Hindu Students Research Articles

Notes on Church-State Affairs

A number of churches and nongovernmental organizations criticized a new law that allows the government to suspend organizations that it deems to be interfering with national affairs. Amnesty International issued a statement saying that the law could cause “irreparable damage” to Algerian civil society. Jewish members of the Federal Parliament opposed a Green Party effort to end the opening of sessions with the reciting of the Lord's Prayer. They took the position that there could be more inclusive ways of opening but that the Green Party position showed a lack of understanding of Australia's religious heritage. Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hindus, said that both public and private universities should provide Hindu students with rooms of prayer. They should include popular Hindu gods, a bell, and a Shiva linga. He said it was important that the government see a connection between education and spirituality. Australia's High Court...

A Room With a View: Accommodating Hindu Religious Practice on a College Campus

This article examines the question of how to best accommodate Hindu practice on college campuses by contrasting the dedication of a prayer room with the hiring of a Hindu chaplain. The author suggests that this dichotomy-of an impersonal physical space (“a room”) on the one hand, and a chaplain empowered to lead a community (“a view”) on the other-is a useful way of exploring a shift in accommodating Hindu students’ religious practice. The author first presents a gloss of religious practice in contemporary Hinduism. Next, he identifies the two broad approaches to accommodating Hindu practice on college campuses and discusses three important shifts that accompany moving from one approach to the other. In closing, he proposes that meaningful engagement and communication with a chaplain makes reconciliation between the two approaches possible.

Self and Space in the Theater of Susan Glaspell

Self and Space in the Theater of Susan Glaspell

Recasting The Half-Caste

Recasting The Half-Caste Kumari Jayawardena (bio) In Sri Lanka, serious book reviews are not only few and far between, but authors also do not usually reply to reviews of their books. So while it was a real windfall to receive four reviews simultaneously, to comment briefly in reply is a rather unusual task. However, I really appreciate the reviews, and thank Shefali Chandra, Hilary Jones, Shoshana Keller, and Emma Teng for their perceptive insights and for opening up this discussion. On a personal note, my academic background is multidisciplinary. I am not a "historian" with a degree in history, but a political scientist who specialized in industrial relations. My interests moved on to feminist history and I continue to be active in the women's movement. Using these experiences, I have written on several issues ranging from working-class agitation to ethno-nationalism, feminism, peasant rebellion, and the rise of capitalism in Sri Lanka. In this book, I combine many of these themes, and as Shefali Chandra noted, I deal with "race, caste, class, sexuality, and nationalism"—a wide sweep, using examples from several countries. I should also make it clear that my book is not a history of Euro-Asians, but a political study of the roots of colonial dissenting movements, including feminism, and the role of Euro-Asians as pioneers of struggles for democratic rights and against semifeudalism in South Asia. The word "Euro-Asian" is coined to include persons of mixed European and Asian origin in the maternal or paternal line. Emma Teng calls this "an important contribution" and states that the "highly fraught" issue of nomenclature "has been of great symbolic importance for those struggling for recognition,"—especially, if I may add, since those of mixed origin have historically been referred to by derogatory names. In Sri Lanka, the Euro-Asian "public intellectuals," who had been educated in English, were inspired by the French Revolution and the European "Enlightenment." As Benedict Anderson has written, this had unintended consequences: "Vietnamese youngsters could not avoid learning about the philosophes and the (French) Revolution and Magna Carta … and the Glorious Revolution, glossed as English history, entered schools all over the British Empire."1 Radical Euro-Asians in the colonies became the earliest advocates of protonationalism, secularism, democracy, and pluralism, as well as the rights of women, peasants, and workers. These forgotten historical figures were, moreover, opponents of the caste system, religious intolerance, oppressive laws, unjust taxes, and harmful social practices—all this many decades before the emergence of [End Page 263] leaders celebrated today in the region as "national heroes." The Euro-Asians' critique was thus political and social but their contribution to South Asian national history was erased. The issues the Euro-Asians raised, however, were taken up by later dissenters. The importance of the social critique can be seen in Euro-Asian writings deploring ethnic and religious division and especially against the caste system, which still plagues South Asia. In the 1820s in Kolkata (Calcutta), the leading Euro-Asian iconoclast, Henry Derozio (1809–1831), a teacher, poet, and admirer of Byron, was inspired by the French Revolution and the movements for freedom in Greece and Italy. He promoted patriotism, rationalism, free speech, women's rights, and social criticism, sparking off the emergence of the Young Bengal movement, described as "a youthful band of reformers who … like the tops of the Kanchenjunga were the first to catch and reflect the dawn." A group of Hindu students, followers of Derozio, who, according to Sivanath Sastri, "broke asunder the shackles of caste and ate with their Eurasian friend."2 In mid-nineteenth-century Sri Lanka, at a time when the Sinhalese and Tamil intelligentsia generally accepted the status quo, it was a Euro-Asian lawyer, Frederick Nell, who wrote of the "leprosy of caste." In addition, Charles Lorenz and his radical Euro-Asians of the Young Ceylon group were persistent critics of colonial rule, articulating demands for political and social change.3 It is no wonder then that these Euro-Asians were denounced as "subversive hybrids" by British rulers in the colonies, who derogatorily referred to them as "half-castes," vagabonds and mischmaschvolk. Some ultranationalists in Sri Lanka also...

A Comparative Study of Mystical Experience Among Christian, Muslim, and Hindu Students in Tamil Nadu, India

Hood developed a Mysticism Scale based on the theoretical work of Stace. The scale was tested by Hood and others in a comparative perspective. Using an abridged version of Hood's Mysticism Scale, we join the debate with a study of a much larger number of Christian, Muslim, and Hindu respondents (1,920 college students) living in Tamil Nadu, India. Our empirical analysis yields a moderately reliable model of mystical experience that permits comparison between the three religious traditions. We argue for the usefulness of a comparative model of vertical mysticism that combines with the complementary common characteristics of noetic quality and ineffability. Vertical mysticism has a revelatory, ineffable character and is comparable in the experience of adherents of the Christian, Islamic, and Hindu traditions.

Exploring Religion, Race and Gender as Factors in the Life Satisfaction and Religiosity of Young South African Adults

We explored differences in religious and existential well-being, religiosity, and life satisfaction among university students across religion, race, and gender, by using an adapted version of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS), the Religious Orientation Test (ROT), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). A convenience sample of 235 students participated in the study. The females ( n = 188) reported significantly higher levels of religiosity and religious well-being than the males ( n = 47). The white students (n = 43) were found to have lower religiosity levels than their black ( n = 59) and Indian ( n = 133) counterparts and higher life satisfaction scores than the black students. In the Indian sub-sample, the Muslim ( n = 24) as well as the Christian ( n = 29) students had higher levels of religiosity than the Hindu ( n = 80) students. The Christian (Indian) students had significantly higher religious well-being scores than the Hindu (Indian) students. In line with past research, the correlations between life satisfaction, religiosity, and religious well-being were significant. As scores on the SWLS increased, levels of religiosity and religious well-being also increased. The implications of the findings and the limitations of the study are discussed.

Incentive to Discriminate? An Experimental Investigation of Teacher Incentives in India

We address the challenge of designing performance-based incentive schemes for schoolteachers. When teachers specialize in different subjects in a society with social prejudice, performance-based pay that depends on the average of student performance can cause teachers to coordinate their effort on high status students. Laboratory experiments conducted in India with future teachers as subjects show that performance-based pay causes teachers to decrease effort in low caste Hindu students compared to upper caste Hindu or Muslim students. We observe greater effort and lower variation in an incentive design where teachers are penalized if students receive zero scores.

A Comparative Study of Religiocentrism among Christian, Muslim and Hindu Students in Tamil Nadu, India

AbstractThis article presents a theoretical framework for religiocentrism that is suited to cross-religious comparisons between Christians, Muslims and Hindus. Religiocentrism is defined as the combination of positive attitudes toward the religious ingroup and negative attitudes toward religious outgroup(s). Empirical research proves the relevance of the construct 'religiocentrism' among Christian, Muslim and Hindu college students in Tamil Nadu. Full score comparability is possible for positive ingroup attitudes but is hampered in the case of negative outgroup attitudes because of the specificity of outgroup prejudice to each religious group. Cross-religious differences between levels of positive ingroup attitudes can be explained in terms of the differential effects of socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-religious characteristics. This topic calls for further reflection, taking into account contextual factors such as majority versus minority position and specific religious convictions for each religious tradition, more particularly within the context of Tamil Nadu. The article ends with a discussion of the findings.

Ingroup Bias, Intergroup Contact and the Attribution of Blame for Riots

Hindu and Muslim college students judged the severity of a riot and attributed blame for that riot to the Hindu community, the Muslim community and the individual offenders. Both Hindu and Muslim students showed an ingroup bias, in that when offenders were from participants’ own religious group, they blamed the offenders the most and their own community the least. However, when the offenders were from the other religious group, students (both Hindus and Muslims) blamed the other religious community. Two results were consistent with the research literature on equal status intergroup contact. First, the amount of contact Hindu students had with Muslims was negatively related to their assignment of blame to offenders. Second, Hindu participants who lived in mixed Hindu–Muslim neighbourhoods were less likely to blame the Muslim community.

Religious Practice and Religious Socialization: Comparative Research among Christian, Muslim and Hindu Students in Tamilnadu, India

This article seeks, first, to offer a comprehensive theoretical framework of religious practice — based particularly on the works of Stark and Glock — that may be used in comparative research among adherents of different religious traditions. Secondly we clarify the role of the agents of religious socialization and their function as reference others, taking into account the contributions of Bajzek, Milanesi and Schlenker. The empirical analysis of the data based on these theoretical considerations brings to light a model of institutional religious practice whereby Christian, Islamic and Hindu traditions may be compared. The results also underscore the association between the religious community and involvement in institutional religious practices in the case of the three religious groups and the differentiated impact of the other agents of religious socialization in the case of each religion. A further finding is that gender affects particularly the Christians in their institutional religious practices. The paper ends with a discussion of these findings.

Teaching Liberal Arts Undergraduates about Hinduism amid Theoretical and Political Contestation Today

Abstract. As the number of people of South Asian heritage in America has greatly increased over recent decades, the study and teaching of Hinduism has come under ever greater scrutiny. During this time, the number of students of Indian background has vastly increased in some schools in some parts of the United States. This increased presence and scrutiny has had some salutary effects, including greater attention to and accountability in our field, but has also led to some unwelcome conflict and feelings of misrepresentation by both academics and adherents. Some of us are in the perplexing position of being keenly aware of and in conversation about tensions elsewhere, yet still having few (or no) Hindu students in our own classrooms. This essay will discuss two matters given this background: first, I will describe how I present Hindu religious traditions in my local context, and then I will offer some more general reflections on teaching and researching Hinduism in the United States today.

Interpreting Religious Pluralism: Comparative Research Among Christian, Muslim and Hindu Students in Tamil Nadu, India

How do Christians, Muslims and Hindus interpret religions other than their own? The theoretical framework of the research is models of religious pluralism developed by scholars in the field of theology of religions, especially Knitter. The authors pay special attention to pluralistic models, which have so far remained rather unclear. Special attention is paid to gender as a factor influencing levels of agreement with models of religious pluralism. Empirical research undertaken among Christian, Muslim and Hindu college students in Tamil Nadu in 2003 reveals three common models of religious pluralism that can be found among the adherents of these traditions: monism, commonality pluralism, and differential pluralism. Christian and Muslim students have much the same approach to religious pluralism, measured according to these three models; Hindu students differ from both Christian and Muslim students. Especially among Muslim students gender influences the level of agreement with the monism and commonality models. The article concludes with a discussion of the fruitfulness of comparative research (among members of different religious traditions) based on models derived from Christian theology.

Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about HIV/AIDS among Hindu students from a government women's college of South India

The purpose of the study was to determine the attitudes of Hindu students from a government women's college of South India toward people with AIDS, to assess their beliefs about HIV/AIDS, to determine their knowledge level about HIV/AIDS and to determine how they gain information about HIV/AIDS. The sample consisted of four hundred female students at a government funded Women's University in Southern India who participated in an AIDS survey research project. Participants completed a survey asking about their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about HIV/AIDS. Results indicated that a majority of the participants learned about HIV/AIDS from reading material while some learned about HIV/AIDS from school classes, and only a few learned from family members. Thirty-nine percent had never communicated to any one about HIV/AIDS. The results indicated that the majority of Indian women in this study did not know about explicit sexual behaviors which transmit the virus. The study also showed that those Indian women university students, by and large, are accepting of people with AIDS but still have fears of getting HIV/AIDS. This data suggest a need to increase educational efforts at the university. It was suggested that counselors take responsibility for helping this population of Indian women become self advocates, particularly in a society which permits men to have multiple sexual relationships. Educators and counselors working with this population must initiate programs that impart accurate and specific knowledge to these female college students and begin to address the multiple psychosocial issues related to HIV/AIDS.

Oral Personality Traits in Hindu, Muslim, and Protestant College Students

Several psychoanalytic writers have attributed cultural differences in personality to pregenital fixation. The present study empirically assessed oral fixation in Hindu, Muslim, and Protestant college students. Questionnaire measures of oral optimism and oral pessimism character traits were administered to 206 English college students (47 Hindus, 96 Muslims, and 63 Protestants). Analysis of means showed that Protestants displayed significantly more oral optimism traits than the Hindus. No significant differences were found between Protestant and Muslim means or between Hindu and Muslim means. No mean differences were found for oral pessimism traits. Further research examining cultural differences of infantile experiences is proposed before conclusions are drawn regarding the etiology of the reported differences.

Personal Space and Density as Factors in Task Performance and Feeling of Crowding

The study was an investigation of the effects of density and personal space on simple and complex task performance and on feelings of crowding on 60 female Hindu students in India. A 2 x 2 design was used. Density was manipulated by varying the number of subjects in a fixed room space (social density), and the stop-distance technique was used to measure personal space. Results revealed that complex task performance was adversely affected by a high-density condition and by the personal space of the subjects, leading to a significant interaction effect of the two variables, but no significant main or interaction effect was found for the simple task performance. The subjects with "far" personal space under the high-density condition evaluated the environment of the experimental room as most crowded, more than any other subject did.

Preaching Forgiveness to the Hindu

Some years ago, on Christmas Eve, I was invited to explain the significance of Christmas to a group of Hindu students in one of the Institutions at Sevagram (Mr. Gandhi's Ashram). In the discussion which followed the address, the thoughtful Principal of this Institution said something like this: “Would it not be correct to say that the real difference between you Christians and ourselves is that you teach that forgiveness is possible, while we believe it is impossible and the idea immoral?”