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“The investigations also revealed that at least 90 persons from different parts of the world were involved in funding terrorists in the Valley. Investigations would reveal that between the years 2009 and 2011 an amount of Rs 12 million had been recovered. In addition to this fake currency and also euros were recovered from the agents [...]

As a member of the Dutch-speaking Belgian Yoga Federation, I received a copy of the booklet the Government of India issued for the United Nations’ first-ever Yoga Day. It falls on 21 June, Summer Solstice, a day of mixed feelings: it is the longest day, alright, but it is also the start of the sun’s [...]

Outfit president Rajinder Singh said around 17 members, in three teams, carried out the “operation” Signages of roads named after Muslim personalities such as Emperor Akbar and Firozshah, among others, were found defaced late Wednesday. The names have been blackened and posters of right-wing group — Shiv Sena Hindustan — were pasted on them. The [...]

The concept of monotheism is taken to mean belief in just one god, deity, the creator. This is contrasted with polytheism which belief in many gods, as well as atheism which is denial of such a supernatural being. But is it just so simple? Has this monotheist narrative now spilled over into what we would [...]

The evangelicals, it appears, are in a bind—they want to capitalize on the mounting popularity of yoga, but how can they embrace a practice steeped in Hinduism without compromising their dogmatic exclusivity? They can’t authentically do that, and so, yoga is repackaged into a Christian avatar and forcibly divorced from its roots. The commercialization of [...]

A religious spat has broken out between two neighbours in rural Auckland after one erected a 6.4m statue of the Hindu god Shiva. Ravin Chand told the Herald on Sunday that he installed the 30-tonne religious effigy so that he and his family could pray to it. But neighbour Bryce Watts, a Catholic, said the [...]

British government has revoked visas issued to two prominent members of right-wing Hindu organisations in the south Indian state of Kerala after the Indian community here filed complaints against their visit. Sasikala Teacher, chairperson of Kerala-based Hindu Aikya Vedi (United Hindu Front), and N. Gopalakrishnan, director of Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage, were invited to [...]

“Swami Chinmayanda was an exemplary teacher – clear, convincing and with a lot of humour. On one of his Jnana Yajnas I took notes and wrote a long article for a German magazine. Later I gave its English translation to him. Swami Chinmayananda read through it and acknowledged that I had conveyed the teaching well, [...]

KATHMANDU: If there is anything that last week’s earthquake hasn’t changed in the devastated Basantpur Durbar Square, it’s the daily worship of Kumari, Nepal’s living virgin goddess. Even a week after the devastating 7.9-magnitude quake left much of Nepal in ruins with the toll nearing 7,000, her puja continues as usual at her abode, Kumari [...]

India’s government has rejected the findings of a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom that criticized the treatment of religious minorities since it came to power last year. The commission’s 2015 report said that since Narendra Modi’s party took over, religious minorities have been subject to derogatory comments by politicians linked [...]