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At the India Festival photos by Eric Jackson Hinduism is one of the world's great religions, but in Panama the word "Hindu" is often used to describe anyone from that subcontinent that includes India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, regardless of religion. But the Sociedad Hindostana de Panama is overwhelmingly an organization of the Hindu community proper. On July 23 the nation's Hindus, plus some invitees from abroad, celebrated in an India Festival, converged on the Sociedad Hindostana headquarters, just down the hill from the Hindu temple that overlooks Tumba Muerto, to celebrate their existence and their beliefs, and to pass their culture and religion on to a younger generation. Panama's Hindu community traces ancestry back mainly to the Indian state of Gujarat or to Sindh, which is now part of Pakistan. The first significant immigration to the isthmus came mainly by way of Caribbean lands that were at the time under British rule, during the US phase of the building of the Panama Canal. Our small and for the most part prosperous Hindu community is mainly engaged in commerce and provided many of the founders of the Colon Free Zone. Despite discriminatory immigration laws, the Hindu community has grown with a slow but steady stream of immigrants since that time.
In a little garden within the Sociedad Hindostana building the memory of the first Hindu Nobel laureate, Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore, is honored. The meeting hall behind this garden is named after the greatest Indian of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, who to the everlasting shame of the Nobel committee never won the peace prize.
There was plenty of music...
... and dancing.
Part of the festivities included a comedy routine that lampooned the triviality and superficiality of much of the western consumer culture.
The late British rock musician George Harrison's work, as well as discussions about the teachings of Indian gurus from centuries past, played their roles in this celebration.
Attire was traditional...
... and not so traditional.
The traditional Indian drumbeat...
... was conducive to people seeing the light.
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