{"id":46000,"date":"2016-03-12T02:38:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-12T02:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=46000"},"modified":"2016-03-12T02:38:16","modified_gmt":"2016-03-12T02:38:16","slug":"a-hindu-is-white-although-he-is-black-hindu-alterity-and-the-performativity-of-religion-and-race-between-the-united-states-and-the-caribbean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=46000","title":{"rendered":"\u201cA Hindu is white although he is black\u201d: Hindu Alterity and the Performativity of Religion and Race between the United States and the Caribbean"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA Hindu is white although he is black\u201d: Hindu Alterity and the Performativity of Religion and Race between the United States and the Caribbean<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Comparative Studies in Society and History<\/a>
\nVolume 58, Issue 01, January 2016<\/a>
\npages 181-210
\nDOI: 10.1017\/S0010417515000614<\/a><\/p>\n

Alexander Rocklin<\/a><\/strong>
\nDepartment of Religious Studies
\nWillamette University, Salem, Oregon<\/em><\/p>\n

This essay uses the controversies surrounding the enigmatic Ismet Ali, a yogi<\/a> working in Chicago<\/a> and New York<\/a> in the 1920s, to illuminate the complexities of how the performativity of religion and race are interrelated. I examine several moments in which Ali’s \u201cauthenticity\u201d as Indian is brought into doubt to open up larger questions regarding the global flows of colonial knowledge, racial tropes, and groups of people between India, the United States, and the Caribbean. I explore the ways in which, in the early twentieth-century United States, East Indian \u201cauthenticity\u201d only became legible via identificatory practices that engaged with and adapted orientalized stereotypes. The practices of the yogi persona and its sartorial stylings meant to signify \u201cEast Indianness\u201d in the United States, particularly the donning of a turban and beard, were one mode through which both South Asian and African Americans repurposed \u201cHindoo\u201d stereotypes as models for self-formation. By taking on \u201cHindoo\u201d identities, peoples of color could circumvent the U.S. black\/white racial binary and the violence of Jim Crow<\/a>. This act of racial passing<\/a> was also an act of religious passing. However, the ways in which identities had to and could be performed changed with context as individuals moved across national and colonial boundaries.<\/p>\n

Read or purchase the article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cA Hindu is white although he is black\u201d: Hindu Alterity and the Performativity of Religion and Race between the United States and the Caribbean Comparative Studies in Society and History Volume 58, Issue 01, January 2016 pages 181-210 DOI: 10.1017\/S0010417515000614 Alexander Rocklin Department of Religious Studies Willamette University, Salem, Oregon This essay uses the controversies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,459,8,6462,820,20],"tags":[23212,492,23214,23213],"class_list":["post-46000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-religion","category-usa","tag-alexander-rocklin","tag-comparative-studies-in-society-and-history","tag-hinduism","tag-ismet-ali"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46001,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46000\/revisions\/46001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}