New Roots in America's Sacred Ground: Religion, Race, And Ethnicity in Indian America

254 Pages·2006·1 MB·English

by  Khyati Y. Joshi

New Roots in America’s
Sacred Ground

VVVVVVVVVVV
New Roots in America’s
Sacred Ground
Religion, Race, and Ethnicity
in Indian America
KHYATI Y. JOSHI
VVVVVVVVVVV
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, AND LONDON
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Joshi, Khyati Y., –
New roots in America’s sacred ground : religion, race,. and ethnicity
in Indian America / Khyati Y. Joshi.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN-: ----(hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-: ----(pbk. : alk. paper)
. East Indian Americans—Ethnic identity. . East Indian Americans—
Religion. . East Indian Americans—Social conditions. . Religious minorities—
United States—Social conditions. . Ethnicity—United States.
. United States—Religion. . United States—Race relations. . United States—
Ethnic relations. . Religion and sociology—United States. I. Title.
E.EJ 
.'—dc 
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Copyright © by Khyati Y. Joshi
All rights reserved
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Religion in America 15
2 Ethnicity and Religion 34
3 Facets of Lived Religion 62
4 What Does Race Have to Do with Religion? 89
5 Religious Oppression 118
6 Case Studies 145
Epilogue 194
Appendix 199
Notes 205
References 221
Index 235
vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
N
o person is an island, and a book is a product not only of the author but of
the minds and spirits of those around her. Along the long path from first ideas to
final galleys, I benefited from the support and input of many, many gifted people.
My thanks to Suvrat Bhargave, Jayenta Dey, Sudevi Ghosh, Shelley Gupta,
Ketan Sanghvi, Linell Yugawa, and others, who assisted me in identifying re-
search participants. Maurianne Adams, Warren Blumenfeld, John Dean, Joyce
Flueckiger, Jane Naomi Iwamura, Uma Majumdar, Gina Martino, Pyong Gap
Min, Steven Prothero, Sonia Sharma, Munjal Shroff, Paul Spickard, and Danielle
Sigler all read drafts of the work in many different stages and offered valuable in-
sights. David Blumenthal, Phyllis C. Brown, and Jimmy Harper have provided
much encouragement along the way.
I am fortunate to be a part of two groups of people whose feedback and
support have been invaluable. First, thank you to all my friends and colleagues
in the Asian Pacific American and Religion Research Initiative (APARRI) for shar-
ing the idea that it’s not crazy to want to pursue research at the intersection of
race, religion, and ethnicity. Thanks also to my friends and colleagues from the
–cohort of the Young Scholars in Religion Program at the Center for
Religion and American Culture at Indiana University-Purdue University Indi-
anapolis (IUPUI). My fellow Young Scholars and our mentors offered me valu-
able feedback and a chance to learn about areas of religion and history with
which I was not yet familiar.
Material and ideas from New Rootswere presented before audiences at the
Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University, the Ameri-
can Academy of Religion, Yale University’s Asian-American Cultural Center,
APARRI/PANA conferences, and Association of Asian American Studies. The
students, audience members, fellow panelists, and discussants at these events
helped me develop my ideas and sharpen my analysis.
Particular intellectual nourishment on was provided by Jigna Desai and Ju-
dith Hudson. Both went above and beyond the call of duty, and everyone should
be so lucky to have such dedicated friends.
Fairleigh Dickinson University has provided a wonderful environment for
research and writing. My colleagues at the Peter Sammartino School of Education
ix