditions, to “take a measurement backmost and not instrumentality our taste practice for granted.” She says that the diaspora has been integral towards creating consciousness of Hinduism, not needfully by preaching the religion but by maintaining its customs. “The radical that I travel crossed are not Hindu due to the fact that they person to beryllium but due to the fact that they privation to be,” she says, “and that has promoted a affirmative practice of Hinduism successful American culture.”

A pistillate listens to chants during Holi, the festival of colors, astatine the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple successful Spanish Fork, Utah (Reuters)

In the years aft 1965, Hindu immigrants initially gathered successful rented halls and homes for festivals, pujas, and survey groups. Over time, they began fundraising to physique full-scale temples. The 1980s and 1990s marked a large displacement arsenic temple gathering became a cardinal mode for Hindu communities to found their beingness successful the US temples which served not lone arsenic places of worship but besides arsenic centres for taste transportation and teaching Hindu traditions to aboriginal generations. Today, determination are conscionable nether 1500 Hindu temples successful America.

The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act besides opened US borders to a divers radical of Indian gurus who came to prosecute with the American countercultural movement, drafting followers from some Indian Hindus and non-Hindus alike.

The spirituality movements of the 1960s

In the precocious 1960s and 1970s, caller forms of Hindu spiritual beingness emerged successful the US, and the word guru became wide known. One of the archetypal to get was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who gained fame arsenic guru to the Beatles. He popularised transcendental meditation, presenting it arsenic a universal, technological signifier that offered a much-needed reprieve for the fast-paced American nine of the mid-20th century. By the 1980s, determination was Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the Art of Living Foundation, Mata Amritanandamayi, Karunamayi Amma, Mother Meera, and galore others. However, immoderate gurus evoked sizeable controversy.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, known arsenic Osho, drew a ample and devoted pursuing some astatine his ashram successful Pune and aboriginal successful the United States. Known successful India arsenic the ‘sex guru’ for his unconventional views connected sex, marriage, and relationships, and successful the US arsenic the ‘Rolls-Royce guru’ for his lavish lifestyle, Rajneesh’s teachings straight challenged accepted values. Additionally, portion helium lived successful extravagant luxury, his followers often lived successful stark contrast. Rajneesh’s movement, wide regarded arsenic a cult, generated some fascination and outrage.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh drives by his followers astatine Rajneeshpuram successful 1 of his galore Rolls Royces successful 1982 (Samvado Gunnar Kossatz, Wikimedia Commons)

Perhaps the astir influential of each the gurus was Swami Prabhupada, who arrived penniless successful New York successful 1965 and began chanting ‘Hare Krishna, Hare Rama’ successful Tompkins Square Park. Within a fewer months, helium opened a storefront temple connected Second Avenue, which was America’s archetypal Krishna temple of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

The question became wide known arsenic ‘Hare Krishna’ owed to its nationalist chanting of Krishna’s name. According to Long, portion astir Hindu teachers refrained from proselytising, ISKCON embraced the concept, handing retired pamphlets, chanting successful the streets, and encouraging its followers to surrender to Krishna. Rajneesh and ISKCON reinforced the conception of Hinduism being “exotic and strange” amongst immoderate spiritual Christians, prompting a antagonistic connotation that continues to beryllium to immoderate grade today. However, Long is keen to emphasise that groups similar the Vedanta Society, SRF and purveyors of transcendental meditation, ne'er pushed spiritual beliefs, and lone drew successful radical who were funny successful the tradition.

In summation to gurus from India, determination were American-born seekers who themselves became gurus successful the 1970s. According to Goldberg, arsenic Americans met Indian teachers, work Indian philosophy, and practiced yoga, they excessively became representatives of Hinduism successful America.

It besides helped that the 1960s and 1970s was a clip of important taste changes. The ambassadors of this change, arsenic it pertained to spirituality, were the Beatles. In February 1968, the Beatles went to India for a 40-day spiritual retreat. The media sum that followed flooded the American consciousness with images of the Fab Four, with garlands astir their necks, meditating connected the banks of the Ganga nether the watchful regard of Maharishi Yogi. Goldberg calls them the astir influential creator messengers of Hinduism successful America, portion Long credits immoderate of his fascination with the religion to the euphony of the ‘silent Beatle’ George Harrison.

At the aforesaid time, Americans were learning astir Gandhian ideals from Martin Luther King, were espousing anti-violence successful absorption to the Vietnam War, and were experimenting with psychedelics successful the counterculture epoch of escaped love. As Goldberg writes in American Vedas, “In a flash, much Americans learned astir Indian spirituality than successful each the erstwhile centuries.”

However, contempt masses of Americans being exposed to and influenced by Hindu traditions, lone a prime few, similar Long and Goldberg, really converted. For astir Americans, Hinduism was, and continues to be, much of a taste than spiritual phenomenon.

The civilization of Hinduism

In a 1991 nonfiction successful the evangelical missions newsletter Pulse, the Hawaii-based Hindu monk Palaniswami wrote, “The West is intelligibly unfastened to the Hindu message, acceptable to perceive astir yoga, meditation, mysticism, healing and the past ways. Such ‘products’ were excessively blase for nationalist depletion 30 years ago, but contiguous they’re the hottest point connected the shelf.” Palaniswami understood the entreaty of Hinduism, not arsenic a religion but arsenic a mode of life.

Although the numbers of Hindus successful America are growing, they relationship for little than 1 per cent of the nationalist population. According to 2020 Pew data, implicit 90 per cent place arsenic being Asian of root and 87 per cent arsenic archetypal procreation immigrants.

However, the information besides shows that portion galore Americans mightiness not place arsenic Hindu, they person adopted profoundly spiritual Indian traditions. Conservative estimates from the National Institutes of Health uncover that much than 18 cardinal Americans meditate, portion astir 21 cardinal adults and 1.7 cardinal children regularly signifier yoga. According to Goldberg, “Yoga has facilitated an knowing that spirituality is an idiosyncratic phenomenon, with the younker particularly uncovering thing spiritual successful practices from India that they didn’t needfully find astatine church.”

Long states that determination is simply a spectrum wrong the yoga community. On 1 hand, determination are radical who are precise drawn to Hinduism and person assimilated a batch of practices and beliefs into their beingness similar kirtan, vegetarianism, mantras and karma. On the different hand, determination are radical who simply signifier yoga for accent alleviation oregon to cure backmost problems, without knowing its spiritual background.

Movies person besides incorporated Hindu concepts. For instance, the Force in Star Wars parallels the Hindu thought of Brahman, the eventual reality, portion the illusion in The Matrix reflects Maya, the conception of the world’s illusory nature. This power is nary coincidence, as Star Wars creator George Lucas studied nether Joseph Campbell, a student of Hindu-Vedanta philosophy. The crushed Hinduism is truthful appealing, isolated from its teachings, is that it comes crossed arsenic a mode of life, non-threatening to the American, Christian ideal.

International Day of Yoga being celebrated astatine Times Square (Indian Embassy US Twitter)

However, contempt the reasonably unobjectionable quality of the religion, Hinduism has travel nether disapproval for its relation to the cults of the 1960s, casteism and Hindutva. In the 1960s and 1970s, galore gurus became embroiled successful intersexual and fiscal scandals, often owed to a operation of idiosyncratic misconduct and systemic abuse. Followers who had distanced themselves from their families and communities were nether the implicit authorization of their gurus. This societal isolation and unsighted devotion led to cycles of prolonged and terrible maltreatment for galore members.

Additionally, Hinduism is often intrinsically linked with Indianism and criticisms of the second person led to charges against the former. In A Place astatine the Multicultural Table (2007), sociologist Prema Kurien argues that Hindus successful America are peculiarly attracted to the Hindutva connection and that “coalescing to support a beleaguered Hindu individuality has go an important mode for Indians from a Hindu inheritance to antagonistic their comparative invisibility wrong American society.”

Doniger, whose book The Hindus: An Alternative History (2009) was withdrawn by its publishers successful India, says that galore of her students had to prevarication to their parents astir taking her class, arsenic they were acrophobic to beryllium associated with idiosyncratic astatine likelihood with the government. Journalists Pankaj Mishra and Abhinav Ghosh, on with publications specified arsenic the New York Times and Washington Post, person extensively highlighted the nexus betwixt the Indian diaspora and the Hindutva movement. In 2016, California instauration UC Irvine rejected a ample assistance from and organisations accused of promoting Hindutva ideals.

Additionally, galore inactive subordinate Hinduism with casteism. In February 2023, Seattle became the archetypal US metropolis to prohibition caste-based discrimination. Doniger has reported seeing casteism moving rampant crossed acquisition institutions crossed the state and professors astatine those institutions progressively thatch courses linking the plight of Dalits to different American marginalised groups.

However, Shukla argues that this is each a construct, created successful part, by Indians themselves. “I presumption it arsenic internalised colonialism with radical educated successful English mean schools successful India, peculiarly victims of that propensity,” she says. That being said, Shukla reports experiencing acold much “Hindu-philia than Hindu-phobia,” and says that determination is simply a heavy involvement and curiosity towards its spiritual teachings.

Hinduism is simply a progressively increasing unit successful American life, championed by a beardown Indian diaspora and reinforced by taste practices specified arsenic yoga and meditation. Even if 1 doesn’t cognize astir Hinduism or, successful definite parts of the country, has ne'er adjacent met a Hindu, its influence, conscious oregon otherwise, cannot beryllium ignored.

Further reading

 American Veda, Phillip Goldberg, 2010, Harmony Publishers

Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda, 1946, Yogada Society

Discovering Indian Philosophy, Jeffery Long, 2024, Bloomberg Publishers

A Place astatine the Multicultural Table, Prena Kurian, 2007, Rutgers University Press