The Emergence and Evolution of the Hare Krishna Movement in Quebec

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The Emergence and Evolution of the Hare Krishna Movement in QuebecAdèle Brodeur,

Interim director, C.I.N.R. (Centre d’Information sur les Nouvelles Religions)

Montréal, Canada

This paper will present the emergence of the International Society for Krishna

Consciousness, ISKCON, in the province of Quebec in 1968. It will give an

account of the evolution of this new religion from a contercultural movement

into a recognized vaishnavite branch of the hindu tradition by the local Indian

community. This evolution will first focus on the history of ISKCON in Quebec

from 1968 when it opened its first center in Montreal to 1982, when ISKCON had

the greatest number of devotees of Occidental origin and could be considered at

the height of its countercultural period.The second period, from 1995 to present

time, will focus on the sociological aspect of ISKCON : to bring in our society

a new religious phenomenon that, by its different cultural origin, will renew

our existing culture perceived as lacking in meaning and will be an expression

of the religious pluralism present in our mulicultural society. ISKCON evolved

and from a countercultural religious movement became a ‘revitalisation’

opportunity. By a ‘revitalisation’ opportunity, we are referring to the

religious phenomenon present in a group whose goal is to construct a society

promoting values that are thought as being more significant than the ones

currently offered within the existing society by established religions.This new

religious movement, from its beginning in Montreal, had the support of some

members of the Indian community. These members were mostly vaishnavite, they

worshipped at ISKCON’s temple and contributed financially to the Hare Krishna

movement. In the first period of ISKCON, these members were not involved in the

decision process nor in the organization of the movement’s different activities,

they were considered as a minority group amongst the devotees.Following a

difficult period for ISKCON, that will only be mentionned in this paper and

that extends between the two other periods studied, the Indian supporters

became active in ISKCON. They confirmed this new religious way as being part of

the hindu tradition and they promoted interaction between ISKCON and other hindu

temples and their members. A commitee formed by hindus coming from the local

Indian community was then established in the ISKCON temple in Montreal, as in

some other temples in North America. These commitees participate in the

decisionnal and organizationnal process in the different ISKCON centers.This

new religious way thus became recognized as being part of the hindu tradition,

it then enabled ISKCON to recruit members, not as devotees wanting to join a

religious movement counterculturally different from society, but as friends of

Krishna who wished to find a more satisfying spirituality originating from a

different culture and that now emerged in this culture. These new members

present themselves as congregational members of ISKCON and not as devotees,

this suggests that ISKCON has adapted itself to the Occidental culture. It also

suggests that ISKCON is now perceived as a religion belonging to the hindu

tradition, an established religion.This paper wants to emphasize the role of

the Indian community as an important factor in the evolution of this movement.

It also wants to stress how this movement, because of its emergence as a

countercultural movement and its following evolution to a ‘revitalisation’

movement has become, for the newcoming Indian, a way to integrate into our

society and a confirmation of his own cultural identity.