This week, Americans will be celebrating a tradition that is older than the nation itself – Thanksgiving day. It was a tradition that began in the Plymouth colony in 1621 as a celebration of the colonists’ first successful harvest. Central to the Thanksgiving celebrations is the thanksgiving feast, of which the main item is a roasted turkey.
To me, thanksgiving always raised some issues. Most important, there is the issue of whether to eat turkey or not. My family has always been vegetarian. When I first moved to the US in 1999 (in high school), I was trying hard to fit in. Everyone was nice and friendly, and eager to introduce the new Indian kid to American culture. I enjoyed making friends and the attention – until Thanksgiving. Naturally, everyone insisted that I should eat turkey and “be American.” I tried to tell them that I was vegetarian, but there was significant pressure to taste some turkey and partake in this great American tradition.
That raised (and continues to raise) an important question in my mind — which one of my two identities takes precedence, the Hindu identity or the American identity? Now of course there’s a third identity, the Indian one – but as we do in math, lets make a simplifying assumption and ignore that. When the Hindu identity conflicts with the American one, which one “wins”? Ideally they wouldn’t, but every Thanksgiving Day I’m reminded that the world isn’t ideal. One can argue that in the specific case of Thanksgiving, one can give thanks without eating a turkey. But that dodges the issue of which identity takes precedence.
One can easily imagine more complicated scenarios – what if protecting American lives required attacking (and perhaps destroying) a Hindu sacred shrine? What if American actions around the world were detrimental to the lives of fellow Hindus living overseas, but crucial to protecting American lives? Which side would we, as American Hindus, take? We are fortunate to live in a world where we do not need to make such choices; some other religious communities are not so fortunate. And perhaps these would have to be decided on a case-by-case basis, but it still raises an issue that I never really resolved for myself satisfactorily.
As for my Thanksgiving quandry in high school — I dodged the problem by telling my high school friends that I would try turkey at home on the actual day of Thanksgiving, with my family, in accordance with the proper tradition. But of course it didn’t happen – we ended up eating dal, curry and yogurt like we did on any other day.
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I was raised vegetarian as well, and I had a similar experience in preschool. On the first day, the teacher gave everyone hot dogs for lunch, which I said that I can’t eat. The teacher took this personally and kept trying to make me eat it, so I had to explain to her that it is because I choose to be vegetarian, and hot dogs are non-vegetarian. She still didn’t understand what I was saying, but at least after a few more tries she gave up trying to make me eat the hot dog.
That’s a good question! I’d say that my Hindu identity takes precedence in most matters, avoiding corner cases like the example you mention. I was born into my American identity, whereas I have shaped my Hindu identity such that it reflects more of my conscious, actively determined values (e.g. Swadharma).
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