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eastindianhinduamericans.pptxCHAPTER 19: East Indian Hindu Americans Scott Wilson Miller, Kira Ann Lass
SERGIO OSEGUEDA APRN-BC
MRC FACULTY
Overview of India and Hinduism
The Republic of India is a subcontinent that is a vast, wedge-shaped triangular peninsula jutting from the south mainland of Asia into the Indian Ocean.
India includes an area of about 1,269,338 square miles and stretches about 2000 miles from north to south. It has three major land regions: the Himalayas and associated mountain ranges to the north, the Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra Plain in the north central, and the Deccan Plateau in the south.
India
About 70% of India's working population is engaged in agriculture.
Rice, wheat, peanuts, corn, and millet are traditional crops
While the majority of the country is involved in agricultural activities, the urban areas of India are indeed heavily industrialized. The textile industry is an important area. Other industry includes iron and steel as well as machine tools, transportation equipment, and chemicals
Immigration to the United States and Canada
First-Wave Immigrants: The arrival of East Indians from the Indian subcontinent during the first two decades of the twentieth century caused considerable uproar along the Pacific Coast of Canada and the United States (Melendy, 1977).
Second-Wave Immigrants: In 1909, Canada closed its doors to East Indian immigrants; however, immigration of East Indians to the United States continued for another 5 years.
Third-Wave Immigrants
In 1965, an immigration law marking the beginning of a third wave of immigrants to the United States was enacted.
The Immigration Act raised quotas for Asians to the same level as Europeans, facilitating entry to the United States (Koshy, 2001).
Although the first-wave immigrants were primarily agriculturists with some students and the second-wave immigrants were primarily university-educated professionals and their families, the third-wave immigrants were entirely different (Bhungalia & Kemp, 2002)
Communication
Hindustani (the name given by Europeans to an Indo-Aryan dialect), as a result of political causes, has become the great lingua franca of modern India.
The name is not used by natives of India, except as an imitation of the English nomenclature.
Hindustani is by origin a Hindi dialect of western India.
Communication
There are approximately 18 languages spoken in India, with Hindi being the most prevalent (40.2%). Bengali is spoken by 8.3% of the population, Telugu by 7.9%, Marathi by 7.5%, Tamil by 6.32%, Urdu by 5.2%, Gujarati by 4.8%, Kannada by 3.9%, Malayalam by 3.6%, Oriya by 3.4%, Punjabi by 2.8%, Assamese by 1.6%, Sindhi by 0.3%, Nepali by 0.3%, Konkani by 0.2%, Manipuri by 0.2%, Kasmiri by 0.01%, and Sanskrit by 0.01%.
Hindi is the official language of India. English is considered to be an associate official language, with some states declaring it as their official language
Volume and Kinetics
East Indians are generally noted for their soft-spoken manner, almost considered mumbling by some. Frequently, head movements and hand gestures accentuate conversations, adding vitality to the speaker's content.
Men maintain direct eye contact with each other when conversing and may become loud and intense when addressing family members.
Women usually draw their eyes downward when addressing their husband, father, or grandfather.
This gesture demonstrates a sign of respect and should not be misconstrued as not caring or not listening
Touch
Displays of public affection are prohibited and viewed as disrespectful in the eyes of the gods.
Married East Indian couples may show signs of affection in the privacy of their own home but not in view of children or elders.
Affectionate touching or embracing among friends, relatives, and acquaintances is not a socially acceptable Hindu practice.
Social Organization
In a traditional East Indian Hindu household, married sons live with the family under the parental roof and are subject to parental authority. Frequently the joint family includes approximately 25 individuals and may include up to 200 people. The average joint family is composed of six or seven family members, and the family may comprise several generations. It is of note that the average household size of the East Indian family residing in the United States is 3.0
Family
The patriarch controls the finances of the group, giving the sons allowances from their earnings. With globalization and the impact of the growing middle class, men are still considered the primary provider for the family.
Thus, the primary role of men in these households is to provide financial income to support the family (Larson, Verma, & Dworkin, 2001).
The matriarch is the autocrat of the home, and her daughters-in-law are subject to her rule.
Marriage
In India, marriages of Hindu Indians have always been arranged by parents or other intermediaries.
Because marriage was regarded as a union of families rather than of individuals, the marriage traditionally took place when the husband and wife were only children.
In 1955 in India, it became illegal to arrange for the marriage of girls under 15 and boys under 18 years of age.
This law has been amended in subsequent years to reflect the current legal age for marriage to be 18 years of age for girls and 21 years of age for boys (UNICEF, 2011).
Position of Women in the Family and in Society
In the past, East Indian women ranked far below men in social status.
Marriage became obligatory because the unmarried woman was believed to have no place in heaven.
Traditionally the belief has been held by East Indian Hindus that the role of a woman is faithfulness and servility to her husband.
Because women were deprived of inheritance, a male descendent was essential
Caste Systems in India
For centuries East Indians have divided themselves by caste, by language, and by religion (Spear, 1972).
The Hindu population was divided into four váras (colors), which became castes
These segregated castes were the Brahmin, or priestly caste; the Kshatriya, or warrior caste; the image, or trading and farming caste; and the Aasādra, or artisan caste.
Religion
The Hindu religion may be the oldest religion in the world (Eshleman, 1992). In India, Hindu (80.5%) is the most prevalent religion.
Other religions practiced are Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%), and Jainism (0.4%)
Time
The sense of time is an important concept for East Indian Hindus, who are past, present, and future oriented.
Time is seen as cyclic involving four ages, starting with the “age of perfection” and ending with the “age of degeneration” (Purnell, 2014).
East Indian Hindus are perceived as past oriented because of the traditions and rituals that are inherent to the culture.
On the other hand, they are perceived as present oriented because of the view that they are “beings-in-becoming” (Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck, 1973)
Perception of Illness
According to classical East Indian theory, the human body consists of five natural elements: earth (bones and muscles), water (phlegm or kapha), fire (gall or pittá), wind (vāyú), and space (in hollow organs) (Andrews & Boyle, 2003).
Water, fire, and wind are the three elements that interact in harmony to produce wellness.
Illness results from an excess or deficiency of one of these elements, which are also referred to as the tridosha, or the “three troubles.”
Significance of Folk Beliefs in the Hindu Culture.
Today, there is a growing sense among psychologists, sociologists, and biologists that illness and its treatment are both biological and sociological phenomena.
It is believed there are at least three different types of medical systems practiced at three different cultural levels.
On the first level are primitive or preliterate people, who practice a form of primitive medicine based predominantly on a supernatural theory of disease causation.
These people are believed to seek treatment through magico-religious means.
Types of Folk Practitioners.
A majority of East Indians obtain their beliefs in relation to the cause, prevention, and elimination of illnesses from their families, their parents-in-law (particularly the mother-in-law), elderly women of the neighborhood, indigenous midwives, other folk practitioners, and government health care workers.
Therapeutic advice is generally obtained at five different levels: family level, mohalla (properly, mahalla) level, caste level, village level, and beyond the village level
Principles of Hygiene
Personal hygiene is extremely important to East Indian Hindus.
As part of the religious duty, a bath is required at least once every day.
Some Hindus believe that bathing after a meal is injurious and that a cold bath may prevent a blood disease, whereas a hot bath may cause an alternative effect on blood diseases.
East Indian Hindus also believe that if the bath is too hot, injuries to the eyes may occur.
Hot water may be added to cold water, but cold water is not to be added to hot water when one is preparing a bath
Perception of Death
Death, according to the Hindu belief, is perceived as a passage from one existence to another.
A person's lifetime is like a bead on a necklace whose other beads represent past and future lifetimes.
Each atman (“basic self”) strives through successful rebirths to ascend the scale of merit until, after a life of rectitude, self-control, nonviolence, charity, reverence for all living creatures, and devotion to ritual, it wins liberation from worldly existence to achieve union with Brahma (Chakravarty, 1978).
Palliative care is in alignment with Hindu values.
Variations According to Racial Strain
1. Mediterranean strain. These people are characterized by a long head, moderate stature, slight build, and dark skin
2. Broad-headed strain. This section of the population varies in stature from short to medium and in skin color from light to dark brown.
3. Nordic strain. A distinguishing characteristic of this people is their long head. They are tall, long-faced with a straight and narrow nose, and light-skinned. This type of strain predominates in the upper caste in northern India
4. Mongoloid strain. The head on these people varies from long to medium, and the skin color varies from light to dark brown.
5. Negritos. These people represent earlier inhabitants of India. Their stature is less than 5 feet, and frizzy hair is among the chief distinguishing features.
6. Proto-Australoids. This strain is predominant with tribal people of central, western, and southern India.
Enzymatic and Genetic Variations
Thalassemia, a genetic condition that can result in various degrees of anemia, is believed to have a high incidence in people of the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia
In addition, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) deficiency, which also causes anemia, is believed to have a high occurrence in high-risk malarial areas.
Lactose intolerance is another condition that affects persons of East Indian descent.
Nutritional Preferences and Deficiencies
Most caste Hindus are vegetarians. However, strictness in adherence to the vegetarian diet varies. In most cases, the vegetarian diet consists primarily of grains (wheat, rice, millet, and barley) and legumes (grains, beans, and pulses, the edible seeds of plants having pods).
In northern and western India, baked or fried cakes made with wheat are common.
Chapātiī, a popular form of bread, is a round, flat cake made of whole wheat flour and water and baked on a convex iron plate
Summary
Nurses who work in a transcultural setting providing health care services to clients of East Indian descent and Hindu affiliation are challenged by the multiplicity of norms, mores, and values, all of which influence and shape the delivery of nursing care.
It is essential that the professional nurse and other health care providers use a holistic approach toward the assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation of nursing care activities.
