The lived religious beliefs and experiences of English Hindu teenagers at home and at school

ABSTRACT This paper constitutes a study of the lived religious identity and practice of Hindu teenagers in the UK. More specifically, utilising an ethnographic approach designed to give voice to what is academically an extremely unrepresented religious community, this is a study of how Hindu teenagers in the UK experience their religion at home and at school. After outlining the contrast between these teenagers’ home life and school experience, I ultimately argue that Hindu teenagers experience a strong sense of cognitive dissonance pertaining to their religious identity: a juxtaposition between their home life and school life whereby the former is a healthy relationship with their religion and the latter is a sense of anger and shame. Finally, I outline what in particular the teenagers themselves believe is lacking in the RE classroom and what they regard as the key features of their Hindu faith.