SRINAGAR, INDIA, July 7, 2022 (VOA News): Amid fear and tight security, a 43-day annual Amarnath Yatra — a Hindu pilgrimage to a cave located 12,750 feet above sea level — is underway in India-administered Kashmir after a gap of three years. Over half a million pilgrims are expected to take part in this year’s Yatra, which began on June…
SRINAGAR, INDIA, July 1, 2022 (The Hindu): Enthusiastic about the reopening of the Amarnath cave shrine for the pilgrimage after a gap of three years, hundreds of pilgrims made their way up to the cave from the twin routes of Sonamarg and Pahalgam on Day 1 of the yatra on Thursday. At the first light, hundreds of pilgrims, including sadhus…
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, June 30, 2022 (hua.edu press release): The Hindu University of America family is proud to announce that the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Government of India awarded HUA Professor Vishwa Adluri the “Distinguished Indologist Award” (2019) at a ceremony held at India House, the Consulate General of India, New York, on June 28, 2022. The…
PURI, ODISHA, June 30, 2022 (outlookindia.com): The Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath will be celebrated across India on Friday, July 01, 2022. Hundreds of thousands of people are likely to participate in the festival as it will be held after a gap of two years without Covid-19 restrictions. This slide show covers the various activities as the town readies for…
ASSAM, INDIA, June 26, 2022 (Indian Express): People in India’s northeastern states of Assam began celebrations for a spring festival meant to bring in an auspicious season filled with abundant crops and good health. Every year the community celebrates the festival to please a Deity of wealth and ask for good rains and a good harvest. Colorful slide show at…
AFGHANISTAN, June 26, 2022 (Mundigak): There is very little material on Afghan Sikh history or its origin in the public domain. Roger Ballard (2011) stated that Afghan Sikhs are “likely to be made up of those members of the indigenous population who resisted the process of conversion from Buddhism to Islam which took place in this area between the ninth…
AUSTRALIA, June 22, 2022 (The London Economic): The Parliament of Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, passed laws late on Tuesday that set penalties of US$15,150 and 12 months in prison for displaying the Nazi swastika, or Hakenkreuz (“hooked cross”). Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, which fights antisemitism, said on Wednesday he expects Australia’s most populous state, New South…
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, June 22, 2022 (Hindu American Foundation): Following testimony at yesterday’s Senate Public Safety Committee hearing at the California statehouse, bill AB2282 passed out of committee with a 4-0 vote, bringing the decriminalization of the swastika and the formal recognition of the Nazi emblem as a hakenkreuz (hooked cross), its correct historical name, one step closer into law. Testifying…
PADUA, ITALY, June 21, 2022 (Facebook, translated from Italian of original source): There is the fire that destroys, which manifests itself in the form of fire, such as the one that on the night between 4 and 5 November 2021, which devastated the Hindu temple Shree Salasar Mandir, a place of worship so loved by the Hindus of Padua province…
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN, June 18, 2022 (Xinhua): At least two civilians were killed and three security forces wounded on Saturday after three explosions hit a Sikh-Hindu temple in Police District 4 in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, according to multiple sources. “We heard a huge blast which struck the gate of a temple in Kart-e-Parwan neighborhood at around 6 a.m. local time.…