New violence erupts in Indian capital over citizenship law
NEW DELHI (AP) — Black smoke rose into the sky after protesters set fruit and vegetable shops and a Muslim shrine on fire in the Bhajanpur area in New Delhi's northeast, witnesses said.
Cathedral light show is drawing those who normally don’t darken church doors
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Cathedrals around the world are welcoming people in new ways with meditative light and sound shows.
Cambridge passes resolution against India's citizenship laws
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (RNS) — The Cambridge City Council has adopted a resolution urging India to halt changes to the country's citizenship laws that have prompted massive international backlash and allegations of anti-Muslim bias.
How a Western megachurch pastor fell in love with Eastern meditation
(RNS) — Coming from an evangelical upbringing, I’ve heard religious leaders cast meditation as a dangerous pagan practice. But Western Christians have missed out since abandoning our own tradition of meditation.
South Asian Americans protest Modi's crackdown from afar
(RNS) — A 'National Day of Action' aims to call out the slice of the Indian American community that is sympathetic to India’s right-wing politics.
Tech company CEO faces backlash over participation in Hindu nationalist event
(RNS) — Facing online backlash, the California-based CEO of enterprise software company Zoho has doubled down on plans to attend an event hosted by India's RSS paramilitary group.
Muslims in fear as police crack down in India's heartland
MEERUT, India (AP) — A crackdown on protests against a new citizenship law has been the harshest in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims comprise 20% of the population.
When retail and reverence collide
(RNS) — Yoga's ubiquity has put Hindu imagery in the mainstream, but until HIndus are seen as equals in the U.S., mocking our faith's images defines us as colonialist caricatures.
The decade's biggest religion news stories
(RNS) — Islamophobia. #Churchtoo. Escalating religious violence. And the rise of the 'nones.' A look back at the stories that drove religion news in the past 10 years.
A spiritual icon to the Boomers, Ram Dass was godfather to the 'nones'
(RNS) — One of the spiritual teacher's great gifts was his great willingness to share his imperfections with the world and his ability to laugh about them.
Ram Dass, who introduced a generation to Hindu meditation, dies at 88
(RNS) — Pioneering the use of psychedelic drugs as spiritual practice, he also explored Buddhism and Hinduism, which took him to India and resulted in his 1971 best-selling book ‘Be Here Now.’
Amid citizenship law outcry, Indian authorities ban protests
NEW DELHI (AP) — The protests have targeted the new citizenship law, which applies to Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities who are in India illegally but can demonstrate religious persecution in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Across India, opposition building against citizenship law
(RNS) — Critics say the legislation, which for the first time conditions Indian citizenship on religion, violates the secular constitution of the world's largest democracy.
How India's youth are taking to a path shown by a 15th century mystic
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.
More than 1 billion people celebrate on Diwali. What does it mean to them?
(RNS) — In the various stories that make Oct. 27 a holy day for so many, we have models of what true righteousness looks like. They are sharp rejoinders of what we should be doing and how we should be living.