The Construction of Hinduism in America

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.