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Chapter 6: Forging an Official Hinduism in India: Hindu Umbrella Organizations
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119 Given the great diversity in the theology and practice of Hinduism, both in India and in the United States, who speaks for Hinduism? Who are the public representatives of Hinduism and what are they saying about the religion and its adherents? All religious communities draw boundaries between themselves and the members of other religions. How do the spokespersons of Hinduism do this? As we will see, defining what Hinduism and Hindus are about has become particularly salient today both in India and in the Hindu diaspora. A variety of spokespersons for Hinduism are present in the United States. Many Hindu Americans are called upon to define, articulate, or defend Hindu beliefs and practices to their non-Hindu colleagues, classmates, or friends at one time or another. Parents, teachers at bala vihars, and those who make presentations about Hinduism to student groups perform a similar task for Hindu youth growing up in the United States. On a more formal level, members of temple boards and temple public relations committees often represent Hinduism at interfaith public events, but such participation is not the central task of temples or of temple board members . There are other groups whose primary goal is to represent Hinduism and Hindus in the United States, they will be the focus of part II. I have already mentioned the absence of any traditional pan-Hindu ecclesiastical structure or central religious authority. Temple priests are trained primarily in temple rituals and are therefore not viewed as experts in Hindu theology. Religious authority in Hinduism is typically sect based. Some sects, like the Swaminarayan, are organized around a lineage of spiritual leaders. Other traditions revere the Shankaracharyas, or the heads of monastic orders, that are tied to particular Hindu philosophical schools. Newer religious movements spring up around charismatic male or female renunciative saint-teachers. Two recent changes in the contemporary period, however, are notable. First, the formation of theVishwa Hindu Parishad in the 1960s gave rise to an initial attempt to create a non-sectarian Hinduism and a central authority structure. Subsequently other leaders and organizations have taken this task forward, resulting today in a variety of organizations and spokespersons claiming to represent Hindus Forging an Official Hinduism in India hindu umbrella organizations c h a p t e r 6 Chap-06.qxd 4/20/07 12:25 PM Page 119 and Hinduism. Second, the central spokespersons of Hinduism today, particularly in the United States, are typically not traditional ascetic religious leaders or teachers but instead are educated lay Hindus (almost always men) who use their accomplishments in the professional and business world to legitimize their religious authority within the Hindu community (see Waghorne 2004, 181, 237). In part I we saw how the institutionalization of Hinduism in the United States led to the development of new types of transnational connections with India. Members of satsang groups went looking for audiotapes of bhajans to introduce to their groups; others obtained pictures and statues of deities to install in their prayer rooms. Teachers at bala vihars turned to traditional sources on Indian history and Hinduism to expound on in their classes. Temples like the one at Malibu and the Swaminarayan temple in Los Angeles forged connections with established temples in India to obtain the traditional architects, priests, icons, and other materials needed to establish Hinduism in the United States. In part II we will look at the forging of a different type of transnationalism, as Hindu organizations in the United States turn to Hindu nationalist groups and ideologies in India to formulate a unified and “official” American Hinduism. These ideologies were first articulated during the colonial period by Hindu reformers and Hindu nationalists in the early twentieth century. This chapter traces the development of Hindu nationalism in India under colonial rule and its resuscitation over the past few decades. The Development of Hindu Nationalism in India Hindu Reform Movements Hindu nationalism has its roots in the Hindu reform and renaissance movements that emerged in the late colonial period. Although the Hindu reform movements that developed differed, they also had many commonalities. First, these movements drew on Orientalist constructions regarding both the universal religious core contained in the Vedic corpus and the greatness of ancient Hindu society and its subsequent decline, particularly under Muslim rule (Hansen 1999, 34). Thus all reform efforts, in different ways, attempted to restore Hinduism to its pristine Vedic foundations. Second, they attempted to reformulate the theology and practice of Hinduism on...