Temple and Human Bodies: Representing Hinduism

Abstract

For Indian immigrants in the US, religion has played a particularly important role in maintaining individual and collective identities, but more significantly in representing their traditions as distinct from the native context in India. Based on fieldwork for the past three years, this article shows how the Indian American Cultural Center, a non-profit organization situated in Merrillville, Northwest Indiana, which now has a temple attached to il, represents a Hinduism with all its complexity and diversity in the midwestern part of the US.