Transcultural Belonging: Ethnographic Perspectives on Women’s Leadership Forging Hindu Tradition across Borders

This paper examines how migration and transcultural processes shape religious identity through an ethnographic study of women’s leadership in the Hindu Adhiparasakthi tradition in the United States. Using human‑geographic approaches that understand belonging as an active practice, it explores how gender, migration, and religious authority intersect as women increasingly serve as ritual specialists, signaling a shift from traditionally male‑centered models. The NJ community has evolved into a multistate hub for ritual praxis and belonging, strengthened by digital communication technologies adopted during the 2020 pandemic. These tools have broadened participation, deepened transnational ties, and supported efforts to establish a new temple, anchoring collective identity and cross‑border religious networks. The study highlights multidirectional patterns linking digital media, ritual practice, and community engagement, showing how global and local iterations of community adapt inherited forms to new social and geographic contexts and how transcultural processes continually reshape communal identities.