Sacred Thread--Episode 1: Owning Two Cultures

The Sacred Thread series will feature voices of Millenial and Gen-Z  individuals from varied backgrounds and experiences. Listening to American Hindus of Indian heritage voice their perspectives on navigating connections to multiple cultural identities provides scope for understanding  second- and even third-generation Hindu Indian Americans. What are some challenges they face and some advantages they reap, in belonging to American, Indian, Hindu, and other  identities simultaneously? This series presents, mostly in narrative style,  the hearts and minds of the Indian Hindu diaspora's American youth who find themselves at the nexus of many different, sometimes competing, influences and learn to develop, in turn, rich and complex responses.

In the first episode of this series, a Gen-Z Hindu American male reflects on the formative stages of his religious identity and assesses some of the challenges that came along the way. His lived experience speaks to approaches by which young Hindu Americans carve their paths through the public and private terrains of Hindu faith life in the American diaspora. The episode features an engaging conversation with a young man, 23 years old, born and raised in the U.S. within a traditional Hindu Indian American family. I pose questions to him about his engagement with Hinduism in various facets of his life. The opportunities for cultural self-awareness that young Hindu Americans have today are much richer than in previous decades. Even so, it is a challenging process. Hindu Indian American youth who want to proudly subscribe to their heritage must face the fact that, on one hand, Hinduism is widely marketed in mainstream American society for traditions like Yoga and Ayurveda, while other aspects of the religion continue to be misunderstood and portrayed as exotic and mystical. 

Credits:
theme music track: timbre-loopcentury-bhajan from freesound.org