Introduction
Hindus in the United States are often identified as Indians and vice versa; indeed, the word used in Latin America for Indian is Hindu. In fact, Hindus come from several countries, including Canada, the Caribbean, Fiji, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, and the United Kingodom. Two major streams of Indian migration occurred in the Americas. The first originated in the nineteenth century, and comprised mainly labor migrants, indentured workers who went to the Caribbean, Guyana, and Surinam. The second stream dates from the mid 1960s, and is largely composed of educated, skilled immigrants and their extended families entering the United States. The Hindu diaspora in the United States is clarified when contrasted with migrants to the Caribbean and South America. The earlier migration indicates how diverse castes constituted a collective religious identity in an isolated new environment marked by a lack of educational and other...
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Acknowledgments
I thank Aswin Punathambekar for his help with the research for this entry and Anupama Rat for her insightful comments. I also thank Raphael Rajendra for his comments and his editorial help.
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Rajagopal, A. (2005). Hindu Diaspora in The United States. In: Ember, M., Ember, C.R., Skoggard, I. (eds) Encyclopedia of Diasporas. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-29904-4_45
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