Stumbled upon during a search for India, America has always had a fascination with the subcontinent. From nineteenth-century New England transcendentalists to today's mantra-chanting yoga yuppies, Indian culture often serves as an exotic escape into the mystical realm of everyday enlightenment. Recently, however, Indian religion has become accessible not only to spiritual devotees but also to the average American shopper. Traditional motifs--displayed in trendy jewelry, fashion, and henna tattoos--have become consumer products in American pop culture, and now Hinduism itself is being bought and sold via music videos and movies.

Though religions have historically created markets that allow for the widespread distribution of creeds, the increasing reach of the global market has made it possible for a religion itself to become a commodity in a separate foreign popular culture. But the gradual movement of Indian religious iconography from the hands of new-age dabblers to teens raised on MTV is forcing a new generation of South Asian Americans to navigate the difficult realm of identity politics, caught between American perceptions of India and their own experiences as Americans of South Asian descent.

In the past, Americans interested in the philosophical teachings of Indian holy men rushed to sit at the feet of their Indian masters. As a result, India sent an onslaught of missionaries to America, starting in 1893 with Swami Vivekananda to the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. Today, a new group of celebrated gurus have made international headlines--Swami Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada, founder of the prominent Hare Krishna movement, and Bhagwan Rajneesh, who collected Rolls-Royces and espoused free sex during his heyday in the 1980s.

But the emphasis of today's exported Indian culture has shifted from the holy men and their followers. Rather, pop culture's appropriation of Hinduism has made the religion hip and cool in America. Hindu groups have recently decried merchandise featuring religious deities on T-shirts, lunchboxes, designer jeans--even toilet seats! Keanu Reeves, of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure fame, starred in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1994 film, Little Buddha, bringing Indian philosophy to the forefront of mainstream American culture. Stanley Kubrick used Sanskrit chants from the Hindu sacred text, the Bhagavad Gita, to add exotic flavor to the orgy scenes in his controversial final film, Eyes Wide Shut. Madonna recited Sanskrit mantras in her Ray of Light album and wore the sacred marks of a Hindu priest while performing in front of Hindu deity images at the MTV Music Awards.

This sampling of Indian culture has prompted Deepak Chopra, best-selling author and new-age renaissance man, to encourage the Indian to capitalize upon current pop culture interest by selling cultural and religious icons to the masses needing a quick fix. In response, many Hindus have launched campaigns to stop the commodification of their religion. The American Hindus Against Defamation group vehemently rejects the contemporary blending of "eastern mysticism and western hedonism." Others point to the danger of pop-culture reductionism, and insist that the flattening of a complex civilization into a single image or trend will have negative repercussions for a young generation of South Asian Americans already facing complicated identity issues in the diaspora.

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