Present
“Apart from being ethnically Indian, a majority of people in the Indian-American community are also Hindus. Further, unlike other religious groups like Indian Muslims, Christians and Sikhs that have independent political organizations, Hindu political representation in the United States largely gets channelled through Indian-American forums. In mainstream American consciousness, India and Hinduism are inevitably linked.”
– Beloo Mehra, Sulekha Columnist, USA
“As a student in an American college, I was always surprised by the reluctance of Indian students to celebrate anything that could be considered ‘Hindu’ – it might offend non-Hindu Indians, they said. While I have respect for their humility and concern for the feelings of others, I think what suffered most was my self-esteem as a Hindu. I am an Indian tolerant of all faiths and religions, but I am also a Hindu interested in celebrating my own heritage.”
– Agastya Kohli, Seattle, WA
“Yes, we live outside of India, the home of Sanatana Dharma but we remember that Sanatana Dharma and India live within us.”
– Rahul, New Jersey
“I recently went to a function presented by a Christian organization called the Charismatic group. There were around 20,000 people gathered in a huge hall. Eighty percent were young people. The only elderly people there were brought by the youth. What they had was something that was not just religious. It was fun as well. They had a great “pull factor.” Because it was fun, the kids could relate. We Hindus need to use a similar formula to attract the youth. We have to create activities that are fun and interesting.”
– Muthukumaran, 29, Publicity Coordinator, Hindu Centre of Singapore,
in an interview with Hinduism Today
“In a global community long synonymous with achievement, these mind-benders (people of Indian origin) have used the heady combination of East and West to blast into new frontiers. Bright and confident, they promise to redesign the world… In countries big and small and in professions new and old, overseas-born Indians are excelling beyond the ordinary and redefining the Indian identity.”
¾ India Today
“Shouldn’t Indians make this critical choice of classification and framework rather than being dictated to by foreign think tanks and academics? In this regard, China controls its brand management, while India is simply being led… SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association) illustrates how some institutions with the ‘South Asian’ nomenclature are compromising India’s interests. SAJA consistently placates Pakistan. Its 5 percent Pakistani members leverage the collective power of SAJA to neutralize the 95 percent Indian members. Hence, it cannot write critically of Pakistan, leave alone assert a pro-India stance on Kashmir and other issues. But Pakistanis have a separate Pakistani Journalists Association in parallel, and, are also proud leaders of Pan-Islamic movements on campuses. They, clearly, do not suffer from cultural or identity shame. The Pakistani government is a silent but active force in these situations.”
¾ Rajiv Malhotra, Infinity Foundation, USA.
“The ‘secular progressives’ (in India) realize that NRIs, and in particular NRI engineers, especially those who made money in the high tech boom of the 1990s, are not so likely to swallow their propaganda… I do recognize the very real problems a lot of NRIs have, of cultural confusion and displacement, but in the eyes of the JNU-ites, NRIs form a cohesive and frightening force. These NRIs have seen the world and done well in fully competitive circles, do not have inferiority complexes, and do not need to suck up to some white academic like Doniger for crumbs like travel grants, which the ‘sepoys’ of Indology in India crave. In other words, the NRI engineers are shouting from the rooftops, ‘The Emperor has no clothes!’ This is, of course, distressing to those who have been supplying non-existent clothes to the Emperor and profiting mightily therefrom. These NRI engineers have also come to realize that there is something precious in India that is under grave threat from the Sino-Islamic axis and Christian fundamentalists.”
Past
“Mark me, then and then alone you are a Hindu when every man who bears the name, from any country, speaking our language, becomes at once the nearest and the dearest to you.”
– Swami Vivekananda
“… let us look to become Hindus, in a true sense, for the first time. For it is a question whether so grand a word ought to be borne by us unless we have first earned and approved our right to it. Ought not the name of our country and our faith to be to us as a sort of order of merit, a guerdon of loyal love, the token of accepted toil?”
– Sister Nivedita
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