ALIGARH, India (RNS) — Last year, the right-wing Hindu Mahasabha Party demanded the closure of all Muslim Sharia courts in India. When their petition was denied, the party set up its own unsanctioned courts across Uttar Pradesh, based on Hindu principles of justice.

ALIGARH, India (RNS) — Founded to help poor children of both of India’s predominant faiths, the Chacha Nehru’s inclusivity has irked Muslim and Hindu leaders alike.

BANGALORE, India (RNS) — This city’s early 1990s tech boom outstripped its waste management plans, leaving its Vrishabhavathi River choked with industrial waste.

SRINAGAR, India (RNS) — After years of conflict that have harmed the Kashmir Valley’s natural beauty, locals here have more faith in religious leaders to protect their heritage than they do the government.

(RNS) — Two brothers who once devoutly supported the Hindu nationalist agenda have turned to rationalism, attracting attacks from religious leaders and politicians.

VARANASI, India (RNS) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘dream project’ at an 18th-century shrine to Lord Shiva has swept up monasteries, old-age homes and shops that had existed for generations.

VADNAGAR, India (RNS) — Is Indian Prime Minister Modi’s interest in Buddhist antiquities genuine, or just a play for votes among his country’s dispossessed?

AYODHYA, India (RNS) — Local politicians are attempting to remake a town whose name is synonymous with anti-Muslim violence into a tourist destination for Hindus from India and around the world.

PURI, India (RNS) — Replacing their hereditary rights to perform temple rituals with salaried, merit-based priests, say the workers at the Jagannath Temple here, would corrupt a centuries-old practice.

BHUBANESWAR, India (RNS) — The uncertain fate of a 13th-century temple to the Hindu sun god has many demanding that the government re-examine its approach to cultural preservation.

KOLKATA, India (RNS) — Elaborately designed bamboo pandals have serious themes, from the trafficking of women to child labor at tea shops to the plastic surgery obsession among young adults.

NEW DELHI (RNS) — Fearing censure, gay and transgender Indians have long kept away from mainstream religious spaces. But a Supreme Court ruling striking down a ban on homosexuality has galvanized many to practice their faith more openly.

MANIPUR, India (RNS) — So far in 2018, more than 430 Bnei Menashe have immigrated to Israel, making it one of their largest exoduses from India since 1989.

(RNS) — Among the 17,500 Rohingya refugees who fled persecution in Myanmar, a small band has landed in near Kolkata where they can observe the holiday ending the holy month of Ramadan with a semblance of security and the flavors of home.

PUNE, India (RNS) — As ideas about gender equality spread in India, female clergy are slowly gaining acceptance in the country’s male-dominated religions, solemnizing marriage, birth and death ceremonies for Hindus and adjudicating religious matters for Muslims.