How is the Trinidadian temple placed when seen along the Indian one?
Both are politically involved, but in the everyday context, the Trinidadian temple is very powerful. Political speeches as well as social functions happen there. If a new temple is built, the Prime Minister inaugurates it. Its structure is also different. There’s always a space for community gathering apart from the sanctum sanctorum. Importantly, several deities are placed in a single temple. How did you come to study the Hindu community? While doing my Master’s at University of Pittsburgh, my adviser suggested I study the Iskcon temple in West Virginia. We wondered what the most important Iskcon temple in the world was doing in an isolated, mountainous region like Virginia. I lived there for three months, interviewed devotees and discovered that Prabhupada’s spirit was closest to this temple. I happened to interview a couple of devotees who were Trinidadians, not Indians but Africans who were devotees. That led me to Trinidad and the Hindu community there. Has the Hindu right in Indi
