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in the United States is a religious denomination comprising around 1% of the population, nearly the same as Buddhism. Hindu Americans in the United States largely include first and second generation immigrants from and other countries, while there are also local converts and followers. Several aspects related to Hinduism, such as , , and have been adopted into mainstream American beliefs and lifestyles.

Hinduism is one of the eastern that adheres to the concept of , a cosmic order, and includes the principle of . According to the Pew survey of 2018, around 33% of Americans believe in reincarnation, an important concept in Hinduism and Buddhism. Om is a widely chanted , particularly among and those who practice yoga and subscribe to the philosophy.

Historically, American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson studied the Hindu scripture around 1857 and published a related poem, "Brahma". In 1893, Swami Vivekananda's address to the World's Parliament of Religions in was one of the first major discussions of Hinduism in the United States. In 1925, Paramahansa Yogananda became the first Kriya Yoga teacher to settle in America. In the 1960s, member played songs that included Hindu Hare Krishna, and helped popularize Hinduism in America.

After the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the community in the US began to grow with immigrants from South Asia. As a result of US immigration policies that favored educated and skilled migrants from India, Hindu Americans are the more likely to hold college degrees and earn higher incomes than other denominations. Recently, Hindu Americans have also become active in state and national politics, including notable personalities such as and , among others.

History
Early influence on American thinkers
In the 19th-century, Americans engaged with Hinduism through literary, philosophical, and missionary encounters. Transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson got interested in Hindu philosophy through Vedic texts such as and works by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, founder of the Brahmo Samaj, which inspired rethinking on the concepts of self, God, and the cosmos. Roy translated Hindu scriptures which challenged missionary reports of Hinduism as an idolatrous tradition and shaped early Unitarian views of Hinduism as a legitimate and evolving religious tradition. Although initially sceptical, Emerson later regarded as deeply resonant with his belief in an inner, divine essence, and he encoded these views in essays like The Over-Soul and poems such as "Brahma." His protégé Henry David Thoreau took these insights further, describing himself as a yogi and reading the Bhagavad Gita daily during his retreat to Walden Pond.

However, early engagement between American thinkers and Hindu ideas in the 19th century was shaped by , often reducing the religion to mystical abstraction or primitive superstition. In 1875, Madame Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott established the Theosophical Society which popularised Hindu ideas among American audiences through constructing a universalist spiritual system centred on karma, reincarnation, and divine wisdom. In 1879, Blavatsky visited India and met with Dayanand Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj. Saraswati opposed both Christian evangelism and popular Hindu ritualism. While Blavatsky had hoped to enlist Saraswati in the Theosophical movement, Saraswati rejected the Society's reinterpretations of the Vedas.

Early Hindu scholars in US
In 1893, Swami Vivekananda's address to the World's Parliament of Religions in was one of the first major discussions of Hinduism in the United States. He lectured on Hinduism in several cities, including , , and New York, from 1893-1895. He also introduced Yoga philosophy and a mixture of yoga breathwork () and . Starting in 1902, Swami Rama Tirtha spent two years speaking on the philosophy of in the United States.

In 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda was India's delegate to the International Congress of Religious Liberals held in Boston. He embarked on a successful speaking tour in the US before settling in in 1925, where he trained disciples in Kriya Yoga. Yogananda was among the first Indian Yoga teachers to settle in the US, and the first prominent Hindu scholar to be hosted in the in 1927. He published his Autobiography of a Yogi in 1946, which was recognized as one of the best spiritual books of the 20th century.

Bhagavad Gita in America
Around 1857, the American poet-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century, studied the Hindu scripture . The Bhagavad Gita is a central text in Hinduism and a synthesis of various strands of Hindu religious thought, including the Vedic concept of (duty, rightful action); -based and (knowledge); and (devotion). Emerson noted that Gita's message was an allegory for the inner battle between good and evil in the human soul.Engels, Jeremy David (2021). The Ethics of Oneness: Emerson, Whitman, and the Bhagavad Gita, pp. 14-15. University of Chicago Press.

In the late 19th century, Swami Vivekananda's speeches in America contained numerous references to the Gita, and the four yogas – bhakti, jnana, karma, and raja , and through the message of the Gita, Vivekananda sought to re-emphasize the core tenets of Hindu thought both in India and America.

In the 20th century, an American scholar of , Gerald James Larson, who was a Professor of Indian Cultures and Civilization at Indiana University, Bloomington as well as Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, stated that "if there is any one text that comes near to embodying the totality of what it is to be a , it would be the Bhagavad Gita."

Influence on counter-culture movement
During the 1960s, Hindu teachers found a receptive audience in the U.S. , leading to the formation of a number of Neo-Hindu movements, such as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness founded by . People involved in the such as , , and were influential in the spread of Hinduism in the United States.

was a Harvard known as who traveled to India in 1967 and studied under Neem Karoli Baba.

(2025). 9781438447926, State University of New York Press.
He returned the West as a Hindu teacher and changed his name to Ram Dass, which means servant of (one of the Hindu gods). Jeffery Kagel commonly known as Krishna Das, went to India in the sixties and returned to America as a practitioner of and singer of Hindu devotional music known as (chanting the names of God), described by the New York Times as "the chant master of American yoga".

member George Harrison

(2019). 9781789854312 .
became a devotee of . Harrison started to record songs with the words "Hari Krishna" in the lyrics and was widely responsible for popularizing Hinduism in America in the 1960s and 1970s. His song, My Sweet Lord, became the biggest-selling single of 1971 in the United Kingdom. In 1967, the event held in 's Golden Gate Park as a prelude to San Francisco's Summer of Love, a symbol of American , and involved chanting of "Om" by , a follower of Hinduism.Klausner, Linda T. (April 22, 2011), "American Beat Yogi: An Exploration of the Hindu and Indian Cultural Themes in Allen Ginsberg", Masters Thesis: Literature, Culture, and Media Lund University.

In the 1970s, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi developed a popular meditation technique, the Transcendental Meditation (TM), and became known as the "Guru" who brought meditation to America.

(1985). 9780422796309, Tavistock Publications. .
In 1974, , the great-grandson of , joined ISKCON and helped establish the first Hindu temple in and the Bhakti Vedanta Cultural Centre in Detroit. Other influential Indians of Hindu faith in the counter-culture movement are Mata Amritanandamayi and .

Demographics
According to the 2023–24 Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study, Hindus comprise approximately 0.9% of the U.S. adult population, increased from 0.4% in 2007. The Hindu population of the United States is the eighth-largest in the world. Most Hindus in the United States are of Asian Indian origin, and about 80% of Asian Indian immigrants practice Hinduism. The US Hindu population has been growing over the recent decades. In a 2025 survey, 84% of Hindus reported their ethnic origin from .

Earlier in a 2015 survey, most Hindus in America were immigrants (87%) or the children of immigrants (9%), while the remaining were converts. The majority of Hindus are immigrants from . There are also from the , , , , , and the . In the U.S. there are also about 900 ethnic people from , one of the few remaining non-Indic Hindus in the world, 55% of whom are Hindus.

From 2008 to 2017, around 90000 Hindu Bhutanese refugees were resettled in the United States. Earlier in 1988, a census in resulted in ethnic and linguistic tensions against the Nepali-speaking Hindu ethnic group, leading to them becoming Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. Many Afghan Hindus have also settled in , mainly after Soviet–Afghan War and the rise of the . A number of Hindu-Americans immigrated twice, first from former British colonies of , the Caribbean, Fiji to the United Kingdom, and then to the United States.

(2025). 9780791087862, Chelsea House. .
(2025). 9781138389380, Routledge.

According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, in 2017 Hindus were the largest minority religion in 92 of the 3143 counties in the US. Although Hinduism is practiced mainly by people of South Asian descent, a sizable number of Hindus in United States are converts to Hinduism. According to the Pew Research Center, 9% of Hindus in United States belong to a non-Asian ethnicity: (4%), (2%), Latino (1%) and mixed (2%).

As per the 2020 census, the median age of Hindus in the United States was 36 years, which is lower than the national average of 47 years. Hindus are the second youngest religious group, after Muslims (33 years). While as per 2023, the median age of Hindus have increased to 42 years.

Education and income
American Hindus have the highest rates of educational attainment and highest household income among all religious communities, and the lowest divorce rates. In 2008, according to Pew Research Center, 80% of American adults who were raised as Hindus continued to adhere to Hinduism, which is the highest retention rate for any religion in America.

Due to the U.S. immigration policies, most of the Hindu immigrants have been educated and highly skilled professionals, most likely to hold college degrees.

Historically, some notable Hindus came to America for education in the late 19th and 20th centuries. is believed to be the first woman to set foot on American soil, arriving in New York in June 1883 at the age of 19, graduating with a medical degree from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in March 1886, becoming the first female of South Asian origin to graduate with a degree in Western medicine in the United States.

Religiosity
According to a 2014 Pew Research survey, 88% of the American Hindu population believed in (versus 89% of adults overall). However, only 26% believed that is very important in their life. About 51% of the population reported daily.

According to the Pew Research Center, only 15% of the Americans identified the as a religious text. Roughly half of Americans knew that has roots in Hinduism.

Languages spoken
Since Hindu Americans come from a diverse linguistic background, they speak many languages including the following: , and its varieties, , Gujarati, , , , ,, |, , Kashmiri, Assamese, , and .

Further, smaller groups of Hindu Americans also speak the following: , , Maithili, Bhojpuri, , , , , , , , , , , , , Boro, , , Khandeshi, , , , Rajasthani languages, Pahari languages, , , other South Asian languages, , Caribbean English, Caribbean Hindustani, , , , , , , , Balinese, , Tenggerese, , , and other languages.

Socio-cultural engagement
Adaption to American culture
Many of the early Hindu emissaries to the United States drew on ideological confluences between Christian and Hindu universalism. Hindu temples in the United States tend to house more than one deity corresponding with a different tradition, unlike those in India which tend to house deities from a single tradition. Yoga become part of many American's lifestyle, but its meaning has shifted. While Hindus in the United States may refer to the practice as a form of meditation that has different forms ( i.e. karma yoga, bhakti yoga, kriya yoga), it is used in reference to the physical aspect of the word.

Influence on American culture & beliefs
In 1966 B.K.S. Iyengar’s "Light on Yoga" was published in the United States, where it became a guide for yoga asana practice, and Iyengar was invited to teach Yoga in US. In 1975, the first issue of "Yoga Journal" was published, which has since become the magazine of record for Yoga in America. By 2016, according to an study, 36.7 million Americans were practicing yoga.

The principle of , which is an integral part of Hinduism and other , has been increasingly accepted with around one-third of Americans believing in re-birth including 29% of American Christians. The Pew survey of 2018 found increasing influence of “New Age” beliefs such as reincarnation, and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects like mountains or trees, with 33% of Americans believing in reincarnation. The practice of , often associated with Hinduism, is also gaining acceptance, though mainly for health reasons.

In the 1980s, , a medical doctor of Hindu background, established an holistic health center, which also conducted TM meditation sessions. In 1990s, Chopra gained recognition for his books on Mind-Body health such as Quantum Healing and Perfect Health, along with his appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In 2009, Lisa Miller, a Wilbur honored American writer and journalist noted the contemporary influence of ancient Hindu concepts of religious pluralism: "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names", and "there are many paths to God".

In 2016, , an Indian guru of Hindu heritage, published a spiritual self-help book, , which became a New York Times bestseller. Around 2020, Sadhguru traveled across America, addressing audiences and gaining celebrity followers such as and Matthew McConaughey. Sadhguru has since raised awareness of Yoga, environment, and spiritual principles such as "karma" in talks with multiple American podcasters, including .

Social views
In 2019, a Pew survey noted that 71% of Hindus believed that should be accepted, which is higher than the general public (62%). The same study also said that about 68% of Hindus supported same-sex marriage, vs. 53% of the general public. The 2019 Pew survey also noted that Hindus in the United States support rights (68%). Further, the same survey indicated that about 69% of Hindus supported regulations to protect the and .

Influence on Pop Culture
Hinduism has influenced several Hollywood movies such as Eat Pray Love, which is a movie about a "modern American woman’s journey towards peace through Indian spiritual practices," including spending time at a Hindu ashram in India and practicing yoga. The science fiction Interstellar, directed by Christopher Nolan is considered to be inspired by the central notion of universal super-consciousness that transcends space and time from the ancient Indian philosophical texts, the Upanishads. Oppenheimer, a biographical thriller by Christopher Nolan based on the life of the American physicist who helped develop the first nuclear bomb, shows the lead character, J. Robert Oppenheimer, reading and quoting from the Hindu scripture and Bhagavad Gita.

Several Hollywood actors follow Hindu traditions, including , who is a practicing Hindu and played the role of a spiritual seeker in Eat, Pray, Love. , , and hold the Bhagavad Gita in high regard. Actor is also known to follow Hindu rituals including a visit to India and participating in Ganga aarti prayer.

Hindu-Americans in politics
In September 2000, a joint session of Congress was opened with a prayer in (with some and added), by Venkatachalapathi Samudrala to honor the visit of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The gesture was an initiative by Ohio Congressman , who requested the U.S. Congress House Chaplain to invite the Hindu from the Shiva Vishnu Hindu Temple in Parma, Ohio. A Hindu prayer was read in the Senate on July 12, 2007, by Rajan Zed, a Hindu priest from Nevada, who served as the Senate guest Chaplain. His prayer was interrupted by a couple and their daughter who claimed to be , which prompted a criticism of candidates in the upcoming presidential election for not condemning the interruption. In October 2009, President lit a ceremonial lamp at the White House to symbolize victory of over .

In April 2009, President Obama appointed , a management consultant and pioneer community builder, to serve as a member of his inaugural Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnership. In collaboration with the White House, Hindu American Seva Communities was formed to bring the Hindu seva voices to the forefront in the public arena and to bridge the gap between U.S. government and Hindu people and places of worship.

In the 2020 elections, became the first Hindu to run in the presidential race from Democratic Party, though later she endorsed Joe Biden. In 2021, the State of joined with the World Hindu Council to declare October as Hindu Heritage Month.

In recent years, the political participation of Indian-Americans has increased with being Hindu of Indian background running for the position of president in the 2024 elections from Republican Party, though he later endorsed Donald Trump.

In 2025, Tulsi Gabbard was sworn in as the director of national intelligence taking the role of President 's top intelligence adviser, and became the first Hindu American to hold a Cabinet-level position.

In the U.S. Government
U.S. Cabinet

U.S. Congress
In the 119th US Congress, there are four Hindu Congressmen (0.8% of total).

Other prominent positions
  • (D), Surgeon General of the United States
  • Usha Chilukuri Vance (R), Second Lady of the United States
  • (R), former DOGE executive

State legislators

Hindu temples in America
The was responsible for building the earliest temples in the United States, starting in 1905 with the Old Temple in , but they were not considered formal temples. The earliest traditional in the United States is Shiva Temple in Concord, California. It was built in 1957 and is known as Palanisamy Temple. It is one of the few temples run by public elected members. The Maha Vallabha Ganapathi Devastanam, owned by the Hindu Temple Society of North America in Flushing, New York, was consecrated on July 4, 1977.

According to some estimates, there are over 1000 Hindu temples across the United States. The New York and New Jersey region has the majority of the temples ; Texas is reported to have around 128, and Massachusetts has 127 temples.

Other temples include the Malibu Hindu Temple, built in 1981 in Calabasas, California, and owned and operated by the Hindu Temple Society of Southern California. In addition, Swaminarayan temples exist in almost 20 states.

The oldest Hindu temple in Texas is the Shree Raseshwari Radha Rani temple at Radha Madhav Dham, Austin. India Today International. Volume 1, Issues 1–8. International. 2002. The temple was established by Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj. It is one of the largest Hindu temple complexes in the Western Hemisphere, and the largest in .

(2025). 9780765680280, M. E. Sharpe.
(2025). 9780762729975, Globe Pequot Press.

Parashakthi Temple in Pontiac, Michigan, is a Tirtha Peetham for Goddess "," or the "Great Divine Mother" in Hinduism. The temple was envisioned in 1994 by Dr. G. Krishna Kumar in a deep meditative Kundalini experience of "Adi Shakthi".

Akshardham in Robbinsville, New Jersey, is one of the largest stone Hindu temples in the United States.

In 2010, the Bharatiya Temple of Northwest Indiana temple was opened next to the Indian American Cultural Center in Merrillville, Indiana. The Bharatiya Temple allows four different Hindu groups as well as a group to worship together.

The Sri Ganesha Temple of Alaska in , is the northernmost Hindu temple in the world.

Discrimination and biases
Early immigration struggles
As a result of the in Bellingham, Washington, on September 5, 1907, some 125 Indians (mostly but labelled as ) were driven out of town by a mob of 400-500 white men. Some victims of the riots migrated to Everett, Washington, where they received similar treatment two months later. occurred during this period in , , and .

In the 1923 case United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, the Supreme Court ruled that Thind and other South Asians were not "free white persons" according to a 1790 federal law that stated that only white immigrants could apply for naturalized citizenship. The Immigration Act of 1924 prohibited the immigration of Asians such as Middle Easterners and Indians.

(2025). 9780195124422, Oxford University Press.

The first wave of South Asian immigrants in America was predominantly , who migrated to the West Coast in the early 20th century due to economic hardships in India. They typically labored in agriculture, railroads, and lumberyards, establishing communities and the first Sikh temple in California by 1912. In the early 1900s, labeled all South Asian immigrants “Hindoos,” regardless of their religion, labeling them as an economic and cultural threat and leading to hostility, violent attacks, and forced expulsions by white workers in towns like Bellingham, Washington. Sentiments intensified through organizations like the Asiatic Exclusion League and widespread media portrayal of an alleged "Hindoo invasion."

Temple vandalism
In February 2015, Hindu temples in Kent and the Seattle Metropolitan area were , and in April 2015, a Hindu temple in north Texas was vandalized with xenophobic images spray-painted on its walls. In January 2019, the Swaminarayan Temple in Kentucky was vandalized. Black paint was sprayed on the deity; the words "Jesus is the only God" and the was spray painted on various walls.

Around 2022, there were several cases of vandalism of Hindu Temples in New York by , including the destruction of 's statue outside Shri Tulsi Mandir in South Richmond Hill, New York, which was vandalized two times, first on August 3, 2022, and then on August 16, 2022, wherein 5-6 miscreants smashed the Gandhi statue with sledgehammers and spray painted Khalistan on the statue. In September 2022, a man named Sukhpal Singh was arrested and charged with a hate crime incident at the Hindu temple in Queens, New York, in which he destroyed the Gandhi statue and spray painted derogatory words.

In October 2023, there was a burglary at a Hindu mandir in Sacramento, California, with six suspects stealing a donation box from the premises, some Hindu groups alleged that the theft was motivated by religious hate. The incident, which took place at the Hari Om Radha Krishna Mandir in Sacramento, was condemned by the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) as a potential hate crime.

In January 2024, a Hindu temple in California was defaced with pro graffiti.

Past objections to Hindu prayers in legislatures
In 2000, the first opening prayer was offered in the U.S. Congress by Venkatachalapathi Samuldrala, a priest of Shiva Hindu Temple in Parma, Ohio. This prayer coincided with the visit of Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee to U.S. in 2000. Under the rules of the United States House of Representatives, Representative of invited a priest, Samuldrala. This prayer prompted criticism from some conservative Christian groups such as Family Research Council, who protested against it in conservative media, in turn generating responses from their opponents and leading to discussions over the role of legislative chaplains in a pluralist society.

On July 12, 2007, Rajan Zed, a Hindu priest, offered a prayer in the U.S. Senate as its guest priest. The proceedings were interrupted by three self-professed Christian protestors, who were arrested by Capitol Police and charged with a misdemeanor for disrupting Congress. The conservative Christian group American Family Association objected to the prayer, citing the loss of the "Judeo-Christian foundations" of the United States.

California textbook protest over Hindu history
In 2005, the Texas-based Vedic Foundation and the American Hindu Education Foundation filed a complaint to California's Curriculum Commission, arguing that the coverage of and Hinduism in 6th grade history was biased against Hinduism. Points of contention included a textbook's portrayal of the caste system, the Indo-Aryan migration theory, and the status of women in Indian society.

Caste discrimination
form 1.5% of all Indian immigrants to the United States, according to a University of Pennsylvania study carried out in 2003. While a 2019 survey conducted by a Dalit rights group, Equality Labs Sriram Lakshman, Group opposes protection from caste discrimination in California Varsity’s faculty union, The Hindu, 24 January 2022. claimed that the majority of Dalits living in the US reported facing caste-based harassment at the workplace, the survey results were questioned by the Carnegie Endowment researchers, who pointed out that the study used a non-representative snowball sampling method to identify participants, which might have skewed the results in favor of those with strong views about caste.

In 2021, the student body of California State University system passed a resolution seeking a ban on caste-based discrimination. The campaign was spearheaded by a Nepali origin Dalit student, who came to the US in 2015 escaping social exclusion in his home country, and claimed that he faced discrimination in the US as well. The resolution cited the survey by Equality Labs where a quarter of Dalits reported having faced verbal or physical assaults. Al Jazeera noted that the resolution was backed by students from different racial and religious groups.

Around 2023, several Hindu-American organizations successfully opposed the SB 403 bill, which aimed to introduce caste laws in that could have unfairly targeted Hindu Americans. In 2023, California legislature proposed a bill to add “caste” under California laws, but the bill was vetoed by Governor noting that such measure was “unnecessary” because discrimination based on caste was already prohibited in the state, stating that "California already prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics". Many Hindu American groups welcomed Governor's veto as they argued that the proposed bill attempted to unfairly malign their community.

Hindu organizations in America
Several organizations have been formed to combat discrimination against Hindus in the United States and raise issues impacting Hindu Americans. Some of these organizations include:
  • Hindu American Foundation: HAF is an American Hindu advocacy group founded in 2003 with the broad aim of protecting the rights of Hindus in the United States and raising cultural appropriation issues. Around 2023, HAF was among several Hindu-American organizations that successfully opposed the SB 403 bill, which aimed to introduce caste laws in that could have unfairly targeted Hindu Americans.
  • Sadhana: aims to empower Hindu-Americans to live the values of their faith through service, community transformation, and advocacy work.
  • CoHNA: Coalition of Hindus of North America- Due to CoHNA's activism, Georgia passed a resolution condemning "Hinduphobia" in 2023, making it the first state in United States to pass such a resolution.
  • HinduPACT: The Hindu Policy Research and Advocacy Collective (HinduPACT) is an American Hindu advocacy group with stated aims to monitor acts of hatred towards Hindu Americans while engaging with all Americans to promote Hindu values such as pluralism.

See also
  • Hinduism in Los Angeles
  • Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa
  • Hindu University of America

Sources

Further reading

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