Source CHENNAI, January 25, 2016 ( Deccan Chronicle): The Australian government on Friday made it clear that Sri Lankan refugees from Tamil Nadu are no longer welcome in its country as they are not from refugee camps approved by United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC). Nearly 1,200 Lankan refugees tried to travel in boats from Indian subcontinent to Australia between…
Source CHANDIGARH,INDIA, January 25, 2016 (Press Information Bureau): The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and President Mr. Francois Hollande paid a joint visit to the Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh, as part of their engagements during the State Visit of President Hollande to India on 24 January 2016.The two viewed the displays of archaeological findings from the foothills…
Source SOUTH AFRICA, January 25, 2016 (News 24): The highly-acclaimed dance drama Skanda will showcase during the auspicious observance of Thaipoosam Kavadi at the Shree Veeraboga Cultural Centre on Saturday, 16 January. The show, which has been brought to Tongaat by the Brake Village Siva Soobramaniar Alayam makes a return after playing to capacity audiences at the Playhouse in Durban…
Source WASHINGTON, D.C., January 28, 2016 (HAF): Leaders of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) applauded the Virginia Board of Education’s adoption of new history and social science curriculum frameworks, which significantly improved upon the previous versions of the draft. HAF had previously worked with the Virginia Department of Education to improve language in their history-social science standards of learning and…
Source MALAYSIA, January 22, 2016 (The Star): The sound emanating from the urumee, a double-headed hourglass-shaped drum commonly used by village musicians in south India, easily attracts a crowd. During Thaipusam, urumee melam (drum beat) groups typically accompany kavadi and milk pot bearers to give them strength and courage to fulfil their vows. In Malaysia, especially Perak, the urumee is…
Source In thinking ‘This is I’ and ‘That is mine’ one binds himself with himself, as does a bird with a snare.— Krishna Yajur Veda, Maitreya Upanishad 3.2
Source RAMESWARAM, INDIA, January 25, 2016 (Deccan Chronicle): Even as the consecration of the Sri Ramanathaswamy temple here was performed on a grand scale with utmost religious fervor on Wednesday, a controversy brewed over the alleged sidelining by the temple authorities of the visiting Sankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt, Sri Jayendra Saraswathy. While the pre-consecration rituals including the yaga…
Source NAPERVILLE, IllINOIS, January 22, 2016 (by Timothy C. Morgan, Religious News Service): HPI provides this news item to inform Hindus of the kind of predatory tactics used by some Christians to gain converts from traumatized communities. Evangelical leaders are calling on American Christians to welcome Syrian refugees in their communities despite anxieties over differences of religion — arguing that…
Source MADURAI, INDIA, January 8, 2016 (Times of India): The Madurai Bench of the Madras high court on Thursday passed a common order dismissing two petitions challenged the kumbabishekam of the Rameswaram temple scheduled for January 20 on various grounds, including that the day fixed for the ceremony was inauspicious. At the same time it directed the temple authority to…
Source CAMBODIA, January 22, 2016 ( BBC): A French museum has returned the head of a 7th Century Hindu statue to Cambodia 130 years after it was taken. The statue, a representation of the Hindu gods Vishnu and Shiva, had its head broken off and taken in French colonial times. It was returned by the Guimet Museum in Paris at…