Meat-filled samosas, the American legal system, and multiculturalism
In 2009, Moghul Express, a restaurant in New Jersey, served Durgesh Gupta and fifteen other vegetarians a tray of meat samosas. In a case called Gupta vs. Asha Enterprises, Gupta has since sued, hoping that the restaurant will be forced to pay for the sixteen diners to travel to India to cleanse the...
| Published in: | Nidān |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Univ.
2018
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| In: |
Nidān
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| Further subjects: | B
Multiculturalism
B Samosa B Purification B Diaspora B Hinduism B Cultural conflict B Moghul B Legal System B Vegetarianism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In 2009, Moghul Express, a restaurant in New Jersey, served Durgesh Gupta and fifteen other vegetarians a tray of meat samosas. In a case called Gupta vs. Asha Enterprises, Gupta has since sued, hoping that the restaurant will be forced to pay for the sixteen diners to travel to India to cleanse themselves in the Ganges. Gupta unknowingly thrust the American legal system into the position of mediating not only between citizens, but between representatives of divergent Indian traditions: vegetarians and non-vegetarians. This scenario illustrates that even within a diaspora, factions mirroring those back home can form, but in their new home, both parties have novel avenues to agency. It was up to the court to decide whether, by the dictates of "Hinduism," a trip to India was necessary for a full cleanse, thus attempting to standardize "Hinduism" from among multiple sets of overlapping and incongruous belief systems. In this way, America as a liberal democracy has been sanctioned to dictate exactly what Hinduism is and how it could or perhaps should be understood in multicultural contexts. |
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| ISSN: | 2414-8636 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Nidān
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.58125/nidan.2018.1 |