{"id":22641,"date":"2025-12-30T02:54:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T02:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/?p=22641"},"modified":"2025-12-30T02:54:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T02:54:25","slug":"hindu-soldier-threatened-with-deportation-for-tilak-during-us-army-training-before-justice-prevailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2025\/12\/30\/hindu-soldier-threatened-with-deportation-for-tilak-during-us-army-training-before-justice-prevailed\/","title":{"rendered":"Hindu Soldier Threatened With Deportation for Tilak During US Army Training Before Justice Prevailed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>UNITED STATES, December 22, 2025 (MSN): What happens when faith collides with uniform? Second Lieutenant Harish Rao\u2019s story exposes a rarely discussed side of military service in the United States. During basic training, India-origin Rao was allegedly threatened with deportation for refusing to remove his Hindu tilak, a core religious symbol. Isolated from fellow trainees and sidelined, his future hung in the balance. Then came a turning point, a chaplain who chose the Constitution over convenience. With official religious accommodation, Rao returned to training, completed advanced courses, and rose as a leader. Today, he stands as a commissioned officer and a voice for Hindu religious rights in the military, advocating dietary accommodations and representation. Rao is a member of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha.<br><br>See video at source.<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-in\/news\/India\/hindu-soldier-threatened-with-deportation-for-tilak-during-us-army-training-before-justice-prevailed\/vi-AA1SNMDa?cvid=69498b227fdc4a2e981077858645d6ee&amp;ocid=hpmsn\n\">https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-in\/news\/India\/hindu-soldier-threatened-with-deportation-for-tilak-during-us-army-training-before-justice-prevailed\/vi-AA1SNMDa?cvid=69498b227fdc4a2e981077858645d6ee&amp;ocid=hpmsn<br><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UNITED STATES, December 22, 2025 (MSN): What happens when faith collides with uniform? Second Lieutenant Harish Rao\u2019s story exposes a,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22663,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22641\/revisions\/22663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}