A small portion of these camps, Professor Sippy noted, espouse the politics of Hindu nationalism — a potentially divisive premise, given the substantial presence of Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, as well as smaller religious minorities, in India. Most of the camps, though, aim to instill cultural knowledge and show children how to be confident in their Indian background and Hindu faith while feeling wholly part of the American mix.

“I have seen swamis playing games, throwing baseballs, eating ice cream sandwiches with the students and teaching them in very intimate and hands-on ways,” Professor Sippy wrote in an email. (A swami is a Hindu religious teacher.) “Time and again, parents and community leaders have recounted to me how the American conception of camp offers an opportunity for a cultural, religious and, in some cases, linguistic immersion with other American Hindu children. This is understood to be all the more important because within the dominant American and Christian culture, Hindus and Hinduism are often exoticized and maligned.”

Hindu Heritage Summer Camp’s approach is built around a set of hybrid rituals. That most dreaded staple of camp life, morning reveille, is blown on a conch shell in homage to Vishnu, the Hindu god often shown carrying such a shell. One recent morning, a breakfast of bagels and cream cheese was served to the soundtrack of club remixes of Hindu religious songs.

Between their wake-up call and the meal, the campers had assembled in a parking lot that included both a basketball court and a portrait of Lord Rama, another Hindu deity, made of colored rice grains. Gathered in a circle, about 150 children and counselors burst into “Rise and Shine,” an American Christian song about Noah’s Ark — a story that also happens to have a Hindu parallel in the myth of Manu, who helps to save humanity from a great flood.

The remainder of the camp day toggled between yoga, worship, drama, cricket, arts and crafts, classes on Hindu philosophy, and instruction in a folk dance from Gujarat called garba. After dinner, the campers re-enacted the Hindu festival of Holi, which observes the coming of spring, with an Indian-American version of color war.

Such programming attracted campers to fill all 200 slots over two two-week sessions this summer. Children came from as far as Texas and Florida in the United States, and from Belgium abroad. Several were the offspring of intermarried, interfaith families with African, Irish and Italian roots.