Indian-origin spiritual leaders, thinkers' left lasting impact in US, says diaspora body

WASHINGTON: Indian thinkers and spiritual leaders from Swami Vivekananda to Mahatma Gandhi and from B K S Iyengar to B R Ambedkar have left a lasting mark on the US, a diaspora body has said coinciding with the 250th anniversary of American Independence.

Advocacy group Indiaspora, a non-profit, has come up with a curated compilation highlighting the contribution of people of Indian origin, including the spread of spiritual teachings from the subcontinent, in shaping the American story.

The ‘250 at 250: Moments of the Indian American Story’ lists the contributions of Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda to new-age gurus such as Deepak Chopra and Rajan Zed in spreading Hindu philosophy in the US.

Swami Vivekananda captivated audiences at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 with his call for religious tolerance and universal acceptance.

The speech marked the first time a Hindu monk had addressed a major Western audience in the United States.

He built on that momentum by helping establish the Vedanta Society of New York in 1894, one of the earliest permanent Hindu institutions in the United States.

B K S Iyengar helped transform yoga in the United States by presenting it as a disciplined system of physical therapy and holistic wellbeing in the 1950s.

“Today, approximately 10 per cent of the US population practices yoga … and there are around 36,000 Yoga studios in the US,” M R Rangaswami, Founder of Indiaspora said.

The first Hindu temple opened in San Francisco in 1905, followed by the Gurdwara Sahib of Stockton in 1912.

Over the next few decades, the Jain Centre of America, the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, and the Zoroastrian Association of Greater New York permanently spread South Asia’s diverse faith traditions within the American religious landscape.

In 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda settled permanently in the United States, becoming the first major Hindu spiritual teacher to build a lasting American movement through the Self-Realization Fellowship.

Paramahansa’s influence reached the White House in 1927, when President Calvin Coolidge invited him for a personal visit.

His book, Autobiography of a Yogi, became one of the most influential works on Eastern spirituality in the United States, inspiring readers from Steve Jobs to countless spiritual seekers, the Indiaspora compilation has mentioned.

Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, who was born in undivided India in 1872, broadened the reach of Islam in America by founding The Moslem Sunrise in Chicago in 1921.

A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York City in 1966, introducing the devotional traditions of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in the US.

Inspired by B R Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism, Dalit immigrants established Buddhist communities across the United States that linked spiritual practice with social justice and anti-caste advocacy. This led to the formation of the Ambedkar Association of North America in 2008.

Indian Americans are one of the fastest-growing major immigrant groups in the United States. According to Indiaspora, there are 5.1 million of these people who were born in the US or who emigrated to this country.

Indian American households contributed over USD 1.5 billion in philanthropy in the US in 2023 and over 150 were nominated to senior public service positions in 2023.

“This collection spans 15 categories of American life and was built through a rigorous research and editorial process, with external reviewers engaged to validate the final selection. It is not comprehensive,” Niranjana Rajagopal, Managing Director of Indiaspora told PTI on July 2 when the compilation went live.