The Dilemma of American Hinduism
—Problem and Solution
PART _2
Jonathan Edelmann
-tion that a pandit or Acharya would be, nor do they have the technical expertise of a normal academic scholar of Hinduism. While my knowledge of American Hinduism is not complete, I am not aware of any people within this second category who have the training, the financial support, and The Dilemma of American Hinduism19 the infrastructure or foundation—for example, a library, classroom spaces, the student base, and the like—to teach Hinduism in the systematic and comprehensive manner of which I spoke. Clearly, these two groups have come into conflict with one another recently. But it will always be hard for them to speak to one another. They speak different languages and they have different goals. Perhaps the most fruitful relationships have been between Hindu pandits and acharyas, most of who live in India, and academic scholars of Hinduism. They have tended to work together on book publishing and research. But academics and American Hindus, the rare pandit aside, haven’t ever said much to each other in the past. I hope that changes, but I don’t think it will in the foreseeable future. The bridges between them aren’t easy to find. Is there even a map? Why should they even be found? American Hinduism is thus defined by two different streams of discussion: one that has all the technicalities and richness of academia, and the other that has the passion and conviction of a lived faith. Each can probably live in isolation from the other, but a different and arguably more productive future is possible too. The historical precedents for the divide between the two groups may go back as far as pre-colonial India, wherein a particular person’s relationship with her or his Hindu tradition would have been mediated between a local family priest, a temple priest, and a scholarly teacher, Acharya. The first two may have known very little about the finer points of history, philosophy, and theology, while the third may not have been easily accessible to the average person. As a result, an average Hindu may not have had the ability to study, say, the works of Acharya Shankara, the great ninth-century Advaita theologian, or of Abhinavagupta, the great tenth century Shaiva theologian, even if she or he would self-identify as part of their tradition. Those structures and centers for the study of Hinduism in India are dwindling as I think many Hindu scholars in India would lament. The development of the academic and theological space for Hindu scholars and students would be new for Hinduism in America because it would need to redefine the form in which the education would take place, the language in which it would take place, and the types of issues it would need to incorporate so as to enable Hindus to speak meaningfully to fellow Americans.I think that the negative reactions of Hindus against academic scholars of Hinduism are, firstly, mostly symbolic because it cannot have a long-term impact on the academy, but more importantly, it arises out of a sense of disempowerment and fear. There isn’t a quality constructive body of literature produced from within a Hindu theological community in the US to counter the technical and what many might see as incorrect or offensive claims of American and European academic scholars of Hinduism. There are a few books produced here and there by independent American Hindus, but not a concerted and systematic program for research and publication. As stated above, other major religions in the US have many places in which they can study their traditions theologically, that is, a context that is deeply informed by texts, histories, and languages as well as spiritual and ritual piety. Indeed the oldest and wealthiest schools in the US were created just for that purpose. I am not suggesting that American Hindus adopt the exact same model, although I do think it is one that has been remarkably successful for at least 800 years if one were to include the European counterparts such as Oxford and Cambridge, the University of Paris, or the University of Bologna. If it is not the Euro-pean university model, then something needs to be developed. American Hindus at least need to generate a discussion about what Hindu education could look like in 5, 10, or 500 years from now. Do they want rural hermitages for contemplative study, practice, and conversation with subtle minds, or grand stone buildings in power centers for direct discourse with political and social influence, or something in between, or both? What books are needed to build libraries? Who will care for them? Which scholars are to be engaged? What topics, languages, and Shastras are to be taught? How will they be taught? Are degrees to be offered? What types? ABA in Hindu philosophy, or a Tirtha in Nyaya or Vedanta?
What type of relationship between study and sadhana will be constructed for students and
faculty? These are important questions that any religious tradition needs to answer for itself. As far as I know, Hindus are not asking them as a community in the US. Once they are answered, Hindus need to step forward and investing the models they construct. They need to encourage their children to not only become competent engineers and doctors but learned representative of their heritage. Hindus need to continue to build temples and support the priests that worship in them, but they also need to support the scholars who can explain why this worship is important, what it means, and why it should be taken seriously by their fellow Americans. I can understand why American Hindus might not want to imitate the American educational system. It is based on the British and
European system. The British taught Hinduism within the context of their larger nation build-ing imperialistic empire. The result was that their views were not always sympathetic toward Hinduism or accurate representations of Hindu-ism. To study Hinduism in a university context might be seen as or felt as embracing the colonial powers that were shed in 1947. But it is important to remember that Hinduism has always had its own powerful methods of teaching, whether we are talking about the oral recitation of the Veda taught from father to son, the great monastic institutions of North and South Vaishnava and Advaita traditions, or the learned groups of Shaiva ascetics and householders. In addition to the questions I asked above, Hindus in the US need to think about what aspects of their own history they can draw upon to rethink themselves in the US, and which aspects of Euro-pean and American history they can use to their own benefit. I think that American Hindus are an important and vital part of contemporary American life, that they will be here for as long as there is an America, but that there should be and could be greater effort and greater agency taken in the development and determination of their own future, specifically with regard to the creation of Hindu educational systems. In conclusion, I would contend that a thriving American Hindu intellectual tradition—one capable of responding to the challenges and opportunities of the American academic system and political forces—will never develop unless Ameri-can Hindus take it upon themselves to develop one. One can create another petition to ban professors X or book Y, and academic scholars of India can continue to sabotage funding from Hindu organisations they deem unworthy. But what does that look like in 50 years? Lots of Internet bans and petitions and even less opportunity to research and teach Hinduism to the eager minds that want to learn it. It won’t change the actual study of Hindu- ism in the academy very much. There is too much private and public funding behind it. This negative approach will not create inde-pendent seats of learning for the Hindu com-munities, but will only further a divide between American academics and American Hindus—I am not suggesting the two groups are mutually exclusive because there is an overlap. These seats of Hindu study and practice can develop, and should develop, by creating places for Hindu scholars to The Dilemma of American induism21 teach young Hindus how to think faithfully and critically about their tradition with the intellec- tual resources—this will require the financial sup-port of Hindus themselves. It will require a sober reflection on what Hindu education in the US should look like. I hope American Hindus will think about the education of their children and then swiftly and generously invest in it.
SRI RAMAKRISHNA TODAY 