History
cannot be written without data, and the evidence for what
happened in the past does not collect itself automatically.
The first task in studying the history of ISKCON is therefore
the slow and time-consuming job of assembling as much evidence
as possible about ISKCON's growth from 1965 to the present.
This is a very complex matter, because ISKCON did not grow
slowly from its early beginning in New York City; instead,
it exploded across the country and around the world with such
speed that those involved had little time to reflect on what
was happening and even less time to keep careful records of
what they were doing. The record is more complete where Prabhupada
was directly involved, but outside the spotlight of attention
on him there was only sporadic documentation of what was being
done, by whom and to what effect.
The
data problem was made more difficult, of course, by ISKCON's
multinational growth. The earlier disciples were English speaking
and mostly American, but the 'Hare Krishna' movement soon
spread beyond North America and into new language areas. Within
a few years there were temples and centres not only in the
US, Canada, England and Australia but also in continental
Europe, Central and South America, Africa and the Far East
- not to mention India, which soon became a major focus of
Prabhupada's activity. One can get a general picture of what
was happening between 1965 and 1977 by reading Prabhupada's
biography and the diaries of disciples who were with him for
various periods during this dozen years of rapid expansion.
There is no overall history of ISKCON's institutional development
even during Prabhupada's lifetime, however, and even less
reporting of ISKCON's history after 1977 except for narrowly
focused studies of national or local branches - and many of
these are by outsiders, not ISKCON members.
Given
this situation, there is an urgent need to collect as much
information as possible on the past three decades of ISKCON's
existence. ISKCON is not the first Asian religion to find
a following in the West, but it is the first to gain such
a widespread following without losing its Indian identity.
As a result, it has been able to maintain continuity for Hindus
in the West while also serving the needs of Western disciples.
This is one of the great stories in world religious history,
and it should be told with full attention to the details of
how it happened. How did Prabhupada preserve the culture of
Bengal Vaisnavism in a western context? What innovations were
made to ensure that this culture would continue? What institutions
provided support for this process of cultural transfer and
how did they work over time? What variations have developed
within ISKCON in response to different cultural settings?
How did ISKCON become involved in serving the religious needs
of immigrant Hindus, and with what effect on both ISKCON and
the immigrant community?
Evidence
to help answer these and other historical questions exists
in many ISKCON records scattered throughout the world and
in the memories of many ISKCON disciples who were involved
in the relevant decisions and programmes. To date, however,
there has been no serious effort to assemble this evidence
and no place where it could be gathered together and studied.
The Oxford Centre for Vaisnava and Hindu Studies has recently
begun the process of collecting archival material on ISKCON's
history from various sources. For the first time, there is
now a place where all of ISKCON's records can be maintained
as a resource for historians and other scholars. There is
also for the first time a commitment to include in this resource
bank information on the Hindu Diaspora as a whole, both to
place ISKCON in its historical context and to provide a service
to the larger Hindu community.
