Who Speaks for Hinduism Now?

In 2000, JAAR published a special issue titled, “Who Speaks for Hinduism?”, which included a set of ten articles focused on issues, questions, and conflicts seminal to Hindu studies at the turn of the millennium. More than twenty years after JAAR 68.4, as racialized scholars in the field of Hindu studies, we find that while many of the key players in the debate have remained the same, the pressing question of our field is quite different. Our driving question today is not “Who speaks for Hinduism?” but rather: What are the stakes of speaking for, to, and through Hinduism? Our proposed roundtable uses the framework of Critical Race Theory (CRT), Asian American studies, and Feminist Critical Hindu studies to begin a conversation about our experiences as researchers, teachers, and colleagues of color in Hindu studies.