Immigrants to the United States must resolve for themselves how much to integrate into American society, and how much of their native customs and culture to retain. In today?s edition of New American Voices, an immigrant from India addresses the question of assimilation and talks about her own attempts to find harmony between the Indian and American aspects of her life.
Meera Puri taught philosophy at the University of Delhi before coming to the United States as a young bride in 1973. Here she worked as a financial manager for Amtrak, the national railroad, while raising two daughters, and then retired at the age of 55 to devote her time to teaching and to good works. After 30 years in the United States she still dresses in a sari, teaches Hindi and Hindu religion in a weekly Indian Sunday school, and says that she is very comfortable being a Hindu in America.
Mrs. Puri says that for her, adjusting to life in America was relatively easy, because she came as an adult, with her values already set. Her Indianness and her Hinduism were intrinsic to her, and she accepted an overlay of American culture in everyday life without seeing it as a threat to her identity.
Her own daughters are now twenty-nine and twenty-four years old. One is completing a degree in medicine, the other in clinical psychology. Mrs. Puri says they, too, have achieved a balance between their Indian and American identities, but not without some conflict, particularly in their teenage years.
Mrs. Puri believes that it is very important for parents to give their born-in-America children a solid grounding in their ethnic and religious heritage.
In the case of her two daughters, Mrs. Puri turned to culture, particularly dance, to connect them with their Indian heritage.
With her children grown and out of the house now, Meera Puri devotes more time to spiritual practices and to teaching. She says the teachings of a swami with whom she became acquainted when he came to the Washington area from India in the 1980s influenced her decision to live her life more fully in accordance with the Hindu value system. Throughout the year she herself teaches eight-to-ten-year-olds at a local Indian Sunday school.
Mrs. Puri says that as she has delved deeper into Hindu spiritualism, it has increased her appreciation for America, and Americans? acceptance of the great diversity of cultures and faiths in their country.