US, May 1, 2011 (by David Briggs at the Huffington Post): In the 1960s and 1970s, Hinduism seemed on the path to spectacular growth in the United States as immigration laws eased and some Indian spiritual leaders were embraced by the counterculture of the 1960s.
The forecasts were half right. But the road traveled toward Hinduism in America was not that of the counterculture movement. What is propelling it into a role as one of the nation’s largest minority religions is a steady stream of Indian immigrants who have built hundreds of temples across the nation, according to a new study.
In what it calls the first effort to conduct a Hindu census in the United States, the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Institute of American Religion discovered some 1,600 temples and centers with an estimated 600,000 practicing Hindus. That number could easily be higher. [Hinduism Today magazine estimates over 2 million Hindus in the US, see the reasons behind this number here ]. For better and worse, however, the latest incarnation of Hinduism in the United States has gone largely unnoticed by most Americans.
Hinduism was introduced to the United States through the 19th century translation of texts such as the Bhagavad Gita. The first Indian teacher to visit the U.S., P.C. Mozoomdar, spoke in 1830 at the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Other gurus followed, but the growth of the Hindu community was cut short by the Asian Exclusion Act in 1924. The comeback began in 1965 with the new immigration law opening the U.S. to Indian immigrants, who brought with them prominent spiritual leaders.
Many Americans welcomed the gurus, but interest among non-Indians faded in the 1970s. At the same time, a growing Indian immigrant community began building temples and centers to meet its spiritual needs. In its census, the Institute of American Religion found 258 traditional Hindu temples with an estimated 268,000 adherents. The study estimated there are also 400 temples and centers from Hindu sub-traditions that have an estimated 282,000 participants and some 940 centers with an estimated 55,000 members associated with smaller movements across the country.
Yet much of this growth has occurred “almost invisibly” on the edge of the larger American religious community. Hinduism does not enter the consciousness of most Americans in their daily lives. A 2001 Research Opinion Corp. survey found 95 percent of Americans have little or no knowledge of Hindu beliefs and practices.
But that is about to change, scholars and observers say.
The encouraging news for Hindus is they have avoided much of the hostility that has challenged other large groups of religious immigrants to America, including Catholics, Jews and, more recently, Muslims. Hindus have been largely left alone to meet the internal needs of finding and maintaining spiritual homes for a growing membership. Yet as it grows, Hinduism is not expected to remain under the radar too much longer. Hindus are gaining political sophistication through groups such as the Hindu American Foundation, and their geographical concentration holds the potential for building influential voting blocs in some regions.
Hindu leaders in the U.S. also realize there is a much greater need for outreach in a country where Hinduism is not ingrained in the culture, said Anant Rambachan, chair of the Religion Department at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.
The days of the Beatles and pop stars like Donovan making highly publicized trips to India to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi are over. But it turns out Hinduism never needed the buzz to succeed here. A much more substantial movement, made of highly committed people, has created a more permanent religious community that has taken its place as a primary American minority religious tradition.