New Roots in America's Sacred Ground

Reviews / Votes

Joshi has written a ground-breaking contribution on the racialization of religion, an issue scholars have long been reluctant to address. This stimulating and important book is essential in the study of South Asian Americans, second-generation immigrants, and Asian American religions. - Paul Spickard (coauthor of Colorism in Asian America) New Roots in America's Sacred Ground provides both a detailed analysis of second-generation Indian Americans and identity, and a sophisticated and lucid argument about the integral role religion and religious oppression play in race and ethnicity in the United States. Joshi's insightful intervention about the role of religious identity has gained even more significance in light of discriminatory practices occurring since 9/11. - Jigna Desai (Associate Professor of Women's Studies, University of Minnesota) For far too long, scholars have studied religions as if they were abstract collections of beliefs and practices that could get along just fine without living, breathing people. This beautifully crafted and admirably empathetic study of second-generation Indian Americans rightly fixes its gaze not on such abstractions as Hinduism, Sikhism, and Islam but on the actual lives of specific Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims. Along the way, it teaches us much about race and religion in American life, not least the fact that discrimination-both racial and religious-is an ever-present reality in the lives of this so-called 'model minority,' and that religious affiliation stands shoulder-to-shoulder with race, ethnicity, and gender as a key identity marker in the twenty-first century. - Stephen Prothero (Chair, Department of Religion, Boston University.) This is a ground-breaking book in the contested territory of race, religion, and ethnicity in the United States. Despite being one of the of the fastest growing, most upwardly mobile groups in the country, second generation Indian Americans-Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, and Muslims-are conspicuous by their absence in scholarly studies. This book has invaluable data and case studies, which have been skillfully analyzed and thoughtfully presented. A "must-read" book for all those interested in immigration studies, transnational religion, Asian Americans, and American Religions. - Vasudha Narayanan (professor of religion and director of the Center for the study of Hindu Traditio)