Narrative Summary
Interview with Arti Dhar by Lizzie Biggerstaff
Arti Dhar was born in Chicago, IL in 1966 where she lived until she turned five and her
family moved back to their homeland of India. When she was sixteen, Arti and her sister were
offered the chance to go back to Chicago to live with their aunt. Both girls agreed and finished
out their time in school before attending University of Chicago.
When Arti was twenty-three, her parents had arranged for her to marry the neighbor’s son
who was on his way to become a lawyer. Instead of following her parents’ orders to go back to
India, Arti instead eloped with her then boyfriend (who was also from India) to St. Louis and got
married in the courthouse. After five years of no contact with her parents, they were reunited to
meet her husband and his family.
While growing up, Arti’s family mainly worshipped the god Krishna in the shrine set up
in their home. Arti told of offering fruit and flowers to the god with her mother and sister. Late
at night, she would sneak into the room with the shrine and give a small offering of milk to
Krishna for good grades in school. Her family also made offerings to Vishnu and Radha.
As Arti got older, especially when she moved back to the United States, she slowly
stopped giving offerings to the gods. Some of the influences that pulled her away from
worshipping the Hindu gods were that she attended Catholic school and wanted to fit in with her
peers. Another contributing factor was that her aunt and uncle were not as devoted to giving
offerings and prayers as her family back in India were.
Once Arti married her husband, Raj, they both began going to the Hindu Temple of St.
Louis. They started off by going to the temple about once a month before slowly going more
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Spring 2014
Religious Lives of Ozarks Women
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and more until they began going weekly and volunteering with different projects like
volunteering to work at a local soup kitchen and raising money for doctors to go over India and
Africa.
When asked about the hardest thing Arti had to overcome, told about how the culture she
always endured when she would go from the United States to visiting family in India. In
America, her and her husband had an equal say in what happened in and out of the house while
in India, Raj would be the one that people went to for questions even when he would direct them
to Arti.
She also talked about trying to raise two daughters in the United States, trying to find a
balance between keeping them in touch with their gods and not making them outcast among their
peers for not being Christians. Their family had adopted Jesus in to being one of their gods as
great prophet to mankind in order for the daughters to celebrate Christmas with their friends and
not feeling guilty about it.
When asked about planning her oldest daughter’s wedding, Arti explained that she
wanted her daughter to have an authentic India wedding with hints of Catholic traditions.
Instead of having a month long celebration like what would have happened in India, those
involved with the wedding (as family and guests) spent a week in celebration with parties
happening each night and a final ceremony that would unite the two. Arti was very proud when
her daughter and son-in-law walked around Agni (sacred fire in Hinduism) and her daughter won
the race to sit down first (meaning she would be the one that would make decisions in the
relationship) after the seven trips around the fire.
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Spring 2014
Religious Lives of Ozarks Women