![]() ![]() Devi’s desires to be a “normal” American girl with a boyfriend are impeded by her mother’s expectations for her to be an accomplished, obedient daughter. Like many Indian American second-generation women, Devi struggles to navigate her bicultural existence, which my co-contributor Himanee Gupta-Carlson deftly unpacks. This Hinduism, which largely defines American Hinduism today, promotes Islamophobia, casteism, and patriarchy, which is most evident in the policing of Devi, Kamala, and Nalini, who all struggle to live up to the ideals of being a good, middle-class Hindu women in the diaspora. More precisely, the Hinduism represented in the series does not capture the diversity that encompasses the religion, but privileges the values and aspirations of upper caste, middle class Hindus in the United States who embody the model minority. Like most Americans post 9/11, he assumes she is Muslim because of her skin, what Khyati Joshi calls the racialization of religion, when “an individual’s race creates a presumption as to her religious identity.”Īlthough the series does briefly point out that India is a country of many religions, ultimately to be Indian in Never Have I Ever is to be Hindu. Yes, Ira gets credit for knowing Ramadan is a holiday requiring fasting, but many religions require fasting. ![]() After posing with a white girl enamored by her half-sari, the exacerbated Devi responds to the cashier’s query about wanting donuts with her drink order: “Yeah, Ira, I do, but I’m fasting today.” Ira responds, “Oh, is it Ramadan?” This insider joke for the desi audience portrays a common encounter of being exoticized and misrecognized. In one of the series’ best structured sequences, Kaling alludes to America’s ignorance of South Asian religions. The centering of Hinduism in our introduction to Devi, however, is less about exploring her relationship with faith and more about exhibiting how our collective (mis)understanding of Indian culture in the United States is reduced to Hinduism. In fact, the construction of the scene is reminiscent of prayers known by the Protestant Christian American majority. In a similar manner, Devi’s prayers capture how a Hindu American teen in Southern California might pray. This is best captured by Sanjay Patel’s Sanjay’s Superteam (2015), a Pixar short that features the story of a young Hindu American boy who reimagines Hindu gods as superheroes as a way to approach praying and his faith in a manner that speaks to him. In the past 10 years, however, as South Asian Americans break through Hollywood’s bamboo ceiling, representation of Hinduism has changed. ![]() Did I know what I was in a past life? Did I worship Kalimaa as depicted in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? Why do you worship so many gods? Hollywood’s representation of Hinduism prompted these questions, which, as a kid who knew little about the religion and desperate to be “normal,” only exacerbated my feelings of not belonging. Growing up in the 90s in the Bible Belt, I endured questions from my Christian schoolmates about Hinduism. Swapnil Rai, Assistant Professor of Film, Television and Media at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Himanee Gupta-Carlson, Associate Professor of Literature, Communication, and Cultural Studies at SUNY Empire State College and Dr. Rupa Pillai, lecturer of Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Dr. ![]() To explore how Never Have I Ever engages in themes of religion and race in contemporary Asian American life, I curated a roundtable discussion with several colleagues who have expertise in the fields of Asian American studies, religious studies, and film studies: Dr. Beginning with the opening scene of the first episode, the show portrays the rituals of an American Hindu family, and religious beliefs and practices are a central feature of the plot and the characters. (See, for example, my discussion of Marie Kondo last year.) In contrast, Never Have I Ever doesn’t shy away from portraying religion. When they do, the characters are often Christian, or they deploy problematic “Oriental Monk” tropes. By and large, however, most Hollywood depictions of Asian American families do not engage in religion at all. Over the past half century, the United States has become increasingly multireligious, and the shifting demographics owe largely to Asian Americans, who are the most religiously diverse racial group in America. In particular, I appreciate the show’s attention to an often overlooked dimension of Asian American diversity: religion. ![]()
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