UNITED STATES, April 3, 2026 (RNS): An education scholar and mother of two college students, Indu Viswanathan is no stranger to the challenges of misrepresentation in the U.S. public school system. She was first exposed to stereotypes and tropes surrounding the Hindu faith — which she and other practitioners say have persisted — as a grade school student in the…
INDIA, April 5, 2026 (swawrjyamag.com): A recent legal analysis examines how India’s courts came to play an unusually powerful role in defining religion itself. The article traces this authority to a 1954 Supreme Court case involving the Shirur Mutt, where judges introduced the “essential religious practices” test. This doctrine allows courts to decide which practices are central to a religion…
SINGAPORE, April 1, 2026 (International Business Times): Singapore is all set to welcome its first Hindu temple in 20 years, marking a significant milestone for the country’s Indian community and its multicultural landscape. The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) announced on Wednesday, April 1, that the Sree Guruvayoorappan Ayyappan Temple will be constructed along Yishun Avenue 3. Construction…
INDIA, April 1, 2026 (Kuwait Times): In India’s capital, Hindu “bhajan clubbing” is electrifying nightlife, with revelers dancing to traditional devotional songs reimagined through guitars and pounding drumbeats, transforming public venues into spiritual hangouts. ChaiLeela, a cafe in the suburb of Noida, crackled with energy as devotees swayed to rhythmic riffs soaring into crescendos in songs praising the Deity Krishna.…
NEW ZEALAND, April 4, 2026 (dipika.org.za) Dipika is an independent Hindu resource dedicated to sharing practical spiritual knowledge rooted in Sanātana Dharma. It presents itself as a free, non-sectarian platform aimed not only at Hindus but at anyone interested in spiritual understanding, emphasizing unity across faiths and avoiding criticism of other traditions. The site was founded to “disseminate free spiritual…
UNITED STATES, April 1, 2026 (MSN): Most temples we visit tend to face East, so when a shrine opens toward the South, people often assume something unusual is going on. In reality, temple orientation is rarely random. It usually reflects what the Deity represents and what kind of spiritual experience the temple is meant to offer. In traditional thought, the…
WASHINGTON, DC, March 27, 2026 (India West): The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art has formally agreed to the repatriation of three significant antiquities to India after internal provenance research confirmed the items had been illegally removed from their original sites. The artifacts, which span several centuries of Indian religious artistry, include a ninth-century bronze of Shiva Nataraja, a 12th-century…
CAMBODIA,March 24, 2026 (ftn News): A massive, 1,000-year-old “Dancing Shiva” statue which was broken into more than 10,000 fragments decades ago, has been successfully restored in Cambodia, the culture ministry said. The 16.4 foot and seven-ton sculpture carved from a single block of sandstone – with 10 arms and five faces – dates back to the 10th century from the…
PREAH VIHEAR, CAMBODIA, March 24, 2026 (Temple Daily Telegram): It’s been three months since a ceasefire ended bitter border fighting between Cambodia and Thailand, but signs of combat are cut deep in this 11th-century Hindu temple atop a 1,722-foot cliff in the Dangrek Mountains. The neighboring Southeast Asian countries have been fighting over Preah Vihear temple on and off for…
SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA, March 23, 2026 (ASEAN): More than 30,000 tourists gathered at Angkor Wat on the morning of 22 March 2026 to witness the breathtaking equinox sunrise over the temple’s central tower. Visitors from across the globe came to experience the rare alignment of the sun with the temple’s main spire, a phenomenon that highlights the advanced astronomical and…
