Hinduism

An Anti-Muslim Symbol From India Is Paraded on Main Street, New Jersey

September 25, 2022

The India Day Parade featured a pretty standard lineup of festival fare.

A Bollywood actress waved to fans from the top of a handmade float. Indian flags fluttered in the breeze. Flashy cars and quirky ads (“Kidney donors are sexy,” read one) passed by.

Then, toward the middle of the caravan, came a small, yellow piece of construction equipment decorated with photos of India’s prime minister and a hard-line protégé who has been called “...

Gen Z Hindu Americans reckon with faith and politics

September 21, 2022

Three years ago, Abby Govindan, a Twitter personality and stand-up comic, was invited to perform at “Howdy Modi,” a rally featuring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then-President Donald Trump, held in her home city, Houston.

After much deliberation, Govindan turned the appearance down. While it was a chance to perform at NRG Stadium in front of 50,000 fellow Indian Americans, Govindan didn’t want to show tacit support for the Indian politician whose name has become synonymous with Hindu nationalism.

“I...

How a small town in Wisconsin became home to four Dharmic houses of worship

September 9, 2022

Tucked away on a hill beyond a vast commercial landscape are the first two Dharmic temples to exist in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin.

The 22 acres that are home to the Hindu and Jain Temples of Wisconsin were situated in “the middle of nowhere” when they were built in 2001, according to Sarvesh Geddam, the secretary of the two congregations. Now, the area is laden with fast-food restaurants and surplus warehouses, and Pewaukee, a village next to Waukesha in Milwaukee’s far-west suburbs, has become home to two more groups: devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba, a 20th-century Hindu...

Ayurveda's spiritual science makes inroads among foodies and healers

August 17, 2022

Over the course of two centuries, ayurveda — the ancient philosophy of the Indian subcontinent — has spread West, informing ideas about healthy lifestyles with holistic skin care, diet and exercise. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have propelled ayurveda further into the mainstream, as housebound yogis, chefs and spa owners — believers, if not Hindus — percolated new techniques and businesses based on the practices developed since it began more than 3,000 years ago.

New York City has become a hub of the ayurveda trend, where the creative forces behind new ayurvedic restaurants...

Most Colleges Do Not Offer Campus Organizations for Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, or Muslim Students

August 16, 2022

A recent study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University and Oklahoma State University has revealed that the majority of U.S. colleges and universities do not offer campus clubs or groups for Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, or Muslim students.

The researchers assessed religious organizations at 1,953 four-year, not-for-profit colleges and universities. They found that 66 percent have no minority religious student group of any type. Buddhist and Hindu student groups each exist at only 5 percent of campuses. One-quarter of the schools have Jewish student organizations, and...

A religiously diverse Edmonton hosts Pope Francis' visit

July 26, 2022

As Pope Francis pays a historic visit to Canada, he is encountering a country that is less Catholic, more secular and more religiously diverse than the last time it hosted a pontiff two decades ago.

And the city where he landed on Sunday — Edmonton — reflects that diversity more than outsiders might expect from a provincial capital in Canada’s prairie heartland.

Edmonton and its province of Alberta do have a large, long-settled population of Christians of European descent.

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Religious leader on inaugural North American tour arriving in New Jersey

July 7, 2022

Dignitaries and devotees from across North America travelled to Newark Airport last month to welcome Acharya Shree Jitendriyapriyadasji Swamiji Maharaj of Maninagar, Gujarat, India.

The religious leader was beginning his inaugural visit to the United States and Canada since he became the spiritual leader of Maninagar Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan. He was accompanied by his team of 16 Eminent Sants, also known as monks.

Acharya Swamiji and his Sants are on a seven-week religious tour of the U.S. and...

This organization gives NC's Hindu population a place to share community, culture

May 27, 2022

Indian Americans make up the largest Asian American ethnic group in North Carolina. From India to the Triangle, the culture and traditions of the Hindu faith have found a home Morrisville.

96-year-old Gangahard Sharma and his wife 90-year-old Saroj Sharma first established the Hindu Society of North Carolina in Morrisville in 1976.

It’s membership is at 3,000 people and it’s open to all, says Soroj Sharma, "And we want to grow and we want to work with everybody. It’s not only Hindu. In this place, everybody is welcome, because God is one."

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Hindu priest calls for more N.J. schools to add Diwali to their calendars

May 9, 2022

A Hindu priest has called on more New Jersey schools to add the religious holiday of Diwali as a day off on their calendars. Currently, districts are required to excuse students who celebrate.

Rajan Zed, on his website, noted that 23 school districts have added Diwali to their school calendars. Twenty-...

Yoga in Boston area grows more diverse, but studios want to further increase access

April 4, 2022

When Linda Wells began her yoga journey a decade ago, she got lucky.

“I started practicing yoga with a Black teacher,” she said. “It was the first time that I had seen a Black woman teaching yoga, having her own wellness business and being someone that was standing in a place of her authentic self. And I was like, I want some of that.”

Today, Wells is one of the yoga teachers in Boston welcoming more people of color to the physical and spiritual discipline. Black Americans may feel unwelcome at white-dominated studios, and some have been unreceptive to the practice...