Gujarati Hindu Research Articles

Transcultural Insights into the Christian Conversion of British Gujarati Hindus

This article uses primary sources gathered through ethnographic research amongst a group of British Gujarati Christian converts located in the Greater London area. As the researcher is a British Gujarati convert to Christianity, I am mindful of my position in the selection of the topic, the design of the research, and analysis of the data gathered. Autoethnography encourages an added dimension of access to data and subsequent analysis. This insider access has given voice to experiences of being ‘altern’ or ‘other’.

The ‘Inexhaustibility’ of Jalaram Bapa

Food miracles permeate the historical and contemporary Gujarati Hindu landscape, from the homeland to East Africa and throughout the wider diaspora. However, approaches to food miracles differ from one tradition to the next, and approaches to the divine or the saint can often have a direct impact upon a tradition's ethical approach to wider society. This article considers food miracles as they are more widely understood in the Hindu context, especially in the Hindu diaspora, but with a specific focus on the Jalaram Bapa tradition. By engaging both spiritually and physically in this relationship, food miracles offer a direct and personal experience of Jalaram himself. Furthermore, this presence promotes an ethical framework that draws directly upon the narratives that speak of his life, namely that of seva for all, regardless of social status or religious background.

Attachment to a charismatic religious figure and development of virtues: Followers of Jalaram Bapa

This article reports on a 10-year longitudinal study across nine cities in five countries of Jalaram Bapa followers. Jalaram Bapa (JB) is a Gujarati Hindu eighteenth-century charismatic God-like fi...

What is Food Without Love? The Micro-politics of Food Practices Among South Asians in Britain, India, and Pakistan

This article draws on Morgan’s theorisation of family life as consisting of political, moral, and emotional economies to examine the interplay of women’s control over resources, gender norms, and expectations of intimacy in the context of household food consumption. The research that informs the article focuses on findings from 84 interviews with two South Asian groups: Pakistani Muslim and Gujarati Hindu women with at least one dependent child and from a variety of occupations and household compositions. In examining everyday food consumption, the research demonstrates how gender hierarchies are reproduced by parallel, mutually reinforcing, political, moral, and emotional economies. The women in the study sometimes struggled to subvert gender oppression and negotiate more powerful positions within the household through food management and/or employing manipulative and deceptive tactics. The article argues that, while access to economic resources is important if women are to achieve desirable food and nutritional outcomes, it is not in itself sufficient to meet this aim. Instead, the interplay of resources, gender norms, and conjugal relations are central to household food consumption.

Women’s narratives of economic abuse and financial strategies in Britain and South Asia.

Objectives: The objectives of the paper are to (a) extend current conceptualizations of economic abuse by incorporating diverse perspectives from South-Asian women in Britain, India, and Pakistan and (b) present a typology of financial strategies used by the women to deal with economic abuse. Method: Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, 84 married women with dependent children from South-Asian backgrounds were recruited through community networks in Britain (Pakistani Muslims n = 23; Gujarati Hindus n = 12), India (Gujarati Hindus n = 26), and Pakistan (Pakistani Muslims, n = 23) for in-depth interviews. Results: The women’s accounts included 4 kinds of economic abuse recognized in current literature, (a) preventing the acquisition of economic resources, (b) preventing the use of resources, (c) refusing to contribute, and (d) exploiting women’s resources and/or generating economic costs, as well as 2 unique abuses, (e) exploiting women’s customary marriage gifts including jahez/dahej, haq meher, bari, and streedhan, and (f) jeopardizing women’s long-term finances (e.g., through transnational investments). In addition, the results illuminate 4 financial strategies used by the women that have not previously been identified in the literature. These can be typified as (a) material, (b) confrontational, (c) mediational, and (d) developmental. Conclusions: This paper contributes new understandings on the globally pervasive but understudied phenomenon of economic abuse by including the perspectives of South-Asian women living in Britain and in South Asia. It challenges notions that South-Asian women are submissive or victims by highlighting the financial strategies they used in agentic resistance to economic abuse.

How Gujarati Hindu Migrant Women Negotiate Identity and Belonging within their Religious Community: An Ethnographic Study

This article examines the ways in which a group of Gujarati migrant women in Sydney, Australia, negotiate belonging within the context of their religious community or satsang. Using multi-sited ethnography in India and in Australia, the work interrogates the religious community as the institutional site in which boundaries of belonging and identity are delineated. It reveals that women negotiate belonging in the temple space around three primary areas: foodwork, bodily practices such as headcovering and information communication technologies or virtual space. Results indicate the ways in which women construct themselves as cultural gatekeepers around foodwork practices and the way in which headcovering becomes a site of contestation over claims of doctrinal or cultural authority. Finally, the study reveals the way in which women's participation in virtual religious space opens up possibilities for multi-layered ways of belonging and new ritual practices that challenge gendered norms.

Where Identity and Trauma Converge: Hindu-Muslim Perceptions of the 2002 Gujarati Riots

The 2002 Gujarati Riots were one of the worst outbreaks of violence between Hindus and Muslims in India in recent history. There has been a lack of studies that have looked at victims’ experiences of the riots and their processing of trauma sequelae related to the riots. Ten Gujarati Hindus and seven Gujarati Muslims were interviewed who were in Gujarat during the 2002 violence. Using a modified grounded theory approach for qualitative data, three principal distinctions between the Hindu and Muslim respondents were found: 1) perceptions of the responsibility of the Gujarat state government, 2) affect towards the experience of the riots, and 3) coping strategies utilized. The preliminary results suggest that affect and prejudices may differentially impact the process of cultural trauma and subsequent coping strategies. The study highlights how cultural identity shapes views of others and the discrepant processing of collective violence and trauma by individual members of two religious groups with a history of communalism.

Supporting Fathers in Multi-Ethnic Societies: Insights from British Asian Fathers

AbstractThere is concern that current UK policy and intervention aimed at supporting fathers remains primarily informed by dominant White middle-class values and experiences, and therefore fails to respond adequately to the needs of Britain's diverse fathers. This paper contributes to understanding of ethnic diversity in fathering contexts, practices and experiences, by reporting findings from a qualitative study of British Asian fathers, involving in-depth interviews with fifty-nine fathers and thirty-three mothers from Bangladeshi Muslim, Pakistani Muslim, Gujarati Hindu and Punjabi Sikh background, and over eight additional respondents engaged through Key Informant interviews, ethnographic interviews and group discussions. The paper highlights four areas that require greater recognition by policy-makers and practitioners to appropriately meet the needs of fathers from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. These are: recognising that fathers and mothers do not necessarily constitute an autonomous unit; appreciating diversity in fathers’ understandings of desirable child outcomes; addressing additional obstacles to achieving similar outcomes for children; and understanding that the boundaries and content of fathering are not universally recognised. Policies that are less normative and more responsive to diversity are essential to ensure that all fathers can be effectively supported.

Cape Indians, Apartheid and Higher Education

On a Sunday afternoon, 15 November 2009, the Luxurama Theatre in Wynberg was filled to capacity as Indians in Cape Town gathered to launch the Cape Town 1860 Legacy Foundation in preparation for the 2010 events commemorating the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians in Natal. The Foundation had been constituted after meetings in Cape Town had been addressed by Satish Dhupelia and AV Mohammed who were members of the 1860 Legacy Foundation of Durban, tasked with co-ordinating a national movement. They and Ashwin Trikamjee, a religious leader who chaired the Durban committee were present. The gathering brought Gujarati Hindus, Christians, Muslims, and Tamil Hindus of the city together. While the ancestors of many of those present had come as immigrants to the Cape directly from India and had little direct connection to indenture, the Tamils present did have their roots in the indenture system. The movement from Natal to the Cape Colony by the ex-indentured had, in fact, begun from the 1870s in response to the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley. Many Tamil Indians would continue to come to the Cape in the post-Union period often breaking inter-provincial restrictions on movement and settling in the Cape illegally.

Religion, beliefs and culturally competent social work practice

Over the past forty years, Britain has witnessed a decline in religious attendance, observance and worship, particularly within the Christian faith. This social trend is also starting to affect second generation Punjabi Sikhs and Gujarati Hindus. For others, in particular, Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims, religion is central to how many conduct and live their lives.A small-scale survey was carried out with social work students studying in Bradford, England to elicit their views about the impact of faith and beliefs on practice. National and local statistics provide a picture of the make-up of the local population by ethnicity and religion.A questionnaire was used to find out the importance of their religious belief, if any, to determine any anxieties in relation to placement, to provide examples of any conflicts or ethical dilemmas concerning religious beliefs and practice and to suggest ways of preparing and equipping social workers to work with diverse faiths and communities.It appears that religion and spirituality is a neglected area of social work. This preliminary work suggests the need for further research in a number of areas in order to promote culturally competent practice.

Gujarati Shoemakers in Twentieth-Century Cape Town: Family, Gender, Caste and Community

Noting the Natal and Witwatersrand-centredness of the historiography of Indian South Africans, and this historiography's neglect of caste amongst Gujarati Hindus where caste mattered, this study focuses on the Gujarati shoemaker caste in Cape Town. Through narratives of those engaged in making, repairing or selling shoes, the article seeks to understand caste as occupation and explores how caste organisation facilitated economic and social mobility beyond the world of shoemaking. By drawing attention to female shoemakers, for whom the South African setting was challenging yet empowering, the article disturbs an androcentric reading of the term shoemaker and points to the family as a crucial economic unit.

An ‘Imagined Community’ in diaspora: Gujaratis in South Africa

Increasing attention is being paid to the heterogeneous identity of Indian South Africans. This article contributes to this literature by highlighting the distinct migratory history of Gujarati South Africans and the importance these histories have in perceptions of community identity. It traces key features of the early Gujarati migratory process, the ways in which Gujarati identities have been reconfigured over the past century, the relationship between Gujarati Hindus and Muslims, Gujarati mobility, how Gujaratis fit into the broader Indian population and how Gujarat is imagined within the diaspora in the contemporary moment.

Jalaram Bapa: The Public Expression of Regional, Vernacular Traditions among Gujarati Hindus in the UK

Jalaram Bapa: The Public Expression of Regional, Vernacular Traditions among Gujarati Hindus in the UK

PHYSICAL TRAINING, ETHICAL DISCIPLINE, AND CREATIVE VIOLENCE: Zones of Self-Mastery in the Hindu Nationalist Movement

Hindu nationalist parties, organizations, and institutions built on the interventions of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Ahmedabad just after Independence. Hindu nationalist leaders were able to rehabilitate the reputation of the movement through their participation in the Mahagujarat Movement which agitated for the formation of an autonomous state of Gujarat. In the 1958–1960 period, they collaborated with the Gujarati Marxist, Indulal Yagnik, to contribute to the formation of an autonomous state of Gujarat. Members of the Jana Sangh in particular were able to be associated with Yagnik, who was a reputed leader (if also considered eccentric), and undertake satyagraha for a cause that was undertaken in the name of all Gujaratis. The 1965 war with Pakistan, over its attempt to claim part of Kutch, also strengthened the hand of Hindu nationalists not only because the Chief Minister’s plane was shot down during the event, which caused much outrage among Gujarati Hindus, but also because the event brought to the surface suspicions of Pakistan and therefore of Muslims in Ahmedabad also.

Cultural Identity and Acculturation Preferences Among South Asian Adolescents in Britain: An Exploratory Study

The study reported in this article is part of a wider research project on the adaptation of South Asians in Britain. It examines and compares the acculturation attitudes and cultural identity of Indian and Pakistani second‐generation adolescents Indian (Punjabi Sikh and Gujarati Hindu) and Pakistani (Muslim) in Britain. The research project integrates a social psychological approach to ethnic identity, Berry’s (Cross‐cultural Perspectives. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1990) acculturation strategy and stress models, and Phinney’s (Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 1989:34) model of ethnic identification. There were 240 adolescents, aged 13–18 years, with an even split between the genders. Results from this study suggested that the majority of Indian youth adopted integration strategies as opposed to Pakistani Muslims who adopted a separation strategy. Cultural identity is a term used to include both ethnic and national identities. Ethnic identity scores were high for Indian and Pakistani adolescents. National identity was more important for Indian adolescents but ethnic identity was more important than national identity for all groups. Perceived discrimination was related to acculturation strategies.

Divine Appetites: Food Miracles, Authority and Religious Identities in the Gujarati Hindu Diaspora

Research of the Gujarati Hindu communities of the United Kingdom and New Zealand has uncovered an extraordinary diversity of belief concerning the miraculous consumption of devotional food offerings by murtis. Devotees of certain traditions have experienced these events first-hand, but many Hindus believe the process is more subtle. Others suggest that such claims are attempts to gain spiritual authority among Hindus in the diaspora, some dismiss them as simply fraudulent. This article examines the appetite of the divine and how it is understood and contested by various Gujarati Hindu traditions in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand. It will assess the significance of food miracles and how they strengthen ideas of religious identity and spiritual validity as well as their role creating a palpable tension between traditions as to who authoritatively represents Hinduism in the diaspora.

Violence on the Left: Nandigram and the Communists of West Bengal

After a period of relative impotence, the Hindu-supremacist right in India has rebounded, with the December reelection of Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Narendra Modi as chief minister in Gujarat. Modi's role in the mass murders of Muslims in that state in February 2002 has long been so well documented that he has been denied a visa to enter the United States. Recently, moreover, extensive corroboration of his role was elicited by a hidden-camera inquiry conducted by the news-magazine Tehelka. Despite overwhelming evidence that he is a mass murderer extraordinaire—or perhaps, because of it—Modi defied media predictions, and even exit polls, to win by a landslide, a victory in which fund-raising and politicking by Indians residing in the United States (40 percent of Indian Americans are Gujarati) played a large role. Because the rival Congress Party, which controls the central government in a coalition, understands well the intense hatred of Muslims that animates many Gujarati Hindus, leading politicians tiptoed around the issue of sectarian violence, hoping to defeat the BJP in Gujarat on its weak economic record. Only Sonia Gandhi, courageously and repeatedly, denounced Modi's reign of blood. (American Gujaratis responded with an e-mail campaign denouncing Gandhi in abusive language.) Hitler is revered as a hero in school textbooks in Gujarat. In Modi, those who worship at that shrine seem to have found the type of leader they seek. Let's hope that the nation as a whole does not embrace his charismatic call to hate.

Boundaries of Gender and Ethnicity: Gujarati Hindu Women in Artesia's “Little India”

Within the boundaries of Artesia's working-class Hindu women have reconfigured their ethnic identities and gendered roles. This article is based upon our study of a cohort of twenty women who work as seamstresses, cooks, beauticians, and saleswomen in the roughly sixty Indian-owned businesses—grocery, jewelry, music, and craft stores, in Little India, an enclave in the southeastern corner of Los Angeles County bordering Orange County. All belong to the linguistic community of Gujaratis.The boundaries of Little India itself, we argue, are both literal and symbolic, at once flexible, complex, and sometimes contradictory, especially for those women who choose to remain and work within the ethnic enclave. In addition, we explore various gendered notions of Indian identity including Bharatiyanari and Pativrata Dharma, and notions of Indian space including bahir and ghar, and Lakshman Resha in order to understand more fully the complexity of the work choices these women make.

Iron status of Hindu brahmin, Jain and Muslim communities in Surat, Gujarat

To determine iron status of healthy, unrelated Brahmin, Jain and Muslim participants having different dietary habits. Control participants other than above three communities, consumed vegetarian or non-vegetarian diet. Brahmin and Jain were strictly vegetarian but Jain did not consume roots or tubers. Muslims consumed non-vegetarian food. Standard techniques were used to measure hematological parameters, serum iron, total iron bindings capacity (TIBC), serum ferritin, transferrin and transferrin saturation. For statistical evaluation mean, standard deviation, pair t test, χ2 and ANOVA (F test) were employed. Study includes 565 male and 198 female children and adults. Among them 205 were children and remaining adults. All four categories i.e. control, Brahmin, Jain and Muslims showed higher incidence of anemia and iron deficiency in females compared to males. Mean values of hematological parameters did not vary significantly in four groups. Serum iron, TIBC, transferrin and ferritin levels indicated iron deficiency anemia more frequently in Jains and less frequently in Muslims (p<0.05). Iron status of Brahmin was comparable with controls (p<0.01). Majority of the participants had serum ferritin concentration >15 ng/mL. Except one male Jain child none of the participants had serum ferritin concentration <12 ng/mL. Jain subjects more frequently had serum iron concentration <60 μg/dL. Jain participants had higher incidence of iron deficiency anemia. Vegetarian diet consumed by Gujarati Hindu Brahmin community provided them with a sufficient iron to maintain their iron profile like Muslims consuming non-vegetarian diet.

I AM THE WITNESS OF MY HISTORY AND MY LITERATURE

Dalit literature opposes religious hypocrisy, the Hindu caste system and privileges of birth, and respects the language of the people. This article discusses the different literary forms practised by Dalit writers; poetry, drama, the short story and the novel. Although Dalit literature in Gujarati is connected to the literature written by upper caste Gujarati Hindus, it differs from that tradition in many ways. Literature is a mirror of society to which it is so inextricably linked that it cannot be discussed without consideration of social problems. However, Gujarati writers often avoid such discussion and instead rely on western literary forms and critical values. Unlike Gujarati literature, Dalit literature deals with the problems faced by the lower castes using the language of these people, more often than not drawing on the forms used in the oral tradition.