Monthly Archives: November 2011

Not all Western Hindus are white Hindus

Posted on November 15, 2011 | 42 Comments

… and not all Hindus from non-Hindu cultures are Western Hindus

Picture of Ricky Williams, running back for the Baltimore Ravens and Western Hindu

Ricky Williams, running back for the Baltimore Ravens and Western Hindu

On average three or four times a week someone follows a link in my article “Some famous Western Hindus” to the Wikipedia entry for Ricky Williams. Ricky is an  an American football running back, playing for the Baltimore Ravens. Though three or four clicks does not sound like much, it is higher than the clicks on most other minor links in old articles.  I can’t help wondering how many of those clicks are from other non-white Western Hindus, or non-white Westerners looking into the rich heritage of Hinduism and wondering if it is open to them.

Ricky Williams is far from the only non-white Western Hindu. A while ago I received an email from the author of “The Accidental Hindu” blog. She is a black Western Hindu from the West Indies, and I can highly recommend her blog. Another Western Hindu blog, the Yatra is run by a Latino Hindu in the USA.

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Reader’s Question on Caste and Deities

Posted on November 10, 2011 | 6 Comments

Prajapati - a Caste Deity?

I have received an email from a reader asking about caste and preference for certain deities. Before I answer it I should point out that I don’t believe that hereditary caste is part of Hinduism. I wrote a post “The Caste System” where I discussed this issue .  The Hindu American Foundation’s statement “Not Cast in Caste” also makes it clear that caste and Hinduism are not necessarily linked.

The pertinent part of the email I received  is as follows:

Hello,
My name is Jason and I am a student at Western Michigan University studying Religions of The World. My explorations in religions of India have lead me to the following question about Hinduism:

Preference for certain deities is somewhat caste and profession-linked among Hindus. When matching up the deities with the Indian social divisions, which deities do might go with which groups, and why?

Mainly I am concerned with the Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Kali, and Lakshmi.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read and respond to my message. I look forward to hearing your response.

I decided to respond to this email in a post because though I can give a reasonable theological answer I am sure that some of you reading this know a lot more about the day-to-day practices than I do. Any comments will be most welcome.

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I was very surprised and honoured to find that this blog has been chosen as one of The Chakra’s Top Ten Hindu Blogs. There are so many excellent blogs on the web that can’t help feeling that this is undeserved. It will … Continue reading →

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Posted on November 7, 2011

Another blog by a Western Hindu – The Accidental Hindu

Posted on November 4, 2011 | 8 Comments

The Accidental Hindu blog

A while ago I had a message from someone saying “not all Western Hindus are white Hindus”. I was going to write something about this (and I still might) but in the meantime the sender of that message has started her own blog, “The Accidental Hindu“.

She was born in the West Indies, and describes herself as a black Hindu. She writes under the name T.A.H, and describes her spiritual path from a Catholic and Seven Day Adventist  upbringing to Hinduism. Like me she has visited other faiths on the way! She mentions feeling at home with vedanta philosophy, so I think that her blog probably belongs in the smarta section, but I will leave it in the “Blogs Yet to be Classified” section until I have read more. She has a very clear and readable writing style, making her story easy to read.  I have added the blog to my page of blogs by Westerners Following Hinduism.

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A new blog by a Western Hindu – Western Sanātana Dharma

Posted on November 1, 2011 | Leave a comment
Western Sanātana Dharma

The Western Sanātana Dharma blog

Thanks to the commenter ‘S’ for pointing out this new blog to me.

This blog is by Alicia, a high-school student in New York State. Her blog is relatively new and she describes her first steps in Sanatana Dharma. She appears to have an affinity with Ma Durga and Shri Ganesha. I wish her well with her spiritual path, and I have added the blog to my page of blogs by Westerners Following Hinduism.

Also on the same page I have linked the entry for “Adorations to Amma” to Stacey’s Flicr profile. Her myspace blog has been flagged inactive for a while and I think she has moved on from this. Her photostream is  highly individual and forms a visual act of guru-puja. She is obviously very visually orientated and this is really different from most other blogs.

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