In New Jersey, the biggest Hindu temple in the country opens its doors on Sunday. The 183-acre BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham, named for the founding Hindu spiritual organization, was constructed in the small municipality of Robbinsville and competes with important Hindu temples in the subcontinent.
Yogi Trivedi, a temple volunteer and a professor of religion at Columbia University, stated, “I wake up every morning & scratch my eyes thinking, ‘Am I still in central New Jersey?'” It feels as though you have been transported, specifically to India.
On October 8, the temple will be formally opened, and on October 18, it will be open to the general public. This is a significant turning point for Indian and Hindu Americans, according to Trivedi.
“This is the American Dream,” he declared. “You may experience, observe, and enjoy the sacred terrain of India and beyond in just one location right here in New Jersey. As a researcher of religion, I believe that this will attract lots of Hindu pilgrims from throughout the world.
Construction controversy
The Akshardham was constructed by 12,500 volunteers from all around the world and began construction in 2011. However, it gained attention ten years later when a group of foreign workers filed a lawsuit against the BAPS, or Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, a worldwide organization with temples. In the case, it was claimed that there were “shocking” working and housing conditions, including forced labor, long hours, and caste discrimination.
“For these lengthy and challenging hours of work, the workers received an astonishing $450 per month, and it was even less when Defendants took illegal deductions,” according to the initial lawsuit. The amount they were paid per hour was roughly $1.20.
However, a BAPS representative claimed that there was a difference between employment and seva, or religious volunteer work.
In a statement, spokesperson Ronak Patel said that the artisans who worked on the construction of our mandir did so as volunteers rather than employees. “…We provided for the artisans’ needs while they were in the United States, including transportation, lodging, food, medical attention, internet access, and prepaid phone cards so they could communicate with their family back in India. In order to ensure that the families of the artisans in India did not face financial difficulty as a result of their service in the U.S., BAPS India also sponsored them.
Many of the physical laborers who worked on building the temple were Dalits, who belonged to historically underprivileged castes in South Asia; they arrived in New Jersey from India on religious visas. The lawsuit asserts that temple leadership upheld the caste system at work.
Although 12 of the initial 21 plaintiffs moved to have their claims dismissed, the action has now been placed on hold, and BAPS Akshardham representatives ensure that the temple will be a place where people of all castes and creeds can come together in harmony.
Historical personalities including Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. are carved into the temple walls, according to Trivedi.
“When you come to the mandir, you will see people of all genders… all castes & social backgrounds living, eating, praying, loving and serving together,” he stated.
Activists said the claims continue to cast doubt on the distinction between performing religious duties and engaging in workplace exploitation, which Dalit groups are particularly susceptible to.
Sunita Viswanath, a human rights activist, claims that being a caste-privileged Hindu makes this reality particularly important to her.
Hindus for Human Rights co-founder Viswanath said, “A house of worship, a temple, is such an important site, especially for an immigrant population finding home in a new country. Anyone who visits a temple should truly reflect on whether going there is the proper thing to do given the significant charges of labor and human rights violations.
Treading a fine line between contemporary Jersey and historic India
The temple itself is a cultural fusion, with materials taken from all over the world and allusions to American history scattered throughout, according to Trivedi, who noted that placing 2 million cubic feet of stone in Robbinsville Township was no small task.
Residents of the area had various issues, notably those related to the temple’s height, but BAPS worked with them to find solutions, according to Trivedi.
This new hybrid community is what resulted, he claimed.
Trivedi claimed that unusual Bulgarian limestone was used in the construction of the temple’s exterior in order to survive the chilly winters of New Jersey. A traditional Indian stepwell contains water from 300 bodies of water in India and all 50 U.S. states, and the inside is made of stone that was mined all over the world, including Greece, Italy, and India. He claimed that women played important leadership roles throughout the project, which is uncommon when building temples.
It will now be clear to visitors from the American neighborhood that the brown family living two houses away is not all that dissimilar, he said.
According to Trivedi, the design represents the community that will emerge in the temple, which will be a fusion of cultures with something for everyone.
“That kind of inclusivity is not just talked about, it’s actually seen on the walls,” the speaker remarked.