[PDF Download] Heathen, Hindoo, Hindu: American Representations of India, 1721-1893 Writen - Michael J. Altman
Heathen, Hindoo, Hindu: American Representations of India, 1721-1893 Today, there are more than two million Hindus in America. But before the twentieth century, Hinduism was unknown in the United States. But while Americans did not write about Hinduism, they speculated at length about heathenism, the religion of the Hindoos, and Brahmanism. In Heathen, Hindoo, Hindu, Michael J. Altman argues that this is not a mere sematic distinction-a case of more politically correct terminology being accepted over time-but a way that Americans worked out their own identities. American representations of India said more about Americans than about Hindus. Cotton Mather, Hannah Adams, and Joseph Priestley engaged the larger European Enlightenment project of classifying and comparing religion in India. Evangelical missionaries used images of Hindoo heathenism to raise support at home. Unitarian Protestants found a kindred spirit in the writings ofBengali reformer Rammohun Roy. Popular magazines and com...
