The South Asian Religious Diaspora in Britain, Canada, and the United States (Religious Studies) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791445100 ISBN 13: 9780791445105

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2000

Synopsis

Explores religious experience in the South Asian immigrant communities of Britain, Canada, and the United States.

This book explores the experience of religious communities that have migrated from South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) to live in Britain, Canada, and the United States, three countries sharing a common language (English) and an interwoven history. The work introduces the migration history of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs along with the cultural nuances of these traditions. The contributors discuss the various communities’ experiences that grow out of or are related to religion. The book shows how traditions are reformed or reinvented and how they are passed on, both through the family and through institutions. Issues related to public policy and minority status are also addressed. While the main focus is on the Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh communities, specific sections also cover South Asian Christians, the Zoroastrian diaspora, and new religious movements in the West led by South Asians. The book strikes a balance between stories and statistics in order to emphasize the narrative of the immigrants’ experience.

[Contributors include: Roger Ballard, Judith Coney, Harold Coward, Diana L. Eck, Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, John R. Hinnells, Kim Knott, Gurinder Singh Mann, Sheila McDonough, Jørgen S. Nielsen, Joseph T. O’Connell, and Raymond Brady Williams.]

About this title

About the Author

Harold Coward is Director at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and coeditor of Visions of a New Earth, with Daniel C. Maguire, also from SUNY Press.

John R. Hinnells is Research Professor of Comparative Religion at the University of Derby, England, and author of Zoroastrians in Britain.

Raymond Brady Williams, LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Wabash College in Indiana, is the author of Religions of Immigrants from India and Pakistan: New Threads in the American Tapestry.

Review

“The volume’s contributors are scholars known and respected in their fields; their input to this volume is professional and scholarly. The individual chapters are informative and insightful. The main contribution of the book, though, is the cumulative impact of bringing so much information before the readers. The book takes up a very important and timely topic, the increasingly religiously and culturally significant presence of South Asians in the West.” ― Francis X. Clooney, S.J., author of Theology After Vedanta and Seeing Through Texts

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0791445100
• ISBN 13: 9780791445105
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 311
• Editor: Coward Harold, Hinnells John R., Williams Raymond Brady