Hindus in America are turning to professional religious instruction for their children. This blog discusses the advantages and drawbacks of this process.
I recently read an article on Hinduism in The New York Times. The article written by Neela Banerjee was published on July 21, 2007. The articles describes how Hindu parents settled in the United States are turning to religious instruction for their children in order to preserve their identity. This work was earlier done through Hindi movies, popularly known as Bollywood movies, and Indian dance forms. But apparently the parents feel that more is required.
The Chinmaya Mission is one of the institutions at the forefront of providing religious instruction in Hinduism to Hindu children born in the United States. It runs annual summer camps as well as weekend classes. The mornings are spent in learning and reciting Sanskrit prayers and lessons from the Bhagavad Gita. The afternoons take up religious tales through traditional songs and dances and Bollywood movies.
Though this concept has great value in the context of the American environment there are certain drawbacks as well, which have been mentioned in Banerjee’s article. But before discussing those I would like to dwell a bit on the religious instruction in India. In the ancient days religious instruction was provided by the priests in a school environment, but not so much now. Today the bulk of the religious instruction in Hinduism is provided at home by the family. This has a major disadvantage in that the instruction is limited by the knowledge the family possesses and by the value it places on religion. But I firmly believe that whatever is taught by the family remains within as a seed and flowers at an appropriate time. In fact one of the tenets of Hinduism is that faith must grow from within and not be forced from the outside. Whenever the person is ready for the faith, God in the form of a spiritual guru will seek him or her.
I am uncomfortable with teaching Sanskrit prayers to children without explaining the meaning to them. And so are the children as can be discerned from Banerjee’s articles. This I believe does more harm than good. I also do not advocate teaching the Bhagavad Gita to children. It is complex theology that baffles even adults. Telling them about the Gita is fine and outlining its broad message is also acceptable but according to me teaching it verse by verse is not on.
Another drawback that has been elucidated by Shana Sippy of Columbia University is the homogenization and dilution of Hinduism. Hinduism is more diverse than perhaps all other religions put together. This is not a boast but an attempt to indicate the extent of diversity in the religion. When religion is taught to a heterogeneous group of Hindus, especially children, the religion has to be stripped of its diversity. And this is not good because Hinduism has grown and evolved because of its diversity.
Teaching Hinduism, or any religion, to ones children should be an end in itself and not a means of preserving ones identity.
