At some point during the 1990s the size of the Asian Indian population in the United States surpassed the one million mark. Today&’s Indians in America are a diverse group. They come from every state in India as well as from around the globe: England, Canada, South Africa, Tanzania, Fiji, Guyana, and Trinidad. They also belong to many religious faiths, including Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Jainism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism. Many have high professional skills and are fluent in English and familiar with Western culture. They have settled throughout the United States, largely in metropolitan areas. Namast&é America tells this story of Indian immigrants in America, focusing on one of the largest communities, Chicago.

Sonya - a young, immigrant wife, beautiful, privileged and pregnant, and totally dependent on her husband and love of her life, Shahil. The little family of three are preparing their bags for their first trip to homeland from America, when a pounding on their front door crashes all their dreams of a beautiful return to pieces that will not be picked up for ten more years and her epic battle for justice against all odds in a strange and terrifying new world. Her journey takes her deep into the heart of a dark world in her secret life as Sonya could have never imagined, to the glittering heights of sky scrapers as a professional working woman donning her business suit as a superhero wears a mask, and across state borders as she tries to bring joy and culture to her growing children, and she must do it in secret to protect familys reputation and happiness.

The South Asian Christian diaspora is largely invisible in the literature about religion and migration. This is the first comprehensive study of South Asian Christians living in Europe and North America, presenting the main features of these diasporas, their community histories and their religious practices. The South Asian Christian diaspora is pluralistic both in terms of religious adherence, cultural tradition and geographical areas of origin. This book gives justice to such pluralism and presents a multiplicity of cultures and traditions typical of the South Asian Christian diaspora. Issues such as the institutionalization of the religious traditions in new countries, identity, the paradox of belonging both to a minority immigrant group and a majority religion, the social functions of rituals, attitudes to language, generational transfer, and marriage and family life, are all discussed.

Looks at religious diversity in the United States from mainstream faiths to Wicca and Zen, discussing faith, religious practices, traditions, and history of religions. The only multicultural survey of established and new American religions, this exhaustive three volume encyclopedia explores the fascinating interactions between religion and ethnicity, gender, regionalism, and popular culture. This three volume reference for a general and student (high school and above) audience was prepared under the editorial leadership of Laderman (American religious history and culture, Emory U. and Latino studies and religious studies, U. of California, Berkeley), with signed contributions from a long list of scholars. It comprises 26 anchor essays and some 120 supplementary essays, each with cross references and a bibliography, examining religions both within and outside of the mainstream, as well as themes such as sacred spaces, sexuality, films, and religious communities on the Internet. The final volume offers primary source documents that exemplify religious diversity. Over 150 essays written by more than 140 expert scholars, richly illustrated with images depicting a wide range of religious figures and activities, as well as significant religious sites, in the United States. An entire volume of primary source documents that captures the reality of religious diversity in American culture, including a copy of Cecil B. DeMille's essay the Screen as Religious Teacher (published in 1927) as well as more conventional materials on Christian Science, the New Age, and Buddhism, to name only a few of the religious traditions covered in this collection.