Kalpana Jain
Kalpana Jain is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Kalpana Jain
In Thailand, ‘socially engaged Buddhism’ goes beyond meditation to seek justice
By Kalpana Jain — July 17, 2023
BANGKOK (RNS) — A network of socially conscious Buddhists is challenging conceptions of personal devotion to tackle pressing problems in the faith and even beyond their country's borders.
How India’s Modi has extended Hindu nationalist sway over the country’s media
By Kalpana Jain — June 7, 2023
(RNS) — The increasingly authoritarian Modi government’s latest proposal is a fact checking unit that will strike social media content deemed ‘fake or misleading,’ causing fears that the scope of government censorship on news organizations is expanding.
For India’s ‘third sex,’ acceptance is slowed by colonialism’s legacy
By Kalpana Jain — December 8, 2022
(RNS) — Nineteenth-century British colonial rulers dramatically altered the prevailing cultural understanding of gender identity and morality.
In India, where Hindu majority has complex views, Supreme Court liberalizes abortion law
By Kalpana Jain — October 3, 2022
(RNS) — The judgment will have significant implications for Muslim, Christian and other minority faith groups but will likely face pushback from conservative Hindus.
Jains celebrate the founder of their small but ancient faith
By Kalpana Jain — April 13, 2022
(RNS) — A contemporary of the Buddha, Mahavir preached his own way of nonviolence, or ahimsa.
How Americans have adopted — and adapted — the Indian festival of Holi
By Kalpana Jain — March 17, 2022
(RNS) — Religious practices go through change and transformation.
Modi’s Diwali extravaganza shows why we need to tell the many stories of Rama
By Kalpana Jain — November 2, 2021
(RNS) — Some Hindus fear that Hinduism’s rich diversity is being erased in favor of a common Hindu canon.
At Durga Puja, Hindus wrestle with the West’s sexualized destroyer
By Kalpana Jain — October 12, 2021
(RNS) — Taken out of her cultural context, Western depictions of the goddess can be quite unrecognizable.
‘Burning karma’: The Jains’ late summer holy season focuses on purifying the soul
By Kalpana Jain — September 16, 2021
(RNS) — Who are the Jains and what do they believe?
My spiritual path through the COVID-19 darkness
By Kalpana Jain — July 21, 2020
(RNS) — The medical system had done all that it could for me. Now I had to listen to my body and have faith in its wisdom.
How India’s youth are taking to a path shown by a 15th century mystic
By Kalpana Jain — November 13, 2019
VARANASI, India (RNS) — As Indian millennials chart their own spiritual paths they are leading a revival of the teachings of a mystic who wrote couplets on the nature of the divine and criticized any form of orthodoxy.
Decades-old Hindu pilgrimage, aided by Modi government, takes a populist turn
By Kalpana Jain — September 23, 2019
VARANASI, India (RNS) — Religious fervor, supported and aided by India’s right-wing Modi government, is on the rise among some blocs of millennials in India.
Page 1 of 1
