Hindu at Heart: Education, Faith, and What It Means to Belong in America

Hindu at Heart reimagines the story of American public education through an unexpected lens: how Hinduism and Hindus have figured in its long project of shaping citizens, defining democracy, and negotiating American identity amidst difference. From early missionary-influenced textbooks that cast Hinduism as antithetical to civilization and democracy to the contemporary classrooms where Hindu American children encounter modern expressions of those inherited ideas, Indu Viswanathan traces the overlooked entanglement between faith, identity, and schooling.

Drawing on archival research, personal narrative, and in-depth interviews with Hindu American families, Viswanathan uncovers how the public school has long been a stage for America's encounters with the "other," and how Hindu Americans today are participating in and strengthening its democratic promise. Moving between historical analysis and glimpses of families, teachers, and children, the book listens deeply to those who have rarely been heard, showing that the story of Hinduism in American education is one of striving, dialogue, and contribution.

At once scholarly and accessible, Hindu at Heart offers a new way of understanding the Hindu American experience and beyond: the moral purpose of education itself: to listen to each other, act with integrity, and co-create a more pluralist and brave democracy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Indu Viswanathan is an educator, public scholar, and thought leader whose work brings Hindu contemplative traditions into conversation with contemporary questions in education and culture. Her research explores how learning environments shape belonging, and how cultural harmony can be nurtured through dialogue, shared stories, and reflective practice. She has taught in New York public schools and international settings, and has worked across teacher education, curriculum design, and research initiatives for more than two decades. She holds a master's degree and doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. As the co-founder of research and education initiative Understanding Hinduphobia, she has become a leading voice in national conversations about how Hinduism and the Hindu diaspora are represented in classrooms, scholarship, media, and public discourse. She also hosts the Hindu at Heart podcast, a conversation series with Hindus raised in America about belonging, meaning, and stewardship. Grounded in her own practice as a Hindu, Indu is a long-time disciple of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, whose guidance infuses her work with a commitment to pluralism, care, and learning as a pathway to connection. She lives in Brooklyn and is the mother of two grown sons-and Bhima, her beloved rescue dog.