Hare Krishna Transformed

8. Hindus and Hinduization

Hindus and Hinduization I had a feeling that I never experienced before as a devotee. I felt like an outsider. Like it wasn’t my temple. It was so strange. —iskcon devotee reacting to the large number of Indians at a festival celebrating Krishna’s birthday, 2005 It’s not about getting money [from Indian supporters]; it’s about serving Krishna. Better to keep the purity and remain poor, than deviate and get millions of dollars. —Das, Ragaputra 2005 Asian immigrants are changing the religious mosaic of North America (Min and Kim 2002), as religion for them serves as both a means of integration into American society and an institutional support helping maintain their ethnic identities (Leonard et al., 2005; Warner and Wittner 1998; Williams 1988). For Indian immigrants, their traditions and cultures as well as their religions have been subject to negotiation in order to construct ethnic identities appropriate to their new surroundings (Knott 1987; Kurien 2002:102). Yet this process of identity construction often results in strengthening their religious belief and Indian identity (Kurien 2002; Williams 1988:11). Despite the growing literature on immigrant religions in America, the question of how immigrants promote change within established religious organizations has gained little attention. Immigrant Indians became vital to iskcon’s survival beginning in the 1980s. In a state of decline, the leadership turned away from the movement ’s radical goals and lifestyle and focused instead on building congregations of Indian Hindus in its temple communities. In coming to iskcon to worship and strengthen their ethnic identities, Indian Hindus reshaped iskcon’s religious culture and overall mission as a new religious movement. 8 181 The Emergence of an Indian-Hindu Congregation Estimates indicate that in 2005 a considerable majority of iskcon’s approximately fifty-thousand-member North American congregation was of Indian descent. Only a small portion, however, can be considered committed iskcon devotees. Instead, most are patrons whose involvement is limited to intermittent temple worship and financial contributions supporting local iskcon temples.1 Large numbers of other Indians attend iskcon-sponsored festivals celebrating major Hindu holidays such as Janmastami (Krishna’s birthday) as their only form of iskcon involvement. A visit to most iskcon temples on any given Sunday would reveal that 80 percent or more of those in attendance are Asian Indian immigrants and their families, whereas on major festivals that percentage often approaches 90 percent.2 Yet this remarkable growth in iskcon’s Hindu congregation represents a relatively recent development in the movement’s North American history. During iskcon’s formative stages of development in the late 1960s and early 1970s, relatively few Indians could be found in iskcon’s temples . Prabhupada remained ambivalent about involving Indian Hindus in his incipient movement, short of their becoming fully committed iskcon members. Early on he generally ignored Indian immigrants in America, fearing that iskcon would be overly identified with Hinduism. As Prabhupada wrote to one of his disciples in April 1970, “Factually this Krishna Consciousness movement is neither Hindu religion nor any other religion. It is the function of the soul” (Prabhupada 1992:1577). In a 1969 conversation with several of his followers at New Vrindaban, Prabhupada stressed that iskcon was not a Hindu movement. I don’t want a Hindu temple. Our constitution is different. We want everyone. Krsna consciousness is for everyone. It is not a Hindu propaganda . People may not understand. And actually, till now in our [iskcon ] society there is not a single other Hindu than me (laughter). Is that not? (June 9, 1969, quoted in Dasi, Hare Krsna 2004) Prabhupada also openly questioned the spiritual commitment of Indians who immigrated to the West, believing that their primary motive for coming to North America was “to earn money” and that the “best thing will be to avoid them as far as possible” (Prabhupada 1992: 182 | Hindus and Hinduization 1570).3 Only after iskcon became well established in North America did Prabhupada encourage Indians and other Hindus to become involved in the movement. Despite the general disinterest shown by Prabhupada and his followers , increasing numbers of Indian immigrants were drawn to iskcon ’s temples to worship. This was largely because when Indian immigration to the United States increased after President Lyndon Johnson rescinded the Oriental Exclusion Act in 1965, there were virtually no established Hindu temples in the country beyond those offered by iskcon (Eck 2000:118; Williams 1988:132).4 The same...