This is Religion News Blog's news page on Hinduism. See our front page for more religion news.

Yoga practitioners are criticizing a Missouri sales tax that applies to yoga classes, claiming they should be exempt because the lessons include spiritual elements.

Some practitioners think such a tax is unconstitutional. They argue that yoga, with roots in ancient Indian meditation, is as much a spiritual practice as an exercise routine and should be exempt from taxation.
» Full Story

After the recent arrests of numerous Hindu terrorists for exploding bombs, authorities increasingly view Hindu rightwing extremists as a threat not only to Muslim and Christian minorities but also to national security.

Historically Hindu terrorist groups have traded blows with India’s Muslim extremists, but because of a perceived threat from Christianity many analysts believe Hindu terrorists increasingly pose dangers to Christians as well.
» Full Story

Citizens in the Dutch town of Amstelveen have condemned plans by local authorities to support a controversial Hindu festival that would involve praying to a Hindu goddess from India, in the heart of the town.

Local officials said the ‘India Diwali Festival’, or ‘Festival of Lights’, is part of a policy to accommodate the Indian community in Amstelveen, a European gateway for international companies due to its location near Schiphol Airport and key highways.
» Full Story

A dancing elephant statue at the Calgary Zoo has kicked up controversy after a Christian group condemned the figure as an inappropriate religious icon.

Zoo officials say they have no plans to replace the Ganesh statue — which has stood near the elephant enclosure for at least two years — despite calls for its removal from Concerned Christians Canada.

Grahame Newton, the zoo’s director of corporate services, says the Ganesh statue isn’t a religious icon, rather a cultural symbol that shows the tie between the elephants and Asian culture.
» Full Story

The biggest challenge, speakers at a panel discussion on Hinduism said, is transmitting faith from immigrants, most of whom grew up in predominantly Hindu India, to their children, who are growing up in a predominantly Christian society.

Temples are launching religious education programs, modeled after those in churches and synagogues, but Anantanand Rambachan said there are other issues – for example, Hindus will have to decide what language to use for worship, and, he asked, “can we visualize English being a liturgical language for Hindus?’’

He called Hinduism “the least understood among American religious traditions,’’ noting that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam “are all suspicious about imaging the divine’’ and emphasize the oneness of God, whereas Hinduism offers a plethora of iconography and “celebrates a multiplicity of divine names and forms.’’
» Full Story

With at least 43 incidents of anti-Christian violence, Karnataka saw more attacks on Christians in the first eight months of this year than any other state in India, according to advocacy organizations.

The figure compares with 35 attacks on churches, worship services and Christians during the same period last year in the state, which has become the center of violence against Christians.
» Full Story

Karnataka (India) police accompanied by 10 Hindu extremists on Friday arrested a Christian operator of a boys’ hostel after the extremists accused him and another Christian of offering food, shelter, education and future job prospects as an “allurement” to convert to Christianity.

After falsely accusing the two Christians of fraudulently converting students to Christianity by luring them with food, shelter and education, the extremists slapped evangelist Rama Naik repeatedly.
» Full Story

Christians in India’s southern state of Karnataka remained concerned Sunday, August 16, about the whereabouts of eight pastors who were detained this week after Hindu militants broke up a major Christian training meeting, injuring and “humiliating” several believers, including women, church representatives said.

At least four pastors were reportedly seriously injured after being beaten, while others received minor injuries.
» Full Story

Vikash Patrick’s 19-year-old bride died while praying at the Assumption Church in Kathmandu valley’s Lalitpur district, the largest Catholic church in Nepal, in an anti-Christian bombing on May 23, the day they were to return home.

Claiming responsibility for the violence was the Nepal Defense Army (NDA), a group wishing to restore Hinduism as the official religion of Nepal.
» Full Story

A devout Hindu fighting for the legal right to be cremated on an open-air funeral pyre told the High Court that laws stopping the religious ceremony were a breach of his human rights.

The 70-year-old spiritual healer said “confining bodies in coffins and concealing the cremation process” did not reflect the philosophy and cultural values he lived by.
» Full Story

Fed up with moral policing by radical Hindu groups who had attacked women in pubs and targeted unmarried couples celebrating Valentine’s Day, a group of women decided to fight back – with pink knickers.

The result was a remarkably successful dirty dissent. Not only did 40,000 items of rose-tinted underwear, much of it apparently unwashed, end up flooding the offices of the Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram’s Army), the non-violent act defused much of the tension surrounding the acts of vigilantism by self-appointed guardians of “Indian culture”. [video]
» Full Story

Mrs Panda and thousands of others like her are victims of the worst communal violence between Hindus and Christians that India has seen for decades.

For a country that boasts of its mutual religious tolerance, the long-simmering tension that has erupted in the Kandhamal district of the state of Orissa – a nun being raped, churches being burned, at least 35 people killed and thousands forced from their villages – is both a belated wake-up call and a mounting embarrassment.
» Full Story

The position comes with an incense-filled office, a desk and a laptop computer. Four chairs will be placed facing the empty seat reserved for the chairman and all visitors must enter the office barefoot, said Vivek Kangdi, the school’s vice chairman.
» Full Story

Hundreds of pilgrims have visited Lali, the 1-month-old baby, and her impoverished parents to touch her feet out of respect and receive blessings. [video]
» Full Story

A tale of forbidden love that ended in a man’s violent death has sparked rioting in Calcutta and led to the removal of the city’s police chief.
» Full Story

Hundreds of students and Hindu leaders are expected to re-enact the death of Gangotri the cow at Parliament Square in Westminster tomorrow.
» Full Story

Hindus in England demand the right to be cruel to animals.
» Full Story

Hundreds of people in Chhattisgarh’s industrial town of Raigarh have laid siege around the dead body of a 25-year-old Hindu priest who committed suicide with the promise of regaining consciousness within 72 hours of his death, police said yesterday.
» Full Story

Priti Shakya is 10 years old, the daughter of a family of poor goldsmiths. At age 4, Priti was examined by a panel of judges in a series of ancient ceremonies; they checked her horoscope, searched for physical imperfections and, as a final test, determined whether she would be frightened after a night spent in a room filled with 108 freshly decapitated animal heads. She was not. So Priti became a goddess…
» Full Story

Hindu believers are offended by images of Hindu dieties on underwear sold via CafePress.com
» Full Story

Britain’s Hindu community expressed shock and anger after government vets killed a sacred cow at a Hindu temple set up by the former Beatle George Harrison.
» Full Story

An Indian judge has summoned two Hindu gods to help resolve a 20-year-old property dispute.
» Full Story

A row has broken out after the first state funded Hindu school in Britain revealed its admissions policy will give preferential treatment to certain pupils.
» Full Story

The Indian government has withdrawn a controversial report submitted in court earlier this week which questioned the existence of the Hindu god Ram.
» Full Story

A senior official in India’s Bihar state faces suspension for wearing the Hindu red mark on his forehead at work.
» Full Story

1. Hindu temple ascends in Lilburn, Georgia
2. Charmed woman marries cobra in India
3. Indian cult kills children for goddess
4. Shambo centre of temple stand-off
5. Hindu man chops off his hand to offer to goddess
6. Officials confirm death of sacred bull Shambo
7. U.K. Judge Spares Sacred Bull At Hindu Monastery
8. Swaminarayan sect opens huge temple in Atlanta
9. Court of Appeal rules that sacred bull Shambo must die
10. Hindus upset over ban on holy dot

---

Headlines by Email or RSS

---

RNB's RSS feed | What is this?

Subscribe by Email | What is this?

---

Use Our Headlines

---

Free: Place RNB Headlines on your website! It's easy: just copy and paste