Latest Hinduism News

AP PHOTOS: India celebrates Holi, the Hindu festival of color that marks the reawakening of spring

Mar. 25, 2024 21:45 PM EDT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Millions of Indians celebrated Monday the Hindu Holi festival, dancing to festive music, exchanging food and drink and smearing each other with red, green, blue and pink powder, turning the air into a joyful kaleidoscope of color. Widely known as the Hindu festival...

As India's election nears, some Bollywood films promote Modi politics by embracing Hindu nationalism

Mar. 22, 2024 01:05 AM EDT

NEW DELHI (AP) — The movie trailer begins with an outline of the iconic glasses worn by Mohandas Gandhi, the leader who helped India win independence from the British colonialists in 1947. In the backdrop of a devotional song that Gandhi loved, the outline slowly morphs into what appears like his...

India announces 6-week general elections starting April 19 with Modi's BJP topping surveys

Mar. 16, 2024 07:23 AM EDT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India on Saturday announced its 6-week-long general elections will start on April 19, with most surveys predicting a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Voting in the world's largest democracy will stretch...

India's new citizenship law excludes Muslims. Here's what to know

Mar. 15, 2024 09:27 AM EDT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India has implemented a citizenship law that excludes migrants who are Muslims, a minority community whose concerns have heightened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. The rules for the law were announced Monday. It establishes a...

AP PHOTOS: Balinese celebrate New Year with firefights, sword-piercing and a sacred Day of Silence

Mar. 12, 2024 10:02 AM EDT

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — Airports closed for 24 hours, the internet was turned off and streets were empty as the predominantly Hindu island of Bali in Muslim-majority Indonesia marked its New Year with an annual Day of Silence as part of six days of extensive rituals. The Day of...

India announces steps to implement a citizenship law that excludes Muslims

Mar. 11, 2024 11:22 AM EDT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government on Monday announced rules to implement a 2019 citizenship law that excludes Muslims, weeks before the Hindu nationalist leader seeks a third term in office. The Citizenship Amendment Act provides a fast track to...

Modi visits Kashmir's main city for the first time since revoking region's semi-autonomy

Mar. 07, 2024 09:32 AM EST

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday made his first official visit to Kashmir's main city since New Delhi stripped the disputed region of its semi-autonomy and took direct control of it in 2019. Addressing a crowd in a soccer stadium in Srinagar, Modi...

The opposition alliance that aimed to oust Modi appears to be cracking just before India's elections

Feb. 22, 2024 23:05 PM EST

NEW DELHI (AP) — Last year more than two dozen opposition parties in India came together to take on Narendra Modi, one of the country's most popular prime ministers in generations. But the broad alliance, beset with ideological differences and personality clashes, is cracking at a crucial time,...

Every week is World Interfaith Harmony Week for devotees of Swami Vivekananda

Feb. 20, 2024 15:51 PM EST

NEW YORK (RNS) — At a Sunday morning service on Sunday (Feb. 4), a priest gave a sermon, a choir sang devotional hymns and a congregation bowed heads in a joint prayer. It was a typical Sunday for these faithful New Yorkers. Yet rather than a church, this service took place at a...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opens stone-built Hindu temple in UAE ahead of India's elections

Feb. 14, 2024 19:36 PM EST

ABU MUREIKHA, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Middle East's first traditional stone-built Hindu temple on Wednesday, internationalizing both his reelection campaign and his effort to push secular India into a Hindu state. The trip to the...