This article examines how Indian Americans’ religious organizations send not only
financial remittances to India, but also social remittances that shape
development ideologies. Comparing Indian-American Hindu and Muslim
organizations, I find both groups draw from their socioeconomic experiences in
India and use their position as elite immigrants in the United States to
identify and empower their respective religious constituencies in India and
overturn different social relations (not just religious practices). Hindu
Americans draw from their majority status in India to overturn India's lower
position in the world system and support poverty alleviation efforts within a
neoliberal development framework. Indian-American Muslims draw from their poor
status in India to overturn economic inequities within India by shifting India's
development rhetoric from identity to class. Collective religious identities
(expressed through organizations) not only affect the intensity of immigrants’
development efforts, but also their content and ideology. These findings urge us
to fold transnational religious organizations into contemporary discussions on
migration and development.
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