Search

In Edmonton, the capital city of the province of Alberta, Canada, music, sound, and devotion have gained extraordinary popularity and proliferation among the South Asian Hindu diaspora. From festival celebrations to community gatherings or congregations in temples, this phenomenon of Hindu religio-cultural practice has been an important magnet to attract a vast number of the Hindu diaspora. Spending hours together, members of the South Asian Hindu diaspora engage in devotional musical soundscapes; immerse themselves in those soundscapes through clapping, singing, and bodily movements; and deeply engage in devotional activities. Based on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2022, including three case studies, this article discusses how these homeland echoes – recreating and resembling homeland music, sound, and devotional practices – play a powerful role in maintaining homeland ties and function as a constitutive element of collective identity of South Asian-ness for the South Asian Hindu diaspora in the Canadian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of how ethnonationalists mobilize digital media is not matched in size by an investigation into the progressive activists digitally mobilizing against them. This is especially true in diaspora communities, which form the focus of this work. In this paper, we discuss diasporic online progressive activism against one form of ethnonationalism, Hindutva. Situating our argument in the context of the Indian Australian diaspora, we argue that the study of activist media ecologies which seek to resist Hindutva is as critical as the study of Hindutva itself, but that scholarship on this kind resistance in diaspora remains sparse. We suggest that the Australian case – witnessing a critical acceleration in Hindutva mobilization since 2020 – provides a unique opportunity to understand the role of digital media at the nascence of online resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the religious and spatial politics of contemporary Hindu nationalism through an examination of the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, India, and the Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, UK. Whereas the Neasden Temple is celebrated as a diasporic accomplishment that testifies to British multiculturalism, the Ayodhya temple has been mired by controversy and marred in violence that has spanned decades. Despite these differences, both temples have acquired their specific symbolic, visual and material salience through a global circulation of ideas, goods, peoples and aesthetics. I trace this circulation to show how these two temples serve to concretize and embody a specific historical narrative of 'the Hindu nation' through their shared architectural forms, as well as through the shared processes of their material construction. My argument is that the symbolic, visual and material relationships these temples instantiate across multiple 'national' locations can be read as territorializing mythic formations of 'the Hindu nation' as a global entity. The transnational crossings that secure the local specificities entailed in the construction of these temples demonstrate how contemporary formations of 'globality' are produced by, and in turn become the conditions of possibility for, the transformation of contemporary Hindu nationalism into a global phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates Modi's rise to power as strongman leader of the world's largest secular democracy. Deploying 'bhakti' or devotion as an analytical category, it brings an unusual perspective to contemporary Indian politics that looks at it from outside the electoral practices and institutions of the nation-state. Fundamental to understanding Modi's political authority is Swaminarayan Sanstha, a powerful Hindu ascetic order tracing its origins tonineteenth century Gujarat. Following its nearly two century long transnational trajectory through the diasporic and religious networks of the Gujaratis, I illustrate how the Swaminarayans emerged as a social platform for Modi's political aspirations and mobiled the Hindu diaspora in a host of capacities to serve as his informal diplomat corps. By transferring their networks and assets to Modi's political project, the Swaminarayans, I argue, are reconfiguring the Indian state and its constitutional vision for society into a sacral Hindu state for a 'bhakt nation' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Tamil there is a proverb "KALLADI PATTALUM KANNADI PADAKUDATHU", which means throwing stone attack harms the body but evil eye causes severe worse damage to growth. Kannadi padakudathu means evil eye should not fall on us. This evil eye is called as Drishti. Some people are of the opinion that this Drishti is generally a "Superstitious" phenomenon. At the same time many people are of the opinion that Drishti will bring severe damage, so that we have to do Drishti parikaram to avoid bad eye vision. Even in Hindi it is called as "Nazar" and say "Nazar laga" when they feel they got an evil eye on them. The babies below 5-6 years of age are protected from "Drishti" with great care by mothers. Mothers place a small black dot on child's both cheeks to drive away this "Evil eye" or "drishti" or "Nazar". This perception is not limited to Telugu or Tamil people, but it is present all over India in general. People assume that this Drishti creates a variety of problems such as depression, unclear thinking or malfunction of an organ which lead to even further difficulties such as addiction, financial problems, or chest pain. It is believed that the targets are usually people who entertain negative personality traits such as anger, hatred, jealousy, lust, greed etc. It is believed that when people are jealous at our growth in life, at our prosperity, our good looks, they do not have to physically abuse us or make us realize their enmity outwardly, but their subconscious mind gives negative radiation towards us and spoils our growth. This paper presents how the "Drishti" plays a major role in Kurukshetra war. In Kurukshetra war, by Sanjaya's Divya-Drishti, Dhritarashtra came to know from Sanjaya that the Kaurava's army was the largest army when compared with the Pandava's army. Also, the Kaurava's Commander-in-chiefs were very brave and unbeatable commanders. The initial war strategy and military formation of Kauravas were extremely good. These things made Dhritarashtra felt very proud of his son's army and this excess of love and pride damaged the growth of his children. The love and pride of Dhritarashtra made a parental "Drishti" to Kauravas which made severe damages and at last they were defeated and all his sons including Duriyodhana were killed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to indicate which determinants had the major impact on the spatial diffusion of the Bollywood cinema in two aspects: the first appearance of this cinema in different countries and the number of films distributed there. The distance between the country and Mumbai and the size of the diaspora were taken as key determinants. The concept of Hägerstrand was adopted as the spatial diffusion model. The procedure involved gathering data for 5,832 Hindi movies produced in Mumbai distributed in cinemas in 76 countries from 1970 to 2010. The hypotheses were verified and it was proved that the spatial diffusion of the popular hindi cinema was influenced by a number of social, cultural and political determinants, of which the size of the Indian diaspora was the most important. The paper can be a reference to the discussion about diaspora identity and the intersection of cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the new characteristics of Hindu nationalism—now in a phase when Hindutva logics are percolating into various local practices, in India and in diaspora, and now that the BJP has assumed electoral office? This short 'Post Script' essay uses the cases represented in this special issue on 'neo-Hindutva' to think through overarching themes that distinguish present expressions of political Hinduism. I argue that while the vernacularization of Hindutva continues to generate new expressions that variously modulate or adapt classic Sangh Parivar positions in specific local contexts, the wide dispersion of Hindutva logics and the wider tendency to use political frameworks for almost all social affairs is generating other responses. Most notably, Hindutva vernacularization increasingly involves seeking out apolitical forms of politics itself: transcendent logics and neutralizing frameworks that position Hindutva as outside of the usual political corruptions of the modern Indian State. While such forms have a long history in the subcontinent, I argue for greater attentiveness to apolitical aspirations as these coalesce in what are usually politically overdetermined contexts. The pull of the apolitical cannot be cynically dismissed as disingenuous or merely a veiled politics, or we risk fueling rather than addressing the various dimensions of its evolving critique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that it was a Portuguese colony until late 1961, having since then acquired the status of a union territory, the Indian island of Diu was culturally and religiously influenced and marked by its proximity to the neighbouring territory of Kathiawar (also known as the peninsular region of Saurashtra) located in the south of Gujarat state and forming part of the Arabian Sea coast. This circumstance helps to explain the reason why the Gujarati language was the dominant idiom on the island and Hinduism the prevalent religion. To this extent, the reproduction of cultural and religious practices among the Hindu population of the island include the use of various stylistic typologies of bhajan (devotional songs), with particular emphasis on the Kathiyawadi bhajan - a category of bhajan associated with expressive practices globally connoted with the territory of Gujarat, but particularly with the Kathiawar region. In addition to religious connotations, Kathiyawadi bhajan are also identified with lok geet (folk music) practices and envisions a dense interaction between devotional singing intercalated (in the beginning or in the middle of the performance) by poetic-musical forms, such as sakhi, doha, and chaand, traditionally composed and transmitted by bards and jati (caste/castes) of Gujarat musicians (e.g. Gadhvi, Charan, Bharot). Perhaps because of the lack of migratory history on the part of these jati of musicians, in the Hindu-Gujarati diaspora in Mozambique and in Portugal, Kathiyawadi bhajan are particularly practised and transmitted by musicians from Diu jati (although not limited to these). Based on archival research (including audio-visual archives) and on participant observation during multi-sited fieldwork in Lisbon, the state of Gujarat, and Diu island, this article explores the ambiguities related to the practices of representing the Kathiyawadi bhajan: on some occasions perceived as an archaic and potentially transgressive practice by some urban Gujarati groups, on other occasions discursively valued and praised when it comes to performing and representing the ‘authenticity’ and ancestrality of Gujarati culture in which the Diu jati represent the connection to the ‘true’ Gujarati folk, rural, and ancestral traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the Diu transnational population with ties to Mozambique, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, with the aim of portraying these ties historically, socially, and culturally. Both authors have engaged in long-term ethnographic fieldwork, mostly working together to generate advantages for the study of transnationality and diaspora. Therefore, this article details our view after more than a decade of fieldwork while also conveying the voices of our interlocutors, who better illustrate Diu and its plural dimensions. The article describes the Diu Hindu representations of late Portuguese colonialism in India (until 1961) and explains the plural dimensions of transnationality. On the one hand, we focus on the cultural practices associated with transnationality, paying special attention both to the return to India and to marriages. On the other hand, the article explores the types of migration from Diu to other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an ethnographic exploration of flexible cultural citizenship among a Surinamese Hindu community in the Netherlands. Rather than focus on the relationship between mobility and transnationalism, it revisits the notion of cultural flexibility in order to demonstrate how diasporic actors belonging to a transnational moral community construct their position as model citizens. This includes an appeal to aspects of difference rather than notions of sameness or integration. By introducing what the author calls ‘value flexibility’ in asserting a diasporic community’s belonging, this article draws attention to the ways in which citizenship and belonging in diasporic contexts hinges on culturally specific, orientalized notions of what it means to be Hindu. Such notions ultimately translate into flexibility across cultural and moral worldviews. It illustrates this through interviews with Surinamese Hindus across the Netherlands and a case study of a Hindu primary school in The Hague. This article focuses upon discursive constructions of the use of religious images, the circulation of moral stories and the performance of mythological narratives as productive domains of value flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public events by immigrant religious organisations are a fairly new phenomenon in European societies. This article analyses and compares two such events: Diwali Mela, the Hindu festival of lights, and the Open Mosque Day organised by Muslim umbrella organisations. Using basic concepts of new institutional theory, we will show how immigrant religious organisations adopt established event formats and translate them into their own context. Interestingly, different factors influence the way they present themselves and their religious tradition at the public event. Three of these factors are of major impact: the secular image of the role of religion in society, the discourse about Islam and Hinduism, and finally the organisations’ own religious concepts. We argue that the action generated out of this leads to the masking of two major aspects of religion: the rites and the believers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yet, there has never been a unified or singular Hinduism in America. Rather, the story of Hinduisms in America provides an important example for the ways a religious tradition is imagined in America. In the 18th and 19th century, Americans described religion in India as 'heathenism', 'Hindoo religion', 'Hindu religion', and 'Brahmanism'. By the end of the 19th century, figures like Swami Vivekanada brought the idea of 'Hinduism', a world religion, to America. In the 20th century, Hindu immigrants from South Asia began to build temples and practice their own forms of Hinduism throughout the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text segmentation from degraded Historical Indus script images helps Optical Character Recognizer (OCR) to achieve good recognition rates for Hindus scripts; however, it is challenging due to complex background in such images. In this paper, we present a new method for segmenting text and non-text in Indus documents based on the fact that text components are less cursive compared to non-text ones. To achieve this, we propose a new combination of Sobel and Laplacian for enhancing degraded low contrast pixels. Then the proposed method generates skeletons for text components in enhanced images to reduce computational burdens, which in turn helps in studying component structures efficiently. We propose to study the cursiveness of components based on branch information to remove false text components. The proposed method introduces the nearest neighbor criterion for grouping components in the same line, which results in clusters. Furthermore, the proposed method classifies these clusters into text and non-text cluster based on characteristics of text components. We evaluate the proposed method on a large dataset containing varieties of images. The results are compared with the existing methods to show that the proposed method is effective in terms of recall and precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article interrogates how the government engagement in economic and political management decisions may affect the cultural representation and cultural identity of minority or diasporic cultures. Set in Auckland, New Zealand, the results demonstrate how festival producer relationships and diaspora community involvement transform under the influence of festivalization. Auckland's "Major Civic Event," Diwali: Festival of Lights is the largest festivity representing New Zealand's Indian diaspora. More recently, and especially in diasporic settings, Diwali has been referred to as a "festival" and a public celebration for Hindus and non-Hindus alike. The case study, central to this research, traces factors (1998 to 2013) that have transformed the production of Diwali, one of India's most important cultural festivals, from a community celebration to a cultural tourism destination. The findings in this research demonstrate how diaspora communities react when executive management decisions seek to align events with larger tourism and economic development strategies central to festivalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper, I first recount the inner world of Ayya in order to show the implicit presence of the two critical strategies, namely transgression and power within the ‘habitus’ he constructs. I then attempt to tease out the two critical concepts that I have deployed to unpack the workings of Ayya's worldview. The conclusions that I have arrived at are not to be seen as broad generalizations beyond the scope of this paper, but rather an indication of theoretical possibilities. While my use of Bourdieu's ideas is embedded in the paper throughout, I deploy Derrida only to illuminate my final comment of Ayya's dual position within the Srividya tradition. I shall argue that Ayya, the head of the temple, by deploying a uniquely religious habitus differentiates himself and his tradition from the mainstream Hindu practices, not just in the diaspora but also in the South Asian context as well. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper re-evaluates certain core understandings of Hindu nationalism in Britain through the analysis of a disputed 2006 art exhibition in London. It considers the two main protagonists objecting to the M. F. Husain show: the representative umbrella organisation, the Hindu Forum of Britain, and the web- and protest-based group, Hindu Human Rights. In particular, the paper considers the relationship between these groups, the government, and the Hindu nationalist movement in India. The central role played by performative tropes of outrage and offence in the public representation of Hinduism is explored. It is argued that a reconceptualisation of diasporic Hindutva is required. Firstly, whilst still connected to India in various ways, Hindu nationalism in Britain has outgrown the institutional and ideological boundaries of the Sangh Parivar. It is proposed that these idiosyncratic inflections of transnational Hindutva might be termed ‘neo-Hindutva’. Secondly, it is suggested that the M. F. Husain protests, and subsequent activities of the Hindu Forum, indicate that Hindutva has become mainstreamed and normalised in the UK. Whilst elements of this narrative are distinctly domestic, we must also understand the transnational context which is intrinsically linked, discursively and practically, to India. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines developing Hindu identity in a British context. It focuses on a recent initiative known as Sewa Day, an annual day dedicated to the provision ofsewa, or service, as small-scale social action in local communities. Hindu nationalist organizations such as the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh have been central to promoting and taking part in Sewa Day. The paper asks what purpose is served by the drive to promote social action in this way, arguing that it represents a significant attempt to project Hindus as model citizens, contributors to what the UK government has termed the ‘Big Society’. The paper explores the implications of this project in terms of its ability to re-situate the politics of Hindu nationalism in relation to dominant registers of civic virtue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Bhagavadgītā, as an oral/textual tradition, includes arguably one of the largest and most diverse commentarial spheres of any work in the Hindu corpus, spanning across centuries of time and religious boundaries. In this article, I present an ethnographic analysis of danced Bhagavadgītās in the Indian classical dance styles of bharatanāṭyam and kūchipūḍi as an embodied form of performed commentary in comparison to oral–textual commentaries. After detailing some of the key challenges to bringing a more abstract philosophical dialogue into dance forms that rely on action-packed narratives, I present some of the strategies choreographers utilise to bring the metaphysical concepts of non-attachment, reincarnation, and text as mūrti to life on stage. I argue that the choreographic choices engaged to embody these concepts present interpretive commentaries that not only strongly align with typical commentarial strategies but add unique perspectives through embodiment, especially in light of being performed in Hindu diasporic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas is the property of Centro de Investigacao e Estudos de Sociologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines films and video art that speak to conditions of exile and displacement, including the work of Mona Hatoum, Sonali Gulati, and Onir. It proposes the term “latitude” to interrogate the aesthetic and formal properties of these artworks, seeking to understand how lesbian and same-sex eroticism and identities are central to their efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the debates and tensions that emerged during the 1950s, when the South African Hindu Maha Sabha approached education authorities about permitting Hindu religious instruction in selected primary schools. While important to the Maha Sabha, this move brought strong opposition from many quarters. Hindu reformers aimed to promote a 'monolithic Hinduism' and recreate it. However, given the het-erogeneity of South African Hindus, who were divided by class, caste, language, region of origin, and the presence of Christian and Muslim Indians, many critical voices feared that teaching religion at school would foster divisions within the 'Indian community', which was considered anathema when it was perceived as necessary to unite against the racist policies of the white minority apartheid government. The deep-seated fears that were exposed by this debate reveal interesting insights about the multifaceted nature of Indian identity and Hindu identity in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, with the explosion of all things yoga, Hindu imagery has become part of an "Indo-chic" marketing trend, which has seen the mass production of henna, bindis, yoga mats, and "sari-esque" merchandise for Western consumption. Lunch boxes, nightlights, and T-shirts with the likeness of Hindu gods are popular sellers. While the appearance of these products is somewhat problematic due to their decontextualized nature, these commodities are not considered inherently disrespectful to the Hindu community. It is the emergence of Hindu imagery on other types of products--objects considered polluting in certain Hindu contexts--that has been significantly more disconcerting. This essay highlights the connection between an asserted globalized Hindu community and Hindu imagery. It further explores how Hindu images are signified through the discourse of protest generated by diasporic Hindus in reaction to the representations of gods and goddesses on commodities-- in the North American, European, and Australian context--that are deemed ritually impure. By examining the discourse of protest and the consequent apologies issued by the offending companies, this essay argues that new rituals and regulations for the appropriate usage and placement of divine Hindu images and symbols are established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the UK's Hindu community, this explores some modes for the communication of pro-sustainability messages and their affective strength. These campaigns employ the community-center role of many UK Hindu temples to connect Hindu congregations to the cause of environmental sustainability through the medium of Hindu scripture and tradition. The international Hindu Bhumi Project (and its larger ?Many Heavens, One Earth? interfaith initiative) provide an umbrella for such pedagogic initiatives. Two are described. First is the festival-ground-based Karma to Climate Change (K2CC) campaign, which encourages pilgrims to pledge pro-sustainability lifestyle changes as part of their religious practice. The second, the Ahimsa Project, is devoted to the popularization and production of ethically pure, cruelty/slaughter free milk, which encourages people to develop greater empathy for the wellbeing of their fellow creatures and, ultimately, to abhor the casual slaughter of animals for meat. These projects are driven by the enthusiasm and concern of a younger generation of British-born Hindu people and their impacts are felt both through the campaigns themselves and the family structures of the volunteers who participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay aims to foreground the types and patterns of political participation of Asian Indians in the US and the change and continuity thereof since migration of the community began in significant numbers in the 20th century. It shows how immigration reforms and citizenship laws prevented the community, for over half a century (until at least 1965), from achieving a demographic critical mass, which is a crucial factor in becoming an effective player in the political system of the US, and the community's reaction to these restrictions. Surveying the political participation of Indian Americans since the years prior to India's independence in 1947, the essay illustrates how the community could be an example of transnational activism and long distance nationalism even before these terms became fashionable in academia. In the light of various activities of Indian American organizations, including fund-raising for some of the past elections and the creation of congressional caucuses, the essay examines how a diasporic ethnic community sought to make its voice heard in electoral politics in spite of being numerically insignificant, accounting for 2.8 million in the 2010 census, which is only 0.9% of the total population. The community's efforts at lobbying US Congress are seen in the context of diasporic mediations in international relations, a subject increasingly attracting scholarly attention. The essay concludes with an assessment of the political activism of the Indian community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although honor killing is widely associated with Muslim communities, it can also be observed in other religious and cultural communities in the UK and elsewhere. As the author shall demonstrate in this paper, whether Muslim or not in communities where honour killings tend to occur, certain sociological structures and characteristics of communities introduce obstacle to internalizing new cultural norms and cultural change. In these communities, there are superficial social changes rather than deeper cultural changes. These communities can change, but only if the change can be accommodated and internalized with their cultural norms. It is, therefore, these characteristics, rather than religious beliefs or doctrine, which have provided an environment conducive for the occurrence of honour killings. So far, no attempt has been made to give an overall picture or characteristics of these communities of the UK where honour killings tend to occur. With a specific emphasis on why honour killings still occur in the UK, this paper attempts to make a start by focusing on characteristics of three religious minority communities of the UK, namely Muslim, Hindu and Sikh whose names have become associated with honour killings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A literary criticism of the book "Tales From Firozsha Baag" by Rohinton Mistry is presented. It examines the problem of isolation and involvement while looking at man's hopelessness of finding a meaning in life. It illustrates how diasporic existence results in loneliness and a sense of exile often leading to identity crisis.

This article is about the city as home for people living in diaspora. We develop two key areas of debate. First, in contrast to research that explores diasporic homes in relation to domestic homemaking and/or the nation as home or 'homeland', we consider the city as home in diaspora. Second, building on research on transnational urbanism, translocality and the importance of the 'city scale' in migration studies, we argue that the city is a distinctive location of diasporic dwelling, belonging and attachment. Drawing on interviews with Anglo-Indian and Chinese Calcuttans who live in London and Toronto, we develop the idea of 'diaspora cities' to explore the importance of the city as home rather than the nation as 'homeland' for many people living in diaspora. This leads to an understanding of the importance of migration and diaspora within cities of departure as well as resettlement, and contributes a distinctively diasporic focus to broader work on comparative urbanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term Diaspora refers to the dispersion of religious or ethnic groups from their established homeland either forced or voluntary. Initially this word was used for the dispersal of Jews when they were forced into exile to Babylonia. However, today it has come to mean any sizeable community of a particular nation or region living outside its own country and sharing some common bonds that give them an ethnic identity and consequent bonding. The contribution of Indian Diaspora to the world literature cannot be denied. The diasporic writers belong to different category; they have Indian origins, but live in the west, mainly England, Canada and the U.S.A. A large number of these diasporic writers have given expression to their creative urge and have brought credit to the Indian English Fiction as a distinctive force. The phenomenon of migration of Indian people to U.S.A. and other countries, their status there, and their nostalgic feelings for the mother country as well as their alienation to the new one is the major subject dealt by the Diasporic writers. The Indian-born American writer Bharati Mukherjee is one of the prominent novelists of Indian Diaspora. She has created a fair place for herself in the literary circle abroad, by her contribution to Indian English writing. Her commendable works place her in the class of great diasporic writers like Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Jhumpa Lahiri, Bernard Malmud, Issac Babel, and Yashmine Gunratne. The traumas and the agonies that people of Indian Diaspora face, in fulfilling their dreams, constitute the prime concern of Mukherjee's literary oeuvre. She mainly focuses on her diasporic women characters, their struggle for identity, their bitter experiences, and their final emergence as self- assertive individuals, free from the bondages imposed on them. Hence, this paper is intended to explore the series of transformations that the protagonist of Bharati Mukherjee's novel Jasmine undergoes, as an illegal immigrant to America and her regeneration after many transformations with disintegration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the building of the first Hindu temple in Wisconsin. The design process and the design and use of the temple suggest that the temple building process is not only a religiously or culturally motivated activity, but also a much needed community building activity in Diaspora. Though the temple is primarily built by Hindus from India, it eventually draws Hindus from other immigrant groups as well as non-Hindus. More importantly, it also serves as a platform for multicultural dialogue in a global and plural society. Based on the author's personal observations, interviews with some key people, including the designer architect and a few Hindu visitors, this paper illustrates that through the necessary adaptations and innovations in design, the Hindu temple results in redesigning the temple architecture as well as redefining the traditions in the Diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article concentrates on the different forms of 'Hinduism' practiced by diaspora communities in Manila, North Jakarta and Cologne. It is obvious that the temples of these communities differ from other Hindu Mandirs, as these communities not only share common ideas with Sikh people in the diasporic surroundings, but also partly 'share' temples. Some historically based reasons for this practice are offered. Studying these three communities in a comparative perspective also offers material for further studies of diaspora issues within Hinduism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the interrelationship between vision communication and organizational communication effectiveness. This research assumes importance as it explores the possibility of positing vision as a potent driver in the process of organizational communication. Further, it attempts to gauge the impact of vision communication on organizational communication effectiveness. Thus it demonstrates the importance of vision communication in organizations and its contribution towards overall organizational functioning. The study seeks answers to four research questions. Data is collected from 249 respondents through a questionnaire. Results indicate that vision communication is significantly related to communication effectiveness. Further, an above average degree of positive correlation is found between vision clarity and quality of written communication. While a moderate degree of positive correlation is found between vision clarity and level of motivation. Furthermore, the study also found a high degree of positive correlation between vision clarity and overall communication in the organization. Clarity of vision emerged as an important contributor towards communication effectiveness. This research assumes importance because of lack of similar research and an increasing interest in the communication of vision in the Indian diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to add to our understanding of the cultural exchanges that took place between people of far away communities during the early twentieth century by looking at a few visiting Hindu missionaries in South Africa. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Hindu Arya Samaj missionaries began arriving in the country to propagate Hinduism and promote the reformist message. While the work of travelling Hindu missionaries in other places where Hindus settled in large numbers is well documented, much less is known about their work in South Africa. This paper tries to fill that void by looking at a few missionaries and the ideas that they tried to communicate in a particular period in the history of Hindus in South Africa. These missionaries who travelled across the globe and conducted lectures, formed religious institutions and worked with existing institutions in their attempts to propagate the Hindu religion, were very popular in South Africa and thousands attended the lectures that they conducted throughout the country. They were also crucial in motivating local Hindu leaders to establish bodies to unite the very heterogeneous group of Hindus and overcome sectional divisions. However, once they departed the enthusiasm shown soon disappeared and organisations that sought to unite Hindus fell into periods of inactivity. Looking at one period in which there were a few Hindu missionaries in the country together, this paper looks at the message that they tried to communicate, how they saw the position of Hindus and Indians in South Africa and address some of ways in which South Africans responded to the missionaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers the author's insights on the diaspora, inclusiveness, and cultural identities in the Sindhi and Indo-Caribbean Hindu communities in Atlanta, Georgia. It explores a series of ironies within the two communities which highlight the influence of various political, linguistic, and socioeconomic factors on the development of practices and relations among other communities. It also relates the multiculturalism, cultural diversity, and Hinduism in the U.S.

As perpetuators of what is considered traditional knowledge, Hindu women in Portugal are assigned a new status through religion, thus replacing the male pujari. This article focuses on the Hindu diaspora in Portugal, and specifically on the role played by women in the construction of gender and religious identities, who, entrusted with new social and ritual responsibilities, contribute towards the cultural replication of their traditional community. As anthropological studies on gender in diaspora show us, the assignment of religious roles are used to recreate women's social status in the 'host' country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the US diasporic context, Kamat and Matthews (2003) have traced how Hindu nationalists draw on multiculturalist discourse for their presence while simultaneously funding cultural and political projects in India that incite hate and conduct violence against Muslim and Christian communities. In the Australian context, Hindu nationalist organisations have legitimised and consolidate themselves through the rhetoric of liberal multiculturalism. Such strategies which draw on state rhetoric of multiculturalism while simultaneously engaging in hate campaigns against Muslim and Christian others demonstrates Hindutva's ability to operate through a transnational necropolitics. This paper explores how a state biopolitics of multiculturalism enables the violence of Hindutva's necropolitics in the transnational routes between Australia and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]