Hinduism in the United States
Hinduism is the fourth-largest religion in the United States, comprising 1% of the population, the same as Buddhism and Islam.[1] The majority of American Hindus are immigrants, mainly from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, with a minority from Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries.
Total population
778,804
278,600
202,157
140,027
128,125
117,800
112,153
The number of Hindus living in the United States did not grow substantially until the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.[5] Prior to 1965, fewer than 50,000 Hindus from India had immigrated to the United States. As a result of U.S. immigration policies in favor of educated and highly skilled migrants,[6] Hindu-Americans are the most likely to hold college degrees and earn high incomes of all religious communities in the United States.
Many concepts of Hinduism, such as meditation, karma, ayurveda, reincarnation, and yoga, have been adopted into mainstream American beliefs and lifestyles.[7] Om is a widely chanted mantra, particularly among millennials and those who practice yoga and subscribe to the New Age philosophy. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey of 2009, 24% of Americans believe in reincarnation, a core concept of Hinduism.[8][9] The Hindu practices of vegetarianism and ahimsa are also becoming more widespread.
Religiosity[edit]
According to a 2014 Pew Research survey, 88% of the American Hindu population believed in God (versus 89% of adults overall). However, only 26% believed that religion is very important in their life. About 51% of the Hindu population reported praying daily.[21] Eighty-eight percent of Hindus say they believe in God.[21]
Influence on counter-culture movement[edit]
During the 1960s, Hindu teachers found a receptive audience in the U.S. counter-culture, leading to the formation of a number of Neo-Hindu movements, such as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness founded by Swami Prabhupada.[32] People involved in the counter-culture such as Ram Dass, George Harrison, and Allen Ginsberg were influential in the spread of Hinduism in the United States.
Ram Dass was a Harvard professor known as Richard Alpert who traveled to India in 1967 and studied under Neem Karoli Baba. He returned the West as a Hindu teacher and changed his name to Ram Dass, which means servant of Rama (one of the Hindu gods). A student of Ram Dass, Jeffery Kagel, devoted his life to Hinduism in the sixties, and is now an American vocalist known for his performances of Hindu devotional music known as kirtan (chanting the names of God). He has released seventeen albums since 1996.
Beatles member George Harrison [33] became a devotee of Swami Prabhupada. Harrison started to record songs with the words "Hari Krishna" in the lyrics and was widely responsible for popularizing Hinduism in America in the 1960s and 1970s. His song, My Sweet Lord, became the biggest-selling single of 1971 in the United Kingdom. Allen Ginsberg, the author of Howl, was heavily involved with Hinduism in the 1960s and it was said that he chanted "Om" at The Human Be-in of 1967 for hours on end. Other influential Indians of Hindu faith in counter-culture movement are Mata Amritanandamayi, Chinmoy and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.[34]
Contemporary influence[edit]
Adaption to Western culture[edit]
Hindu Americans, as well as Hindu immigrants, have often adapted their practice and places of worship in accordance with the world around them. Many of the early Hindu emissaries to the United States drew on ideological confluences between Christian and Hindu universalism.[35] Hindu temples in the United States tend to house more than one deity corresponding with a different tradition, unlike those in India which tend to house deities from a single tradition.[36] Yoga become part of many American's lifestyle, but its meaning has shifted. While Hindus in the United States may refer to the practice as a form of meditation that has different forms (i.e. karma yoga, bhakti yoga, kriya yoga), it is used in reference to the physical aspect of the word.[37]
Discrimination[edit]
Legal cases and riots[edit]
In the 1923 case United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, the Supreme Court ruled that Thind and other South Asians were not "free white persons" according to a 1790 federal law that stated that only white immigrants could apply for naturalized citizenship.[73] The Immigration Act of 1924 prohibited the immigration of Asians such as Middle Easterners and Indians.[74]
As a result of the Bellingham Riots in Bellingham, Washington, on September 5, 1907, some 125 Indians (mostly Sikhs but labelled as Hindus) were driven out of town by a mob of 400-500 white men. Some victims of the riots migrated to Everett, Washington, where they received similar treatment two months later.[75] Riots occurred during this period in Vancouver, BC,[76] and California.[77]
Temple desecration[edit]
In January 2019, the Swaminarayan Temple in Kentucky was vandalized. Black paint was sprayed on the deity; the words "Jesus is the only God" and the Christian cross was spray painted on various walls.[78][79] In February 2015, Hindu temples in Kent and the Seattle Metropolitan area were vandalized, and in April 2015, a Hindu temple in north Texas was vandalized with xenophobic images spray-painted on its walls.[80][81] In 2011, the Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Pittsburgh was also vandalized and $15,000 worth of jewelry was stolen.[82]
In January 2023, the Shri Omkarnath Temple, located in Brazos Valley, Texas, was broken into by the burglars. A board member of temple, Srinivasa Sunkari, said, "There was a sense of invasion, that sense of loss of privacy when something like this happened to us." Hindu advocacy organizations like HinduPact and Hindu American Foundation demanded an investigation.[83]
In October 2023, burglars raided a Hindu mandir in Sacramento, California, with six suspects stealing a donation box from the premises.[84] The incident, which took place at the Hari Om Radha Krishna Mandir in the Parkway neighborhood of Sacramento, was condemned by the Coalition of Hindus of North America as a potential hate crime.[85][86]
Scholars, Novelist and Writers -
Politicians -
Celebrites -
Games :
Others -