SOCIAL PROBLEMS, Vol. 51, No. 3, pages 362–385. ISSN: 0037-7791; online ISSN: 1533-8533 © 2004 by Society for the Study of Social Problems, Inc. All rights reserved. Send requests for permission to reprint to: Rights and Permissions, University of California Press, Journals Division, 2000 Center St., Ste. 303, Berkeley, CA 94704-1223. Multiculturalism, Immigrant Religion, and Diasporic Nationalism: The Development of an American Hinduism PREMA KURIEN, Syracuse University Hinduism has undergone several modifications in interpretation, practice, and organization in the United States in the process of being institutionalized as an American religion. While Hindu American spokespersons espouse a genteel pluralism and attempt to use Hinduism to secure a place at the American multicultural table, they also use the ideology of multiculturalism to justify and legitimize a militant Hindu nationalism. Drawing on this contradiction, the article develops a theoretical model to explain 1) why multiculturalism often seems to exacerbate émigré nationalism, and 2) why religion is often involved directly or indirectly in this process. Although multiculturalism was never formally adopted as a national policy in the United States (unlike in Canada and Australia), the recognition that this country comprises citizens from diverse backgrounds, whose identities and cultures need to be publicly acknowledged and respected, has been “a policy rubric” in a variety of arenas for over a decade (Newfield and Gordon 1996:76–7). Despite being an ubiquitous term, there is no clear understanding of what multiculturalism really means. Consequently, it has been alternately appropriated and critiqued by activists and scholars from the right and from the left (see Gordon and Newfield 1996) and by racial and ethnic groups seeking to exploit the contradictions embedded in the conception and practice of multiculturalism. This article focuses on one such contradiction: why it is that multiculturalist policies, despite their intended goal of facilitating the integra- tion of immigrants and winning their loyalty, seem to often do the reverse, strengthening immigrant attachment to the ancestral homeland and giving rise to diasporic nationalism. This contradiction has been noted by several scholars. Thus, Yossi Shain (1999), who asserts that multiculturalism “ties U.S. identity to international politics and transnational movements” (p. xiv), argues that this occurs because, “[e]thnic involvement in U.S. foreign affairs may be seen as an important vehicle through which disenfranchised groups may win an entry ticket into American society and politics” (p. x). Other scholars refer to the resources and space for the institutionalization of ethnic and religious organizations provided by multi- culturalism (Faist 2000:214), the marginalization and stigmatization experienced by immi- grants which may be articulated by the identity politics of multiculturalism (Anderson 1998: 74; Mathew and Prashad 2000; Rajagopal 2000), or the contemporary postnational and glo- balized context which exacerbates such politics by promoting “translocal solidarities” and “cross-border mobilizations” (Appadurai 1996:166). The research was funded by fellowships from the Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the New Ethnic and Immigrant Congregations Project. Additional support was provided by the Uni- versity of Southern California through the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, the Southern California Research Center, and the Zumberge fund. The author wishes to thank James Holstein, editor of Social Problems , and the anonymous reviewers whose comments and suggestions improved the article. Direct correspondence to: Prema Kurien, Department of Sociology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244. E-mail: pkurien@syr.edu.