NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, September 18, 2025 (RNS) Law school’s notorious stress takes a toll on even the most determined students. But for a group of 20-somethings at New York University School of Law, an ancient tradition offers a framework for handling the pressure. “Many parts of Hinduism are so well-suited to being able to handle such a high-stress profession,” said Roshni Yaradi, the co-chair of the new Hindu Law Students Association. “Like, many times, you’re handling literal life and death. “Practices of Hinduism—including yoga, meditation, breath work—things that are so fundamental to the faith, are very stress-relieving and focusing techniques that I think any practicing lawyer should utilize.” Yaradi and three other women, all Indian American, are the founding members of the only Hindu affinity group at any law school in the nation. HLSA officially started last spring, after taking some time to gain traction and the necessary 50 approval signatures.

Indian students are the second-highest population of international students at NYU, after those from China, with more than 4,700 undergraduate and graduate students coming from India to study at NYU in the 2023-2024 academic school year. “I think it’s a little bit of a reclamation project for us,” said Rachita Bommakanti, Yaradi’s co-chair, who hopes the HLSA will help grad-school-age Hindus, from India or the U.S., reconnect with their faith — and its resources for succeeding in the legal profession — while studying in the city. In these young women’s eyes, HLSA is not meant to be the largest Hindu student organization in the nation, but a specially meaningful one, in which anyone feels welcome to discuss their differing opinions, values, practices and experiences with the Hindu faith. But the real project, they say, is changing the perception of what Hinduism can be for a young American. “You can be a Hindu and be cool,” said Yaradi. “Whatever impediment people feel to exercising Hinduism that is caused by this idea that, like, ‘I’m going to be weird,’ or ‘I’m not going to be normal,’ I want to abolish that,” added Bommakanti..

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https://religionnews.com/2025/09/18/for-the-first-time-a-law-school-has-a-space-just-for-hindus/

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