Talking ‘gender superiority’ in virtual spaces: web‐based discourses of Hindu student groups in the US and UK

Abstract

This study focuses on the public assertion of gendered ethno‐religious identities on the websites of Hindu student groups (HSGs) in the South Asian Diaspora in the USA and UK. HSGs are a part of a larger phenomenon of individuals and organizations engaged in creating and promoting ethnicities in virtual spaces. In this paper we focus particularly on the HSGs deployment of ‘strong woman’ imagery to assert their ‘superior cultures’. We find that while the HSGs appear to challenge the gendered/racialized construction of minorities in Western societies as traditional, and non‐modern, their construction of ‘strong Hindu women’ is replete with gendered inequalities. In addition, such constructions also implicate ‘their women’ into the process of drawing racialized boundaries against other groups. This paper explores how the processes involving the construction, representation and reproduction of Hinduism and Hindu identity on the web, from locations in the USA and the UK create contemporary gender hierarchies.

Keywords:

• gender
• immigrants
• racialization
• Hinduism
• feminism
• religion

Notes

1. Popularized by Partha Chatterjee (1993) in his discussion about the question of women’s status within the nationalist movement in India, this term, continues to be an important indicator of the discussion and framing of women within movements.

2. When we focus primarily on what happens in tangible spaces we often assume that small numbers translate to smaller effect unless a group has significant amounts of money and power to bend others to their will. When we study the web, the relative size of the group is less relevant, nor is the issue about money per se, since technical expertise to develop websites that rise in search engine rankings is the source of the power to reach significant numbers of people.

3. We also conducted six semi‐structured interviews with the leaders of the national organizations and leaders from a small sub‐set of chapter organizations. Additional data was collected by participating in the annual conferences of both organizations. A methodological challenge of studying websites is that the discourse changes with time and therefore we consider this as data at a specific point time. A detailed description of the methodology is available in Narayan (2006).

4. As Purkayastha has described elsewhere (2009), in Hindu mythology, Durga is the embodiment of strength and power. According to a legend when one particular asur (demon) got too strong for the male gods they collectively appealed to Durga to vanquish the demon. They showered her with their most potent weapons and she left to confront the evil force that was overpowering the gods. The form of Durga that is worshipped in Bengal represents this tableaux: Durga, standing on her attendant lion, her ten hands carrying different weapons, with the virile Asur, who has partly emerged from the body of a buffalo, pinned down by the force of her trident, semi‐prone at her feet. This tableaux also shows Durga’s children: Lakshmi the goddess of wealth, Saraswati the goddess of learning, Kartik the god of war, and Ganesh, the god of benevolence. In other regions Durga could be seated on a tiger, with or without the demon, with or without her children. Kali is the dark naked goddess, who is worshipped with a garland of skulls around her neck, standing on a male god, Shiva associated with the Tantra tradition. Kali has become ‘the’ patron goddess of Bengal. Her temple in Kolkata is one of the significant points of pilgrimage for Hindus. Kali also represents strength, power of a more fierce, unrestricted variety than Durga’s power. She is depicted as a female without ‘family connections’ that are associated with Durga.

5. Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity and Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, and art. They exercise their own independent mandate as goddesses with specific functional domains.

6. As a foundling discovered in a ploughed field, Sita is regarded as the daughter of the Earth. She willingly follows Ram into exile, where she is abducted by Ravana. After her rescue, when Ram has misgivings about her virtue, she readily undergoes an agni pariksha (trial by fire) that attests her purity. While the Ramayana is essentially about the cosmic struggle between good and evil (symbolized by the hero Ram and the demon Ravana), Sita reinforces her husband’s morality with her devotion, intelligence, and strength and symbolizes wifely duty and devotion.

7. The Swaminarayan sect is committed to a stringent ethical code that demands institutional segregation of the genders. Women and men worship separately at the temple and women are barred from contact with religious specialists and gurus.

8. The Manusmriti (Laws of Manu) is a discourse on the ‘law of social classes’ by the sage Manu, believed to be composed between 200 BCE and 200 CE when the caste system was prevalent in India. While it is a valuable source for sociological, historical and political studies, it has drawn heavy criticism from Hindu reformists, and feminists for casteism and gender discrimination and for justifying oppression of the weak. Its position on women has especially been debated. While some sections treat women with scorn and suspicion, reducing them to little more than domestic menial workers, others glorify women and urge their protection.

9. The concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbhkam uses the family metaphor at a micro and macro level, visualizing the community, society and the universe as a close‐knit familial unit.

10. In our larger study we found that themes of gender superiority co‐occurs the most with the category history and scriptures, gods and gurus (the websites list several gurus and their organizations, presenting these masters as guardians of Hindu spiritual and social values), world religion (Hinduism is not merely as a religion practiced by people in India, but as a world religion) and universal applicability (Hinduism as Sanatana Dharma (Eternal Tradition), not confined to the tenets of any particular group, class of people, or form of worship).

11. Our larger research also shows that the websites link to each other and repeat, most often, the discourse of right‐wing Hindu groups that built a significant web presence.