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184 Although the Hindu nationalist side of American Hinduism is often hidden, expressed in internal communications and events directed at the Hindu Indian community in the United States and around the world, it also has a “public face” that is shown to the wider American public. Mobilizing to defend a beleaguered Hindu identity has become an important way for Indians from a Hindu background to counter their relative invisibility within American society and to obtain recognition and resources as American ethnics, as we have seen (Kurien 2004; Lal 1999; Mathew and Prashad 2000; Rajagopal 1995). For some years now, these Indian Americans have been organizing on the basis of a pan-Hindu, or “Indic,” identity to protest the Eurocentric bias of many American institutions. Such groups have focused their attention on a variety of targets, including the misrepresentations or negative portrayals of Hinduism and of India within the American media and the wider society; the commercialization and misuse of Hindu deities, icons, and texts by the music, entertainment, and advertisement industries; and the lack of attention to Hinduism and Hindu American issues by the U.S. government. After the events of September 11, 2001, this public discourse shifted to some extent, but did not cease. In addition, Hindu Americans have increasingly mobilized against what is for them an important and emotional issue: the portrayal of Hindu and Indian culture within American academia. Hindu American leaders position their challenges to American pluralism within a dynamic, multicultural model of national identity, arguing that the United States needs to redefine itself to take account of the large and growing group of nonEuropean , non-Christian citizens who are now a significant part of the population. This conception of nationhood is very different from that of scholars like Huntington (2004), who view the essence of American identity as defined by its Protestant, Anglocentric origins. But although Hindu American groups advocate a multicultural model of nationhood for the United States, their challenge to Eurocentrism is grounded in an essentialist, unicultural, valorized model of Indianness that is in many respects the mirror image of what they seek to critique, since they emphasize Challenging American Pluralism hindu americans in the public sphere c h a p t e r 9  Chap-09.qxd 4/20/07 12:36 PM Page 184 revisionist versions of Hinduism and of Indian history that glorify “Indic” traditions as the original source for much of world civilization.By falling into the mirrorimage trap, these Hindu American leaders end up undermining many of their own arguments for the importance of pluralism. Not all of the Indian American leaders who are at the forefront of this campaign can be described as Hindutva supporters,but many share at least some of the assumptions of the movement, and the two efforts are therefore related. Hindu American leaders harness the passions roused by the Hindutva mobilization to obtain support for their cause, and their presentation of the disrespectful treatment accorded to Hinduism by the American media, entertainment industry, politicians, and by teachers in schools and colleges further feeds into the grievances of those already galvanized by the Hindutva movement. Celebrating Hinduism and Hindu Americans In their public presentations to the Indian American community and to the wider American society, Hindu American spokespersons deploy certain standard themes to characterize Hinduism. These themes are carefully chosen to fit into a contemporary , politically correct, pluralist American discourse. For instance, in keeping with the multiculturalist emphasis on“tolerance”(Berbrier 1998), Hindu American leaders describe Hinduism as the only world religion that is truly tolerant and pluralistic (in contrast to religions in the “Abrahamic” tradition). The Rig Veda verse (1.164.46), “truth is one, sages call it by different names” is constantly reiterated to underscore this claim. According to the Federation of Hindu Associations, Hinduism is the most suitable religion for the twenty-first century, because the modern pluralistic world “requires all religions to affirm [the] truth of other traditions to ensure tranquility”(Singh 1997a) and only Hinduism fits the bill. The FHA’s mission is therefore to safeguard Hinduism “for our children, for the world” (Singh, interview, February 9, 1997). When Hindu American leaders refer to Hinduism as Sanatana Dharma (eternal faith), they are emphasizing that it is the most ancient and universalistic of all religions. The content and meaning of a Hindu American identity are articulated by the Hindu umbrella organizations described in chapter 7, whose leaders describe Hindu Indian Americans as the proud descendants of...

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