http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/race/2008/06/in-india-you-ca.html /
Interracial relationship India Chicago Tribune if link doesn't go through and comment
by RM is great one! What inspired the following:
(orange is Holy color in Hinduism btw) I commend you for calling yourself an Indian Hindu. However being a Hindu requires teaching your children about Hinduism. There are Catholics in this country who send their children to Catholic schools. There are very Orthodox Baptists, Christians, Jewish, and Muslims who fervently instill in their children the values and traditions as well as religion.
Our homogenous Hindu parents combined made a whole hearted effort to feed us Vegetarian Indian food daily- our Hindu moms had prayer rooms in house with all the respective saints & Gods (referred to in other religions as idols - note: Judaism & Islam do not allow for prescence of pictures or statues in home or mosque or synagogue;it is considered idol worship;10 Commandments of Judaism however are important-important to note as well women are not allowed in places of worship in Islam), they offered prasad nightly, conducted aartis, went to temple (thru teens from young age) on weekend basis(Chinmaya mission as well- they offer great classes for the children and community events for them) attended pujas monthly or for major life events with relatives; along with going to temple weekly and for blessings for life events.
A friend whose Hindu cousin is married to a Christian Anglo male herself does all the same things. The kids having a true Hindu Indian parent (in religious aspect) will be true Hindus in the long run and pass the religion on to their children. The difference in your case is that your Catholic wife who is not teaching your children any of the values of Hinduism, and in fact the opposite. I understand many of us eat chicken (though very rarely) for the thousands of Hindu families we know here but a big part of HInduism is in fact Vegetarianism In same way Muslims do not eat pigs, we do not eat cows nor red meat as a majority. It is a key aspect of Hinduism!! IN INDIA COW MEAT IN THOUSANDS OF YEARS WAS NOT ALLOWED NOR TODAY! Nor is eating red meat, on consistent basis in majority (90% of our homes abroad &in India) &nor hunting innocent animals as your wife is acceptable in Hinduism. Your children will have no real knowledge of what Hindu mothers teach.Interracial relationship India Chicago Tribune if link doesn't go through and comment
by RM is great one! What inspired the following:

Our homogenous Hindu parents combined made a whole hearted effort to feed us Vegetarian Indian food daily- our Hindu moms had prayer rooms in house with all the respective saints & Gods (referred to in other religions as idols - note: Judaism & Islam do not allow for prescence of pictures or statues in home or mosque or synagogue;it is considered idol worship;10 Commandments of Judaism however are important-important to note as well women are not allowed in places of worship in Islam), they offered prasad nightly, conducted aartis, went to temple (thru teens from young age) on weekend basis(Chinmaya mission as well- they offer great classes for the children and community events for them) attended pujas monthly or for major life events with relatives; along with going to temple weekly and for blessings for life events.
In western countries, I agree, where it is all sorts of animals offered in all settings &eaten daily, it is more difficult and even those of us raised in Hindu homes our parents did not want to traumatize us during school years. We ate peanut butter & jelly sandwiches most of the week but were allowed meat sandwiches at school. The difference is the home which has a prayer room- meat was rarely served and more on never side, at that.These children growing up in these families have created the new generation of actual Hindus who cook vegetarian Indian food 90% of the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t05S_dLmQN0&feature=channel_page *why cows are Holy in HinduismAside from your culinary choices which are not Hindu based (and you are quite flexible since I can't imagine a Muslim husband accepting roasted pig every night frm his Christian wife) the Hindu mothers and Hindu fathers here also took their children to the temple consistently as in every weekend, and for major life events.The question of dilution and dissolvement by first and completely by next generation is present as JR points out in article.There are millions of Orthodox Catholic families (less orthodox than us about daily meat consumption except during Lent) who prohibit marrying outside the gene pool or religion for this reason of dissolvement.Our families know of quite a few in fact..They took children out of wills, at the age of 17-26 the male sons were capable of saying: I will only marry white German, Greek, or Italian Catholic wife.. They said these things to Hindu Indian women (&would have said same to any other women!) Who taught them this? They were raised by two Catholic Italian or other Euro descending parents- So the line continues.
What the children learn at home has a lifelong effect, It impacts them in way you can not imagine nor forsee now. Your 3rd party appreciation for Christian or Hindu traditions translates to same 3rd party appreciation your kids will have - I can hear them saying "whatever" in their teens as I write this! There are youtube videos of Catholic daughters converting to Islam via their Muslim boyfriends. Your diluted via upbringing children may very well do the same, Why is that a threat?
See http://www.youtube.com/user/zoom1177 See Conversions from Christianity to Islam or from Judaism. (all Abrahamic faiths- hence the conversions are easier) India fought tooth and nail to prevent from being Islamisized since 700AD the Koran was born, 60 million of us died! Hindu Kusht mountains in Afghanistan make up skulls of Hindu slaves sent by the thousands by their Arab invaders (Hindu slave traders). Kusht however in Hindi means happy. The Arab or Turkish Muslims redefined it to mean Hindu skulls. Research Fort Chittrogargh in Hydrebad: thousands of HIndu women killed themselves to prevent from being sold as slaves or murdered to the Moghul invaders.The thousands of men in that town lost their lives and met the invaders headon. It was a captured fort- we were outnumbered. Agreed, Muslims are not planning attacks on Hindu population in US but the history is there.India is 85% Hindu the millions that lost their lives sacrificed to prevent it from being 100% Muslim as 7 countries to the west are (though 30% of our land was given to Islam, please view map of Bharat Varsha 6th Cent BC and take time to learn what Maha Bharata means and how ancient this term is): where Koran allows multiple wives, stoning for adultery charges, beheadings for free press; no secularity nor democracy in the government or daily life; Sharia Law on Law only, Vedic scriptures respected women research India's ancient goddesses); Islam enslaved and killed the infidels (term for unbelievers) if they did not convert. In the Koran it is specifically written, if a woman is raped she needs four witnesses if the man in question is honorable member of society,
The influence from Moghul era in India was the movie "Water" where widows were jailed. See Hindu genocide in India in Google.Rig Vedic scriptures on widows respected them and allowed for re marriage. Sati was an option as well (to die with or for your husband is nowhere near as horrific as being stoned to death). It's not to say your Catholic wife will not raise your children with values- it is to say your children will be more susceptible to prevailing cultural norms & media because the homogenity is not there, and there are many who are actual atheists but refer to themselves as belonging in given religion, even among Hindus (who are not aware of the traditions nor religion, see www.gosai.com re aartis in the Vedas and teaching of offering prasad in Bhagavad Gita) Mothers, as it turns out, play a very important role in your children's upbringing and their value systems and our value systems are tied to our Hindu religion as well as traditions passed down from thousands of years.
Out of six marriages we know of foreign wife which are Interfaith/race/culture: In majority of the families except one to foreign wife, the children over the years by late 20's are completely mixed up, confused,lost in their cultural/ racial identity and married foreigners, divorced or stayed (to create a new generation of mutts) and pretty much just blended into "whatever the popular culture & norms" and that is what defines them. Worse: they have zero respect for Hinduism and zero love for India even with an India male father.
The marriage that worked for foreign female: Jewish wife adopted to all things Indian, allowed the 2 VERY INDIAN SKIN TONE LOOKING SONS to spend a couple years in India with Indian Hindu relatives to prove her devotion to Indian traditions and customs, and those two children are happily married and well adjusted in their cultural & religious identity &married to their own Indian Hindu wives, nor did she speak negatively of India as the other foreign mates did (of course your new foreign wife is not saying anything about India during courtship but it is human nature for the woman in her vanity to want the children to worship "her country her culture" eventually,We knew of women who said all those nice things about India during courtship but once the kids were born, they showed their true colors. (sidenote: I have seen Mexican woman online as example who has Indian boyfriend state Indian women are ugly & of course heard white women as well spew venom about India even to me directly since India guy refused to marry her..It is this competitveness, her daily bread is at stake. The sad thing about it is it like spitting on your own mother while caring for someone who does &just imagine what she will say to the kids, going back to one successful marriage: (p.s. every race and ethnicity is raised with some level of respect and pride for their genetic roots &traditions (why you will notice that sense of brotherhood as example among whites seated together, or Mexicans). What if THIS PARTICULAR MOTHER HADN'T DONE ALL THIS THOUGH? then look at example a) the kids all married out lost in their muttness. So it ended with you. She literally gave up all Jewish traditions &allowed the mother in law to even stay with them for months at a time to pass on what Hindu mothers teach! Indian food daily, Indian prayer room, Indian customs of which there are many...the kids are 100% Indian as you call yourself.
In our tradition as well: our parents stay with us any time they need, and especially in later years, though not all foreigners send their parents to nursing homes, many do. (A nursing home is not a hospital and infact a place where one's parents are sent to have company with other elderly people. I worked at a nursing home and they function fine reading, playing cards with other tenants. They walk, eat, talk and none had conditions which were suitable for actual hospital setting, if that was the case that is where they would have been!) A friend even went on date with Indian Christian who explained of course parents will go to nursing home, not a question...in our religion: our parents stay with us, grandparents stay with us for years at a time at any stage in their life (Aishwariya Rai defended it on Dave Letterman by the way :!) UNFORTUNATELY, I KNOW OF SITUATIONS WHERE THE INDIAN PARENTS IN INDIA ARE SO HEART BROKEN OF THE INTER RACE RELATIONSHIP THEY CHOSE TO NOT EVEN COME TO THE STATES, IT IS HEARTBREAKING FOR ALL MOTHERS & FATHERS! CHINESE, MEXICAN, ANGLOS R THE SAME!! Again, we are just more ostracized for it..This mixing you call it, compromising, and appreciating is more on side of creating confused mixedup kids than it is well balanced. It's fine as you say they will know of a little of one religion and a little of another but what it really means is: they are just as exposed to Christianity & Hinduism as the rest of the population. Atheists are also exposed, They can attend Diwali function, and have a Christmas Tree. Indian Hindus celebrated Christmas, believe it or not! We had our Christmas trees, presents, and Christmas cookies, BUT NOTE: DAILY WE HAD THE HINDU PRAYER ROOM, THE TEMPLE GOING, THE PUJAS WITH THE RELATIVES, THE AARTIS.Not to sound remedial, but it sticks. Why is it important? Why is calling yourself Indian important?Why do Christian families call themselves Christian? What's the point of it? Are people not allowed to preserve their cultural idenity? nor religious? or both? Is it better we are all just cultural mutt atheists who pretend to be Catholic or Hindu or both? What is point of calling yourself an Indian Hindu? We have scores of customs in same way other races/cutlures/religions have theirs as well (ie Baptising in Catholicism and wine and bread ritual).Ultimately, your children when they have children via constant enforcement of outside "value systems" will in no way teach their children any H. India values, traditions, nor the religion. Since this is the case - they will marry fellow atheists & live happily ever after & as RM stated it ended with you (and this is exactly what we have seen from the foreign marriages).That's nice they enjoy Indian food &movies as much as foreigners have...but it is the food and many more of the above mentioned things.
When there is an India Independence Parade: will your children care to go? will your children care even to learn of India's history? The consequences of being colonized under UK from 1857 - 1947? How India actually was a very well off country before UK entered India to colonize &exploit?? How India paid $100 million Euros to UK for serving in both World Wars & providing all the goods not to mention the millions of Indian lives lost? ----things are slightly better in India and Uk...but the homogenity that I am referring to: the love for your Indian traditions &the love for India and understanding of her suffering will be substantially watered down than from traditional upbringing unless there is DAILY exposure (EVEN MORE IMPORTANT in a foreign country with MULTIPLE races living, MULTIPLE cultures & MULTIPLE religions co habitating) as we did here from our homogenous setting. It takes two whole Hindu parents to create the Indian Hindu you call yourself. Go backwards about 15 years when Indian Hindus were portrayed as human sacrificing in Indiana Jones though 90% of India is vegetarian: when your children watch Slumdog or see negative portrayals whether thru media or word of mouth or experience racism from foreigners (please see Times Of India in search on the scores of attacks on Indians last few years in Australia as well as on Sikhs) who are the same race as one of the parents, they will just be so grateful they have a non Hindu Indian mother/father right or feel cursed for it? Many Indians we know including myself have witnessed racism or undergone it and I can't imagine what it would have been like having the race Mom is while dealing with so many different races and experiencing it from her race as example (this is crucial point since the children carry the males genes in all the situations). Goes back to living in multiple worlds simultaneously and because of it a high level of apathy for one of the heritages over the years is not preventable, and that apathy turns into what I call a cultural mutt, and where I as an example never questioned my identity in terms of racial/cultural/heritage the kids of multi it is much more tumultuous and on daily basis. Say to the kids "your half this half that" daily..that's what it feels like inside.
If you call yourself an Indian and have any pride in doing so, and want your children to have that same pride...please do a few things: 1)subscribe to India Abroad &India Tribune 2)give your children access to Indian TV (Dish Network) 3)watch classic Bollywood movies with them consistently4)visit and attend reguarly Chinmaya Mission for their lectures &activities for the children: Chinmaya Mission is in every city; Find Dada Vaswani books; go to temple atleast a month; atleast in this way your Children's God won't be their tv 5)Have a Hindu prayer room and since Ganesh symbolizes family, there should be Ganesh upon entrance of home as well 6) Also, will your three children ever be exposed to Indian dress? Our thousands of Hindu mothers here abroad branched off thru relatives and who are still married with their children wore salwar kurthis daily & saris daily in the home and with relatives. It doesn't mean being prohibited from wearing American fashion, but if in fact you are Indian and visit to India: you will notice the clothes & fashion (quite different). Your children when compared to families here raised in homogenous setting are getting a 360 degree difference in their upbringing. Those children except for one family that our Indian men married foreign wives: are not Indian in any sense! An interesting paradox, looking Indian but not being Indian in their values, customs and worse have minimum to zero respect or love for their father country. The children again, we know of today with foreign fathers would have been in same predicament had their Moms not instilled the daily Indian customs and religion(they are not old enough to know if they will all marry out or what %, where line ends concept comes from)
The differences are quite respectable, the Indian ness you have came from two practicing parents (and from how many generations down).
The differences are quite respectable, the Indian ness you have came from two practicing parents (and from how many generations down).