Sri Venkateswara Temple (NJ)
The issue of religion and tolerance, like racism, has always been a contentious one in the United States. This is particularly true of the non-Western, non-mainstream religions, such as Hinduism and other Indian religious directions. Part of the reason for this is that Hindu immigration to the country began only in small amounts, while other immigrants deluged U.S. borders (Wikipedia, 2006). This resulted in a fair degree of distrust and misconception towards Hindu adherents. Nevertheless, when the Immigration and Nationality Services (INS) Act was passed in 1965, the Hindu population began to increase in number, enjoyed greater equality, and also attracted scholarly attention. From the Hindu point-of-view, the concern is to remain attached to traditional and religious values while living in and integrating with a Western society (Prentiss, 2006). This, together with their fairly new status of legally validated equality, has resulted in an increasing amount of Hindu temples in the United States, each with a unique character and focus within the religion. An example of these is the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
The Sri Venkateswara Temple is also known as the Balaji Mandir and functions as both a Hindu Temple and a Cultural Society serving the Hindu people in the area (Linderman, 2002). There arose a need for such a temple in the Bridgewater area during the 1980s. One reason is that this period saw a significant increase in the Hindu Indian population in the area. In addition to the fact that this community experienced the need for worship services and cultural connections, was also the fact that many of these people were employed by the professional sector. They therefore had significant funds to contribute toward a project of establishing a worship community and building a temple. As mentioned above, the parental concern for retaining their children's awareness of their cultural roots also played a role in the need for establishing a temple. The first step towards attaining this goal was to buy...
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