A Community That Plays Together, But Doesn't Pray Together

Chris Karmiol

May 12, 2004

Four-year-old Christie Mukhopadhyay is covered in paint at a Holi festival held in James Island County Park near Charleston, SC. Holi is one of the biggest Hindu festivals, celebrating the coming of spring. Photo: Chris Karmiol

Charleston, SC—It's not every day that children can walk right up to their parents and other adults, douse them with colored paint, then run away laughing -- at least not without consequences.

During the popular Hindu springtime festival, Holi, that's not only accepted, it's expected. And the consequence is more laughter and getting doused right back.

Indians worldwide celebrate Holi, to mark the changing of the seasons, by gathering together for a meal, then spraying each other with paints of all colors, made from powdered pigments and sometimes mixed with water.

But in Charleston, Indians can't celebrate Holi outside their temple, or even close to it. That's because they don't have one. Instead they hold their celebration at James Island County Park outside the city.

This year, the event held on Sunday, March 14, was meant to start at 11:00 a.m., but by almost 12:00 most of the participants still hadn't arrived.

"We're on Indian standard time," joked physician Latha Hebbar, president of the India Association of Greater Charleston, the event's sponsor, as she unloaded plates of food and supplies from the trunk of her car. Other families in cars and minivans began pulling up to the parking area to do the same.

Although Charleston may be known as the "Holy City," there are few options for Hindus to practice their faith here, at least not in a public forum. There may be a church on just about every corner of this historic seaport town, but the nearest Hindu temple is more than 100 miles away in Columbia, SC.

The Indian community here isn't nearly as dense as it is in places such as Queens, New York, or Edison, New Jersey, but it's growing. Hebbar estimated that there are around 150 Indian families in Charleston, a city of 100,000. Many work or study at the university here, in such fields as the computer sciences, engineering or medicine. Others run their own businesses, or are in between jobs.

A group poses together after their colorful Holi celebration, which Indians around the world participate in to welcome spring. Photo: Chris Karmiol

They come together for Indian festival days like this one, where friends with only their native country in common catch up on gossip since their last community gathering.

Their secular get-togethers are organized by the India Association of Greater Charleston, a non-denominational group whose members -- about half of the city's Indian families, according to the group's president -- are mostly Hindus who don't seem to mind that their nearest temple is 120 miles away.

"We go once a year," said Rumi Sinha, who works for an insurance company and has lived in Charleston for four years. "It's fine with me."

Keshav Hebbar, a physician whose wife runs the India Association, shrugged off the idea of a local Hindu temple.

"If there was a temple here I wouldn't go every weekend," he said. "When there's not a temple on every corner you have to do things at home. Invariably you have a deity in every corner."

In the corners of his home, Hebbar said, he keeps pictures and icons of the popular deities Ganesh, the elephant-headed god who removes obstacles and brings success, and Krishna, one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu, a god of the Hindu holy trinity.

Hebbar said that all the worship he and his family need to do can be done at home. He called temples unnecessary, quoting a saying of his father's: "Temple is for the weak. If you need to go to temple then you don't have strong enough feelings inside."

A girl has colorful powdered paint applied to her hair at a Holi festival at James Island Park in Charleston, SC. Photo: Chris Karmiol

Strong feelings about passing on their culture brought about a dozen Indian families, some with children, others with grandparents, out to the county park. They say that by keeping up with festival days they can instill the culture that their kids might otherwise miss.

"Holi is just fun," said 12-year-old Preetha Hebbar. "You get all colorful, dirty, you can throw things and you don't get in trouble. I don't see it as a religious holiday anymore."

For many of Charleston's Hindu locals, observing Indian culture is more important than observing religion. While Holi may be a Hindu tradition, both Hindus and Christians gathered to enjoy it, and a Muslim member of the India Association was expected to show up.

Unlike other religions, perhaps, Hinduism is considered more of a way of life than a religion, and its devotees' worship is often done with an independent spirit. It has no founder, no prophets, no bible and no single god. There's also no conversion process.

A young girl's face is covered in paint at a South Carolina Holi celebration. The festival, along with Divali, is among the most popular in Hindu culture. Photo: Chris Karmiol

"You don't practice Hinduism as much as you're born into it," said Chetna Dugal, a wholesale distributor and herself a Jain. "You embody it and you imbibe it."

At home, practicing Hindus might pray to their deities and recite a series of pujas (prayers) in the morning, before meals and at bedtime. Though the community comes together for festivals and celebrations, there won't be any Hindu "mega churches" built here soon.

Some members of the India Association worry that even if there were a local Hindu temple, events there, unlike this one, might exclude some members of Charleston's small Indian community.

"We have Christians and Muslims," said Keshav Hebbar. "When you have a small community and you bring a temple in, how will that affect the community? If all the community came to a [Hindu] temple, what would Ernest [his Christian friend] do?

But not everybody objects to the idea of a temple in town.

"We need it," said Prodyut Mukhopadhayay, an engineer who brought his two young daughters to the Holi celebration, one of them yelling "Holi head!" as she tossed colored powder on her father. "We have a lot of daily rituals. If we had a temple we could do them there, though I am happy to do them in my house."

Mukhopadhayay's ambivalence towards building a local temple reflects a general Hindu attitude toward their faith.

"You don't need to be part of a big church," said Deb Sinha, a university biostatistician. "Quest for enlightenment is a very private thing."

(Updated May 12, 2004)