Contesting Hindu material and visual cultures, forging Hindu American identity and subjectivity
Based on the 2010 Census, there are roughly 1.85 million Indian Americans residing in the United States. They comprise the third largest Asian American community in the U.S., following the Chinese and Filipino Americans. Indian cultural influence in America dates back to the early 19th century, and...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Univ.
2011
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| In: |
Nidān
Year: 2011, Volume: 23, Issue: 1, Pages: 73-84 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Based on the 2010 Census, there are roughly 1.85 million Indian Americans residing in the United States. They comprise the third largest Asian American community in the U.S., following the Chinese and Filipino Americans. Indian cultural influence in America dates back to the early 19th century, and has deep and rich roots. Western culture admires yoga, the Eastern concepts of internal and external peace, sexual chastity, and vegetarianism, yet, at the same time, it fancies products like flip-flops, underwear, and doormats sporting images of Hindu icons. Are these two fads contradictory or do they illustrate something about the interplay among modernity, secularization, and religion? The West likes to consume everything Hindu, from nag champa incense to Hindu icons and the Bhagavad Gita. Recent trends reveal problematic misappropriation of Hindu icons for sale in unexpected and uncommon places (i.e., bikinis and flip-flops shoes). What is the interplay between Hindu/Hindu American activism against capitalistic misappropriation of Hindu icons and their subjectivity and identity? How can we analyze and re-think assumptions about the secularization thesis? The examples analyzed in this article provide rich material to re-think modernity and its insistence on secularization, even if it employs Hindu religious iconography. The purpose of this article is not to "explain" Hindu/Hindu American protests, but rather to investigate the questions it evokes. Hindu / Hindu American activism against the corporatization and fetishization of their Hindu deities critiques the logic of capitalism, while simultaneously giving rise to a Hindu / Hindu American identity and subjectivity. |
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| ISSN: | 2414-8636 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Nidān
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.58125/nidan.2011.1 |