Hinduism and Sikhism in America

Hinduism, a range of polytheistic religious variations on basic common themes, came to America largely through 20th-century trans-Pacific migrations from India and other parts of south Asia, first to California and Hawaii and then to places across the country.

Hinduism first became significant in America as an “export” religion, presented by Hindu missionaries and popularized by American Transcendentalists and Theosophists during the mid- to late 19th century. It was decisively established by Hindu missionary Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902). After appearing at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where he stressed the fundamental unity of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity, he toured the nation twice and established the Vedanta Society, with centers in San Francisco, New York, and other cities, to promote Hinduism in a Western context. It eventually established headquarters in Los Angeles. Largely limited in its appeal to urban middle-class whites—though more recently attracting ethnic Indians—its thirteen centers serve about 1,500 members. Another Hindu export—more fully devoted to guru-led yoga techniques—was developed by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952), who arrived in America in 1920 and established the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in Los Angeles in 1925. Combining Hinduism, Christianity, and a practical emphasis on personal health and power, he achieved enduring influence among liberal middle-class white Christians. The SRF claimed 200,000 members by 1960, and by 1990 had eight temples (seven in California) and about 150 centers nationwide.

Westernized Hinduism expanded further among white Americans amid the countercultural religious ferment of the 1960s and 1970s. Among the more successful of the many new Hindu-based movements was Transcendental Meditation (TM), which emphasizes the achievement of personal relaxation and happiness through yoga and was brought to America in 1959 by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (b. 1911?). Having founded the International Meditation Society in India, he made several tours of the United States, establishing the Students’ International Meditation Society in 1966 and hundreds of local meditation centers. TM’s individualistic thrust and promise of personal fulfillment helped it enter American middle-class culture, particularly as economic and political unease mounted during the 1970s. It established no strong institutions in America, but TM centers exist in most major American cities. Another particularly successful Hindu movement, smaller but tighter, was the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Founded in New York in 1966 by Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977), it soon relocated to San Francisco—a countercultural center—and then to Los Angeles. ISKCON’s monotheistic devotion to Krishna departs from traditional Hinduism, but its devotional practices—including chanting of Krishna’s name, temple rituals, and asceticism—are more like those of ethnic Indian Hinduism than those of other “export” versions. Most adherents live in urban settings, but ISKCON maintains seven farming communities. Its following, initially white and middle-class, has been small—about 3,000 people in more than sixty temples by the early 1990s—but its recent appeal to Indian immigrants has brought financial stability, moved it further toward “ethnic” Hinduism, and aided its missionary efforts in India.

The “ethnic” Hinduism of Asian Indians came to America as early as 1820, but significant numbers first arrived in the late 1890s, mostly from northwestern India, seeking railroad jobs in the Pacific states. Most eventually entered agriculture. Exclusionary legislation kept Indian immigration small—it totaled only about 12,000 by 1960. These early immigrants concentrated in California, constructing only two temples (San Francisco and Los Angeles) and sometimes worshiping in Vedanta centers. But hundreds of thousands of Asian Indians arrived after the 1965 relaxation of immigration restrictions. Generally prosperous, highly educated, and uneasy with perceived American decadence, they expanded ethnic Hinduism, practicing the devotions of their respective religions in their homes and, by the 1970s, founding temples nationwide. Between 1986 and the early 1990s—by which time the number of Indian Americans approached 850,000—the number of Hindu temples rose from forty to more than 150. Where Indian populations are large, as in New York, these temples perpetuate the Asian pattern of devotion to specific regional deities, but temples serving smaller populations have abandoned that pattern in favor of ecumenism in order to accommodate the diverse deities and practices of their supporters.

Sikh gurdwara, Hughson, California. Sikhs arrived on America’s Pacific coast and established enduring communities in California’s agricultural Central Valley.

Not all Asian Indian immigrants were Hindu. Indian Muslims established a mosque in Stockton, California, by 1945, and Jains from northwest India brought their ascetic lifestyles and Hindu-like devotions. But a larger number—indeed, most of the first wave of Indian immigration in the 1890s—were Sikhs, followers of a monotheistic and Islam-inspired reform of Hinduism. Arriving in California, Sikhs formed significant, often insulated communities in its rural central valley and opened their first gurdwara (temple) in Stockton in 1909. Immigration restrictions in 1917 halted immigration, and a second temple (El Centro, California) did not appear until 1948. But expanding Sikh immigration after 1965 raised the nation’s Sikh population to about 250,000 by the mid-1990s and carried gurdwaras beyond California to large cities nationwide—though more than half are still in California.

Buoyed by rising immigration and Western spiritual searching, Hinduism and Sikhism became firmly established on the American religious landscape during the 20th century.