Rhetoric Race and Religion
One of the strongest qualities of Hinduism is that, despite its diverse approaches to the Divine, there has been a rich tradition of debate and discourse that has nourished and revitalized Hindu thought and practice. Hindu scriptures and spiritual leaders have for thousands of years extolled the virtue of learning and knowledge creation, commonly referred to among Hindus as jnana yoga. In fact, my own inspiration as a critical scholar — questioning everything and the exhilaration of academic debate — comes from the 17th century Hindu saint Raghavendra, who excelled in debating and successfully questioned long assumed orthodoxies within the Vaishnavite tradition in which he was raised. One such debate was captured masterfully in a 1985 Tamil language biopic.
With the spiritual wealth accumulated through centuries of discourse within India, Diasporic Hindu communities have been able to use that capital in helping to evolve the spiritual traditions and acclimate within diverse settings across the globe, while those who have found Hinduism from other walks of life have added their own rich contributions.
Despite this rich tradition within Hinduism, there are times when Hindu Americans seem reluctant to debate issues of philosophy, practice, and even cultural symbolism. There is a legitimate reason for this, as many older Hindu Americans were educated in the aftermath of partition and were often taught that Hinduism was an enemy of modernity, a result of the British institutionalizing Hindu inferiority in English medium education. Colonialism stifled debate and placed Hindus – and Hinduism – into poorly fitting categories while homogenizing its numerous approaches to understanding the Divine.
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