Narendra Modi

Once a fringe Indian ideology, Hindu nationalism is now mainstream, thanks to Modi’s decade in power

By Krutika Pathi and Sheikh Saaliq — April 18, 2024
AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — Supporters and critics agree on one thing: Modi has achieved staying power by making Hindu nationalism acceptable — desirable, even — to a nation of 1.4 billion that for decades prided itself on pluralism and secularism

Hindu Lord Ram road-trips through the United States

By Richa Karmarkar — April 17, 2024
(RNS) — For the first time in North America, an image of Lord Ram is being paraded from temple to temple on a two-month-long road trip, just in time for the deity’s birthday, Ram Navami.

Indian protesters pull from poetic tradition to resist Modi’s Hindu nationalism

By Krupa Shandilya — April 16, 2024
(The Conversation) — Thanks to a strong oral Urdu literary tradition in South Asia, poems from the past linger in the popular imagination.

‘Run or die’: Muslims left mourning as police raze another mosque in northern India

By Yashraj Sharma — March 4, 2024
HALDWANI, India (RNS) — After local authorities razed a mosque and religious school, police cracked down on Muslim protesters, killing six and arresting nearly 80 before returning in the following days to wreak havoc in the city's Muslim ghetto.

Historic New Delhi mosque is the latest Muslim heritage site to face demolition

By Kaisar Andrabi — February 21, 2024
NEW DELHI (RNS) — The Sunehri mosque, architecturally significant and a time capsule of the early 20th century British plan for India’s capital, is said to be a traffic hazard.

The first traditional Hindu temple in the Middle East promotes a message of interfaith tolerance

By Richa Karmarkar — February 14, 2024
(RNS) — The mandir, or temple, will create a spiritual home for the more than 3.5 million Indian expatriates who make up 30% of the UAE’s population.

Indian state passes uniform marriage legislation opposed by Muslims as a Hindu code applied to all

By Ashok Sharma and Biswajeet Banerjee — February 8, 2024
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Muslims accuse Modi’s right-wing nationalist party of pursuing a Hindu agenda that discriminates against them and directly imposes laws interfering with their faith.

Open Doors 2024 Watch List highlights persecution of sub-Saharan African Christians

By Fiona André — January 17, 2024
(RNS) — This year’s report also raised the alarm on a degrading situation for Indian Christians amid attacks on Christian schools and hospitals in the country.

In new temple to Lord Ram, the Indian city of Ayodhya hopes to shed a disturbing history

By Richa Karmarkar and Yashraj Sharma — January 12, 2024
AYODHYA, India (RNS) — Once a quaint town, this 2,500-year-old city will soon complete a transformation into a global pilgrimage site that will outstrip its renown as a center of Hindu nationalist violence.

In India’s holiest city, Hindus worship the nation of India

By Richa Karmarkar — December 20, 2023
VARANASI, India (RNS) — The Bharat Mata mandir in India’s holiest city has come to represent an ideology that many in Narendra Modi’s constituency hold — a distinctly religious allegiance to the personified mother goddess of India.

India’s transnational extrajudicial murders are global religious nationalism

By Tarunjit Singh Butalia — December 1, 2023
(RNS) — But there is a deeper issue in US-India relations that needs parsing.

US prosecutors say plots to assassinate Sikh leaders were part of a campaign of planned killings

By Larry Neumeister — December 1, 2023
NEW YORK (AP) — The attack plans were foiled, prosecutors said, because the hitman was actually an undercover U.S. agent.

What to know about the Sikh independence movement following US accusation that activist was targeted

By Sheikh Saaliq — December 1, 2023
NEW DELHI (AP) — India's Sikh independence movement eventually became a bloody armed insurgency that shook India in the 1970s and 1980s.R

India bars protests that support the Palestinians. Analysts say a pro-Israel shift helps at home

By Sheikh Saaliq and Aijaz Hussain — November 8, 2023
SRINAGAR, India (AP) —The restrictions reflect a shift in India's foreign policy under populist Prime Minister Narendra Modi away from its long-held support for the Palestinians.

Punjab’s ‘Aeroplane’ temple: Where India-Canada tensions meet Sikh anxiety

By Yashraj Sharma — October 16, 2023
JALANDHAR, India (RNS) — Thousands of families in Punjab — who have migrated for the Big Canadian Dream for decades — have found themselves left in the lurch by the transnational crisis.
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