Summer Camp and the Homogenization of Hinduism

[Guest guest]

Camp Joins Summer Fun With Teaching Hindu Faith

By Neela Bannerjee

The New York Times

Annandale, Virginia [u.S]

 

The first hour at the Chinmaya Mission day camp

unfolds as at any other camp. Children shriek through

tag, while a few others play Uno [a children's card

game].

 

But by 9 a.m., the grammar-school-age campers are

sitting down, their attention focused on a long-haired

Indian man in the front of the room, Swami

Dheerananda, the mission's Hindu teacher, or acharya.

Together, they chant prayers in Sanskrit. Many recite

passages they have memorized from the Bhagavad Gita,

a holy Hindu text.

 

Like American Jews before them, Hindu parents, most

of whom are recent immigrants to the United States, are

turning to well-established institutions like summer

camp and weekend school, and to decidedly more

contemporary Internet sites, to teach their American-

born children ancient religious traditions and help

maintain their Indian identity.

 

" I would venture to say that it is children's

programming and education that has become a primary,

if not the primary, focus of Hindu-American leaders and

institutions, " Shana Sippy, a candidate for a doctoral

degree in religion from Columbia University wrote in a

recent paper. " In California alone, over 10,000 children

attend some sort of Hindu or Indian instruction on the

weekend. "

 

But explaining Hinduism to Americans is another

challenge, one that is leading to a homogenization of a

faith that, in India, is characterized by the variety of

local beliefs and worship practices, some scholars and

Hindus say.

 

" It has to be homogenized at some level because if I ask

my daughter, she doesn't know the difference between

the practice of Hinduism among South Indians and

Bengalis, " said Sanjiev Chattopadhya, whose 8-year-old

daughter, Maya Chatterjee, attends the Chinmaya camp

here. " There has to be dilution at some level, because

there hasn't been a critical mass of us, though that may

be starting to change. "

From 1.2 million to 2 million Hindus live in the United

States, according to estimates cited by Harvard's

Pluralism Project on religious diversity, a tiny fraction

of the approximately one billion Hindus worldwide.

Hindus may be better understood now than a generation

ago, partly because yoga has generated interest in

Hinduism, said Suhag Shukla, legal counsel for the

Hindu American Foundation, an advocacy group, but

conflicts still occur.

 

On July 12, three Christian protesters shouting, " This is

an abomination! " disrupted prayers offered by a Hindu

priest at the start of a Senate session. Earlier, Christian

conservatives had argued against a having the Hindu

chaplain lead prayers in the Senate chamber because, as

David Barton of the evangelical group Wallbuilders,

explained, Hinduism " is not a religion that has produced

great things in the world. "

Though the children at the Chinmaya camp have their

summer booked with all sorts of other camps and

activities, here they do not stick out. Elsewhere, " people

always ask, 'What language do you speak? What food

do you eat? ' " Maya Chatterjee said. " Sometimes they

see the food in my lunch box and think it's gross. "

 

About 65 children attend the monthlong camp in

Virginia, one of two in the Washington area run by the

Chinmaya Mission, part of a worldwide Hindu

movement. Hundreds more attend Sunday school classes

during the school year. The children here spend the

morning learning Sanskrit prayers and broad lessons

from the Bhagavad Gita about " caring and sharing, " the

main theme of this year's camp term. Afternoons are

devoted mostly to traditional songs and dances that mix

Bollywood with religious tales.

 

Hindus in the United States have long bolstered their

children's cultural identity by having them take Indian

dance and music classes. But over the last two decades,

many Hindus' anxiety about preserving their culture has

translated into a drive to teach religion more explicitly,

said Vijay Prashad, professor of South Asian history at

Trinity College.

 

[....]

in the United States, Hindus often must explain their

faith to other people, including their children, which

many are not prepared to do.

" Parents knew the rituals but not the significance behind

them, " Swami Dheerananda said.

Yet some scholars contend that making the religion

more accessible has eroded some of its diversity. In the

United States, the sacred utterance " Om, " has become

the symbol for Hinduism, Ms. Narayanan said. But in

India, other symbols are widely used, like the letter

" Sri, " which signifies Lakshmi, the goddess of

prosperity. Many Hindu groups here espouse a

philosophy from the seventh century that " the Supreme

Being and you are identical, " she said. But in areas of

South India, people think of the divine as a mother and

the individual as the child she protects.

" This is an essentializing of Hinduism, " Ms. Narayanan

said, " and the diversity of Hinduism in India is lost

here. "

Such homogenization may be inevitable, Ms. Sippy said.

" All traditions undergo transformation as a normal

process of immigration, " she said, " and American

religious leaders of all backgrounds have commonly

simplified their traditions to transmit religious identity

to children. " [....]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/us/21hindu.html?hp