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Epilogue This work, like any in a nascent field of scholarship, is more a beginning than a resolution of the questions, opportunities, and challenges of the subject matter . It can and should nevertheless be the basis for rethinking both how we do our scholarship on religion and how America’s K–12 school system responds to and protects Indian American students. The years-long process of developing this book has convinced me that we must consider religion at the level of the individual. Approaching religion only by reference to congregational function is inadequate to consider what religion means and how it acts in the individual life. Even theology is at best a tiny corner of how Indian Americans live religion. There are avenues of research I did not follow, gender being the best example. Providing gendered approaches to lived religion would advance our studies in this field. Women are traditionally seen as the bearers and perpetuators of religious tradition. Yet with the exception of Avya, most of the research participants in this study who had thought deeply about and grappled with their own relationship with religion were men: Nikhil, Salim, Aziz, and others. The women were, by and large, comparatively unreflective on matters of faith. How, then, is lived religion gendered in this population? This study also showed how lived religion changes by life period. In the next half-decade, most of these research participants will marry and many will have children. Will the preparation for and fulfillment of these life transitions change how the research participants live religion? If so, how? I plan to undertake a followup study with this cohort about six years hence in order to answer this question. Indian American Religions in America In the coming years, we should begin to explore what might be called American Sikhism, American Hinduism, and American Islam. India’s image as a touchpoint 194 VVVVVVVVVVV EPILOGUE 195 for authenticity notwithstanding, religions are inevitably reinvented and reinterpreted in new social arenas. How will the second generation interact and coexist in religious communities with the constant influx of new immigrants from India? Will language loss result in the development of English-language prayer liturgies? Will the cultural influence of Christian dogmatism result in the development of the “Ten Commandments of Hinduism” one research participant wished for, or in other reinterpretations of scripture that focus on rules over stories ? In the public sphere, how will Indian American religious organizations respond to the growing influence of fundamentalist Christianity on everything from biology textbooks to U.S. foreign policy? The next time a town like Palos Heights tries to pay Muslims to go away quietly, will they? In undertaking this exploration, we must be particularly careful not to assume that members of any given religious group will agree on its tenets or practices . There is a tendency, even among many scholars, to treat Indian religions as monolithic. There is no more “one Hinduism” than there is “one Christianity .” Indeed, perhaps we will see the further development and diversification of sects within the American recreations of Indian religions. Even if we do not end up with sects per se, we will see the development of divergent philosophies and approaches to theology and practice. Some may look like the Hindutva movements now ascendant, but others may constitute the development of a “religious left.” Inasmuch as the U.S. government does not collect data on religious affiliation and few of the major public polls do so, social scientists need to work on our models both to track religious affiliation in new populations and to explain why and how the turn to religion has become meaningful for these transnational minorities. The researchers who undertake the study must ensure that its design fully and appropriately includes South Asian Americans. This means not only ensuring that South Asian Americans are adequately represented in the research cohort but also that the program is designed to elicit useful information on lived religion among Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and other Indian American religionists . It should avoid undue attention to the congregation and inquire not only into ritual practices but also about how religion functions as a moral compass , a source of identity, and an impetus for study among respondents. September 1 1, 2001 September 11, 2001, was a critical incident for many Indian Americans—in particular , those living in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas. The post-9/11 backlash galvanized the Sikh community. As...

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