EVANSVILLE, INDIANA, August 12, 2006: A group of men, women and children sit on the floor in front of a colorful altar adorned with flowers, candles, food offerings and images of Hindu deities. Different people take turns leading the group of 30 or so in Sanskrit and Hindi songs–prayers offering praise. Evansville-area Hindus gather here, a meeting room at Evansville’s Central Library, once a month. They represent a small but growing part of the Tri-State landscape, and by year’s end they will have their own worship space. In late July, local Hindus held a groundbreaking and ceremonial activities in Newburgh, where they will build a temple. The first phase of the project will be a 5,000-square-foot worship space and community hall that will serve the estimated 300 families that live within 50 miles of Evansville. It will be the Tri-State’s first Hindu temple. That building is planned for completion by the end of the year. If all goes according to plan, the next phase would come next year, with the installation of various Hindu deities and the hiring of a priest. Eventually, the group would like to build a separate community hall and priest’s residence on the five-acre site.
“We have some plans, but money is a big factor,” said K.C. Jain of Evansville. Jain is treasurer of Tri-State Hindu Temple Inc., the group formed last year to build the temple. Phase 1 alone will cost $500,000. The temple is a dream many years in the making for local Hindus such as Jain and his wife, Sushma. The couple have seen big changes in the Hindu population since they moved to the area. “When we moved here in the early ’80s, there were hardly 15 (Indian) families here,” K.C. Jain said. The local Hindu population started to grow in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the Jains said, largely fueled by doctors recruited by local hospitals and Indians who came to the area for computer jobs. Immigrants–who often arrive in the United States with very little money–will tend to gravitate toward towns such as Evansville, Jain said, because it costs less to live here than in a larger city. The Jains’ observations are supported by U.S. Census Bureau figures. The 1990 census counted 194 Asian Indians living in Vanderburgh and Warrick counties and Henderson County, Ky. That number rose to 409 in the 2000 census.