Hindu Community Organization: An Assessment
American Hindus are mentally ill-prepared and hopelessly disorganized to meet the challenges of the present and the future. Determinants of such a state are manifold, which necessitates a precise assessment.
One of the determinants of American Hindu mental weakness is that its Hinduness is taken for granted and relegated to the background by its adherents. Hindus are good Hindus within the four walls of their homes, but as soon as they come out of the front door, they mysteriously transform into “Indian-Americans”, or “Asian-Indians” or the superficially engineered and perverse identity of “South Asians.” The reluctance for an outward expression of Hinduness is caused by sheer ignorance, and quite often is the result of the ideological baggage which the neo-immigrants tend to carry from their mother countries. If Hinduness is indeed a baggage then American Hindus would be standing in line to convert to exclusivistic belief systems, but then the same people subconsciously hold on to Dharma nevertheless. The variance between action and expression can only be explained by mental lethargy and ignorance. It also indicates how the current crop of so-called community leaders are ill-serving their community.
At present, the U.S. Hindu community is not only unorganized, but it is disorganized, for the purposes of socio-economic-political organization. The disorganization would need to be undone first, to make an attempt to reorganize. There are various dimensions of community disorganization, some of which are listed below.
Linguistic - affinity to one’s mother tongue is a natural expression. This is especially true among immigrants. However, the mother tongues from India (or elsewhere) will fade away among the ensuing generations. On the other hand, Sanskrit as a civilizational vehicle of Hinduness needs to be preserved and promoted for the preservation and propagation of Sanatana Dharma. The linguistic stratification of the U.S. Hindu community is acceptable for superficial expression in terms of food and films. However, when the same stratification is pushed beyond a limit, it results in linguistic ethnicization which is detrimental to Hindu unity.
Sectarian – The pluralistic philosophy of Hinduism has spawned a plethora of sects and sampradayas. This beautiful diversity is intrinsic to Sanatana Dharma, and shall remain so for the eternity. However, certain sects and sampradayas attempt to extend their domain from spiritual and cultural to the temporal -- i.e. social, economic and political. Such tendencies have cropped up since the Hindu community has been left bereft of natural political and social leadership due to its preoccupation with “Indian-American” and “South-Asian” labels. Much worse are the expectations of a certain class of activists who falsely believe that social and political leadership could be provided by gurus and heads of various sampradayas. It is a comical expectation. Therefore, even though it is innate for Sanatana Dharma to express its spiritual and cultural diversity in the form of sects and sampradayas, extending the same diversity to social, economic and political fields leads to community fragmentation.
Casteist – Caste is a primordial form of endogamic social organization and Hindu society in India has historically organized its social dimension along caste lines. The merits and demerits of such a social system is outside of the scope of this paper. Suffice to state that use of caste as a social ordering principle among American Hindus makes very little practical sense. Firstly, American Hindus are not an agrarian village based society. Secondly, vocations taken up by American Hindus are based on their skill set that they acquire in a University, and not those that are passed from father to son. Thirdly, endogamy within a closed social group is impractical in the U.S. A number of caste based organizations give “distinct culture” as their raison d’etre. This explanation is absurd since “culture” in India (in its superficial sense) is more aligned on geographical lines. The only plausible explanation for existence of caste-based organizations in the U.S. is to fulfill the psychological need to feel “superior” than their fellow Hindus (empirical data suggests most caste based organizations in the U.S. belong to the so-called upper castes). The obvious underlying psychological determinant for such a behavior is the sheer inferiority complex that many Hindu immigrants bring with them from India and elsewhere. Casteism among U.S. Hindus leaves the Hindu community fragmented and its social, economic and political voice feebled.
Personality-based – There exist a number of Hindu organizations each based on a single individual as “the leader” who serves as the anchor-point for his followers who are more than willing to provide a platform to their leader. One of the psychological determinants for such a mentality is the quintessential Hindu belief in the ‘Avatara Theory’ – that one day God will incarnate on this earth to take their miseries away. Such organizations may flower for a short period of time, but eventually suffer from high mortality. In the end, after a huge investment in time, effort and money, such initiatives do not yield any consolidation or buildup of the long-term infrastructure.
Public Relations oriented – there are several organizations that are purposed towards engaging in public relations. Such an objective is desirable, but only as a tactical component of a larger strategic initiative. Quite often the tactics is taken as strategy and in the end there is no actual accrual of benefits to the U.S. Hindu community. Public relations and community advocacy should be an expression of community foundation, and not become its cause.
Service or function oriented – there are a number of organizations that focus on a particular service or a function. These may be community service based or personal health / yoga related. Quite often these activities are not done under a Hindu banner. Once again, such activities do not bring any incremental benefit to the U.S. Hindu community.
Temple societies – Many temples have built congregations around them. These serve a very useful purpose in spiritual matters, along with value addition in areas such as religious education of the youth within the context of the particular sampradaya to which the temple is credited to. While the intention is laudable, and quite often the temple societies meet their limited objectives, yet there is no accrual of strength as a community as a whole.
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