That's So Hindu

In this episode, originally published in 2023, we speak with Prof. David Haberman from Indiana University about his extensive work documenting how Hindus bring trees, stones, and mountains into their religious worship.

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In this episode HAF Legal Director Needhy Shah speaks with immigration attorney Akanksha Kalra. They have a wide ranging discussion on immigration issues particularly applicable to the Indian American and Hindu American community, what is changing under the Trump Administration, what laws that have existed for some time but are being more strictly enforced, issues regarding asylum claims, Indians arriving without documentation at the southern border, and more. 

NOTE: This episode was recorded just prior to the proclamation of September 19th on changes to the H-1B program, so other than a brief mention that is n...

For this episode we have something a bit different for you. It’s a special episode for Navratri, originally published in 2023. We've interviewed several members of our extended HAF team as well as members of the Hindu American community about how they celebrate Navratri today, what they remember about the holiday growing up, and how their understanding of it has changed over the years. What you’ll hear are excepts from longer interviews our staff writer Syama Allard did with each person.

Here are the full versions of some of these interviews, as well as some inte...

For the Hindu American Foundation’s organizational birthday, coming up later this month, Mat McDermott, Suhag Shukla, Samir Kalra, and Raj Rao sat down to discuss and debunk some of the craziest things activists and adversaries say HAF does, believes, and sets out to do. Is HAF funding genocide in India? Are we trying to hide the Nazi origins of Hindutva? Fighting to preserve the right of Hindus to discriminate based on caste? Pinkwashing our Hindu supremacy? Working for the Government of India? Hating Sikhs and Catholics? No, no, no, no, no, and no. 

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Devala Rees is back with us this week for another informative, enlightening and hopefully entertaining discussion. This week we’re talking about how ancient Indian society organized itself, with the subtitle of “Hint: It wasn’t caste”. The different social groups that were traditionally used, and how these morphed into something else entirely once British administrators in the 19th century decided they wanted to try understand the people they ruled in India, and how this has implications today both in India and the diaspora. This is a must listen episode for, well, everyone Hindu and non-Hindu alike.

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This week we’ve got another special episode with HAF’s Devala Rees. This time we’re talking about why HAF has been using the term Hindu Dharma Traditions wherever it makes sense, rather than Hinduism. Plus how many different traditions there are under that banner, their similarities, differences, and how they relate to other dharma traditions.

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In this episode we speak with HAF’s own Easan Katir about cryptocurrency and Bitcoin investing from a dharmic perspective, plus AI, the energy demands of both of those, and more. 

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In this episode, part of the Hindu at Heart series, Indu Viswanathan speaks with Naren K Schreiner, one of the purohits at the Kali Mandir in Laguna Beach, California. They discuss his background and entering into Hinduism, the similarities between practices of Hindu Dharma and Native traditions in what’s now the United States and Mexico, the nuances of the idea of religious tolerance, the importance and inclusivity of the opening of the new Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the importance of gurus, and much much more. 

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with Ahnaf Kalam, from the Middle East Forum. They talk about so-called Red Green Alliance between Islamists and Progressives, how Woke Right figures have started to side with Pakistan over India and Islamists groups in Bangladesh, how Mohammed Yunus is handling extremism in Bangladesh, how the Bangladeshi diaspora in the US view the situation there, and more.

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In this episode, Sheetal Shah has a wide ranging conversation with Swami Sarvapriyananda, from the Vedanta Society of New York, about the four traditional limbs of yoga (Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, and Jnana Yoga), how these work together in spiritual seeking, the benefits of Hatha Yoga and asana practice for physical health and how that is key factor in spiritual life, and much more. 

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On the 40th anniversary of the worst act of air terrorism until the 9/11 attacks, the bombing of Air India flight 182 on June 23rd, 1985, Samir Kalra speaks with Sanjay Lazar, who lost his entire family in the bombing. They have a wide ranging conversation about the intelligence failures that allowed the bombing to happen, the struggle to this for bringing the Khalistani terrorist to justice, how the Khalistan movement is not supported by the majority of the Sikh community, and allegations of transnational repression leveled at India.

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In this episode, part of Indu Viswanathan’s Hindu at Heart series, she talks with Vindhya Adapa, an attorney at the US Treasury Department who is also a professional singer and producer, who merges her identities to create impactful music. Vindhya earned her JD at the University of Pennsylvania, and two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Maryland. 

Listen to Vindhya’s music on Spotify

Follow Vindhya on Instagram

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In this special episode HAF Education Research Assistant Devala Rees explains the various ways Hindus have traditional kept track of the years, the months that make up those years, how the timing of different Hindu festivals and holidays are determined, and how to actually make sense of all the different puja timings displayed by one of the leading online Hindu calendar sites, Drik Panchang. 

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In this episode, part of Indu Viswanathan’s Hindu at Heart series, she talks with psychologist and HAF Board Member Dr. Kavita Pallod Sekhsaria. They discuss Kavita’s life growing up Hindu in Texas in the 1980s and 90s, her path into psychotherapy, some of the issues related to this specific to the Hindu American community, as well as some of the challenges she’s seen as the oppressor versus oppressed worldview now dominates the field and professional associations of psychology.

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with Michael Rubin about the parallels between Hamas’ attack on Israel on 10/7/23 and the most recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir; how Pakistan’s ISI and support for terror groups is an issue for Americans as well as Indians; what the US can do in support of India in their fight against terrorist groups, including why President Trump needs to make a visit to Kashmir to show the strength of US support for India;  why it might be time for the international community to show some “tough love” to Pakistan; and how both China and Pakis...

In this episode Suhag Shukla speaks with Vijay Satnarine about how different parts of the Hindu Dharma Traditions approach vegetarian diets, how vegetarianism has gotten politicized in both India and the United States, debunk misconceptions and stereotypes about Hindu approaches to diet, and more

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In this episode Samir Kalra has a wide-ranging conversation with India analyst Michael Rubin, a multi-time guest on the show. They discuss how the US is harboring Khalistani terrorists, the circles of influence of support for the movement in the US, the questionable asylum claims supporters of Khalistan have used to enter the US, how RICO laws could be used with these groups, US-India intelligence sharing, transnational repression issues, how the US needs to treat Pakistan far differently than India, the importance of increasing the number US diplomats in India and military sales to India, and (believe it or not...

In this episode HAF Managing Director Raj Rao speaks with Texas State Representative Gene Wu. They discuss the rise in anti-Asian and anti-Indian sentiment in recent months and years, the history of anti-Asian law and policy in the United States, the commonalities the Chinese and Indian communities share in the US, and how to organize against bigotry. 

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A special crossover episode from our sibling show All About Hinduism: One of the underlying themes in the first series of episodes of All About Hinduism is that this spiritual tradition is often misunderstood by those people outside of it. Some of this misunderstanding is basic exposure to Hinduism and Hindus. But sometimes, we Hindus ourselves are unwittingly to blame. If we want non-Hindus to better understand Hinduism and we want to ourselves better understand Hinduism, the way in which we talk about Hinduism needs to change. 

Missed the first series of episodes of All About H...

BR Ambedkar is rightly remembered for his role in creating the Indian Constitution and for his outspoken anti-caste views. Less known is how many of his views on hot button political issues in India today align far more with those of so-called Hindu nationalists than his contemporary supporters would have you believe. In this episode we speak with Dr Pankaj Jain about the unknown Ambedkar.

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with Sam Westrop from the Middle East Forum about their latest research detailing the millions of dollars that USAID has given to groups affiliated with Islamism, terrorism, and extremism; how Christian evangelical groups such as World Vision have been involved, in the name of providing aid in some of the poorest nations on the planet; how this filters into groups in Kashmir; plus, how Bangladesh figures into this all.

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with Akhil Ramesh of the Pacific Forum. They discuss a number of ways the US-India relationship may change under the new Trump administration, on immigration, trade, national security, how China figures into this, the essential unpredictability of the Trump administration, and more.

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In this episode we speak with economist Sriram Balasubramanian about his latest book Dharmanomics: An Indigenous and Sustainable Economic Model. We discuss what makes dharmic capitalism different from other regional varieties of capitalism, how this economic outlook extends back millennia to the kingdoms and empires of southern India and southeast asia, the role of temples in economic activity, the economic effects of the kumbh mela, and more.

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In this episode Samir Kalra and Rajiv Pandit speak with author Vijay Sazawal about his new book The Kashmir Chronicles, discussing the history of the region, the ethnic cleansing of the Hindu community more than 30 years ago, the corruption in government in the state, the abrogation of the Article 370 and Delhi taking a direct role in governing the region, the largely positive aftermath of that and the changes that have occurred in Kashmir, and when might Kashmiri Pandits be able to return en masse.  

Buy: The Kashmir Chronicles 

Kashmir Forum

...

In this episode, part of Indu Viswanathan’s Hindu at Heart series, she speaks with Hemanth Venkataraman, a New York City-based educator and restorative justice practitioner about his life growing up Hindu in New Jersey in the 1980s and 90s, his time teaching in the NYC public school system and co-founding the Unity Preparatory Charter School in Brooklyn, and how he moved on to consult with schools on implementing restorative justice with School Culture Solutions. 

School Culture Solutions

School Culture Solutions on Instagram

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In this episode Suhag Shukla speaks with historian Vikram Sampath (author of the two volume definitive biography of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar) about the origins of Hindutva and misunderstandings about, its relevance for Hindus living outside of India, and more. 

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In this episode HAF Board Member psychologist Dr Kavita Pallod Sekhsaria and HAF Executive Director Suhag Shukla have a wide ranging discussion about parenting as Hindus, the book Bad Therapy, how we can raise resilient children, the differences in parenting across the generations, and more. 

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In this episode we're speaking with Jayanthi Moorthy, founder of the arts education organization AkṣarāWe talk about the importance of the arts in transmitting Indian culture, the role museums have in this and the limitations they have, issues of cultural appropriation in events such as Color Runs, and how drawing the traditional South Indian art form of kolam has both mental and physical benefits. 

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In this episode Suhag Shukla speaks with author Hindol Sengupta about the origins of Hindutva as a philosophical concept, its relationship to Hindu nationalism, the inclusiveness of Hindu thought, the future of the BJP, and the US-India relationship. 

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In this episode Suhag Shukla speaks with author and analyst Walter K Andersen about misunderstandings about the history of Hindutva, the goals of the RSS, the role of Hindutva in the Indian diaspora, and what the recent Indian elections mean for the direction of the BJP.

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In this episode HAF’s Raj Rao, Suhag Shukla, Vijay Satnarine, and Mat McDermott delve into how Hindu dharma traditions, for millennia, have recognized a Third Nature in gender and sexuality, how this framework both overlaps with contemporary LGBTQ categories and how it is distinct, as well as some guidance on how Third Nature individuals and their families can act compassionately rooted in dharma when addressing these issues. 

Read: HAF Policy Brief - LGBTQ Rights

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In this episode Mat McDermott speaks with filmmaker Prem Kumar about his documentary series on the sage Agastyamuni, his work educating Hindus about their heritage via his YouTube channel and in-person workshops.

PremKV on YouTube

Tatvamasi USA workshops 

Tatvamasi homestay

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In this episode Mat McDermott speaks with Raja Choudury, director of the film America’s First Guru, streaming now on PBS, which tells the story of Swami Vivekananda’s first trip to the United States and the effect it has continued to have more than a century later. 

WATCH: America's First Guru on PBS

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In this episode in the Hindu At Heart series, Indu Viswanathan speaks with Sneha Rao about her journey from the aviation industry to studying Hinduism, yoga, and Hinduphobia, and starting the Hindu Decoloniality group on Facebook.

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In this episode we speak with Shawn Binda, creator of the Hindu Lifestyle YouTube channel. We discuss his inspiration for starting the channel, his take on contemporary Hindu issues from his Indo-Caribbean Canadian perspective, and much more.

Watch: Hindu Lifestyle

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In this episode we have a moderated discussion about yoga, colonialism, attitudes about yoga that are coming out of the DEI space. Taking part in this discussion are HAF’s Vijay Satnarine and scholar Shyam Ranganathan, with Mat McDermott moderating.

Read more about Shyam Ranganathan https://www.yogaphilosophy.com/bio

Shyam’s latest book: Yoga-Anticolonial Philosophy 

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with Benjamin Baird from MEF Action on his new reporting detailing the financial ties between NYC Mayor Eric Adams and the Islamist political party PTI, founded by former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, including the funding Mayor Adams has received from PTI affiliated groups registered as foreign agents in the United States. 

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In this episode Suhag Shukla interviews author Nandini Patwardhan about her book Radical Spirits: India’s First Woman Doctor and her American Champions, a biography of Anandi-bai Joshee, who in 1883 as an 18-year old left Calcutta for the United States to study medicine, and who went on to become India’s first woman to earn a medical degree from an American college.

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In this episode, the first of our Hindu At Heart series of interviews, Indu Viswanathan speaks with author Aditi Banerjee on a wide range of issues: Hindu sacred geography in Ayodhya and Varanasi, growing up Hindu in America, and a variety of other topics.

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For this episode Mat McDermott has a conversation with Sandy Rao, Dr Vishnu Bisram, and Dr Indrani Ramprasad about the Indo-Carribean Hindu community, the lack of representation of the Caribbean Hindu diaspora in New York City school textbooks, the current situation for Hindus in Guyana and Trinidad, and more. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Viriah, Krishna Gubli

Making Children Hinduphobic: A Critical Review of McGraw Hill’s World History Textbooks, Kundan Singh, Krishna Maheshwari

Sanatana Dharma and Plantation Hinduism: Exploration and Reflections of an Indian Guyanese Hindu, Ramesh Gampat

In this episode, Sheetal Shah speaks with Australian filmmaker Ravi Chand about his latest project, Namaste Yoga. Learn more about Ravi here: Warrior Tribe Films

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with Carly Gammill, Director of the StandWithUs Center for Combating Antisemitism, about the marked increase in antisemitism expressed on US college campuses following the Hamas attack on Israeli of October 7th, and what can be done about this situation. 

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In this HAF Shop Talk episode, Samir Kalra, Mat McDermott, and Dr Vijay Satnarine have a wide ranging informal discussion of the history and archeology of the Ram Janmabhoomi site, media's curious unwillingness to discuss the full history of the situation going back centuries, the capture of the discussion by Marxist historians, and more.

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In this episode Mat McDermott speaks with Professor Pankaj Jain. Pankaj has been on the show before speaking about his area of professional expertise, Hinduism, Jainism and ecology. But today we’re speaking about something he’s become particularly passionate about: parenting. Specifically how Hindu parents can help their children develop a love of Hindu and Indian culture.

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In this episode of That's So Hindu, our 100th, Samir Kalra speaks with Middle East Forum's Sam Westrop about their new report detailing how Hamas raises money through charitable organizations in the West, and the connections with funding for Islamist groups in India and South Asia more broadly.

Download the report here

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In this must-listen episode, Samir Kalra speaks with Sundar Iyer, one of the Cisco employees wrongly accused of caste discrimination by California's Civil Rights Department. Sundar gives us the background of what really happened on his team that led to the lawsuit, what the CRD chose to overlook that didn't support its case, and how it all upended his life, before the case was dismissed against him.

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In the second part of this two-part episode, Suhag Shukla speaks with Sanjay Lazar who lost his entire family in the Air India Flight 182 bombing and was literally orphaned while still a child. This is the story of his life beyond the tragedy of the worst terrorist act in aviation history until 9/11.

Pre-order the first part of Sanjay's book series on his experience "On Angel's Wings" here.

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In the first part of this two-part episode, Suhag Shukla speaks with Sanjay Lazar who lost his entire family in the Air India Flight 182 bombing and was literally orphaned while still a child. This is the story of his life beyond the tragedy of the worst terrorist act in aviation history until 9/11.

Pre-order the first part of Sanjay's book series on his experience "On Angel's Wings" here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this special two-part episode we’ve got something a little bit different. This time, Dr indu Viswanathan, who’s been a guest on the show twice, is on the other side of the interviewing equation. She’s speaking with a young Hindu man, who has a unique and important story to tell. Keshav was raised Hindu and began questing his beliefs, to the point that he converted to Islam and began publicly making stereotypical Hinduphobic comments and denouncing India. But Keshav had a change of heart and mind, and came back to Hinduism — only to receive threats for leaving...

For this special two-part episode we’ve got something a little bit different. This time, Dr indu Viswanathan, who’s been a guest on the show twice, is on the other side of the interviewing equation. She’s speaking with a young Hindu man, who has a unique and important story to tell. Keshav was raised Hindu and began questing his beliefs, to the point that he converted to Islam and began publicly making stereotypical Hinduphobic comments and denouncing India. But Keshav had a change of heart and mind, and came back to Hinduism — only to receive threats for leaving...

For this episode we have something a bit different for you. It’s a special episode for Navaratri. We've interviewed several members of our extended HAF team as well as members of the Hindu American community about how they celebrate Navaratri today, what they remember about the holiday growing up, and how their understanding of it has changed over the years. What you’ll hear are excepts from longer interviews our staff writer Syama Allard did with each person.

Here are the full versions of these interviews, as well as some interviews that didn't make it into...

In this episode we speak with Akshar from The Emissary about an article he published earlier this year about Critical Caste Theory, as well as the activists who view Hinduism, Hindu culture, and India’s history and contemporary society through this very narrow lens.

Read the article that we're talking about here.

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In this episode we speak with Prof. David Haberman from Indiana University about his extensive work documenting how Hindus bring trees, stones, and mountains into their religious worship.

Buy the books we discuss: People Trees, Loving Stones

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with Sarah Stern, the founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, a think tank and policy institute based in Washington DC. They speak about the parallels between growing antisemitism and rising Hinduphobia, the US-Israel relationship, and efforts to strengthen the Israel-India relationship.

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In this episode we're speaking with film director Nico Oscoff on his latest project 1893: Year of the Yogi, a documentary currently planned to be released in 2024.

Learn more: https://www.instagram.com/1893yoty/

Donate to the film here.

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In this episode we're again speaking with HAF's own Easan Katir on the topic of dharmic investing, with a focus this time on why it's adharmic to lose money.

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In this special episode Mat McDermott moderates a discussion between HAF Co-Founder Suhag Shukla and Managing Director Samir Kalra about the latest revelations in the case of alleged caste discrimination at the BAPS temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey, and how the connect to the similar allegations as Cisco Systems in California.

Please note: The audio quality on this one isn't quite up to our usual standards as the That's So Hindu recording studio is in the midst of being moved to another location. But we felt like this one couldn't wait so proceeded anyway.

...

In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with David Santoro, President and CEO of the Pacific Forum, a non-profit foreign policy research institute based in Hawaii. They discuss the state of the India-US relationship, the positive changes he's seen in India in recent years, and much more. Learn more at: https://pacforum.org and follow David Santoro on Twitter here: @DavidSantoro1.

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In this episode we speak with Ananda and Suguna Prathik, the husband and wife team behind the non-profit Behind Every Temple, who are are doing some really interesting work restoring ancient temples in Tamil Nadu.

Learn more: www.behindeverytemple.org

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In this episode we speak with Georgetown University's Brahmachari Vrajvihari Sharan about the tension between the internal diversity and pluralistic outlook of Hinduism and both the trend and sometimes need to present Hinduism as one thing to the non-Hindu world.

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In this episode we're speaking with Lavanya Vemsani, professor of history at Shawnee State University in Ohio, specializing in Indian history and religion. Her latest paper in the International Review of Modern Sociology is titled “Global Hinduphobia: Construed, Constructed, and Unleashed from the West” and that’s what we’re going to talk: Hinduphobia, the fallacy of Aryan Invasion Theory, and how to revamp the study of Hinduism so that a more accurate picture of Hinduisms past and present can glimpsed.

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In this episode we're speaking with Professor Jeffery D Long, who teaches religion and Asian studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. This his second time on the show. And today we’re discussing a recent paper he’s written on the connections between deep ecology and advaita vedanta. 

Read more: Advaita Vedanta and Its Implications for Deep Ecology

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Do you want to know more about Hinduism? Like actually understand what karma is? Or what dharma means? Do you want to know what the sacred texts of Hinduism are? Or, maybe, you just want to know why Hindu women wear a dot on their forehead? Or, perhaps, if all Hindus vegetarian? 

If so, then All About Hinduism is just what you’ve been waiting for.

We’ll give you an overview of Hinduism as a lived and contemporary spiritual path. We’ll explore the history of how Hinduism has come to be what it is...

In this episode Suhag Shukla speaks with Andrew Jasko. Andrew was born into a minister’s family and became a preacher and missionary to India, after studying theology at Wheaton College and Princeton Seminary. After an agonizing crisis of faith, he rejected religion and spirituality. Later, after finding healing through practices like meditation, psychedelics, and breathwork, that introduced him to profound mystical experiences for the first time, he embraced Hinduism. He currently counsels people healing from religious trauma and is studying Sanskrit and Classical Indian religion at Oxford University. Suhag and Andrew discuss his journey, first to atheism, then Hi...

In this episode, Samir Kalra speaks with Dr Michael Rubin, from the American Enterprise Institute, about his recent trip to Kashmir and what he learned from speaking with Kashmiris about life after Article 370, as well what is needed to improve US diplomacy in the region. 

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with Soundarya Balasubramani and Sameer Khedakar, co-authors of “Unshackled”, a practical guide for immigrants in the US to become entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, or just have more creative autonomy over their careers. 

https://curiousmaverick.com/unshackled/ 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soundarya/unshackled-a-guide-for-highly-skilled-immigrants-in-america 

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with Puneet Sahani, coordinator of Sikhs for Enlightenment Association, a volunteer effort of Sikh researchers across the world, who are pushing back against Khalistani propaganda. 

@puneet_sahani

@SikhsSeva 

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with Akhil Ramesh, research fellow at Pacific Forum International. They discuss the current state of the US-India relationship, where it could be headed, the challenges that relationship faces, as well as some of the challenges the Indian diaspora faces due to skewed perspectives on current Indian politics.

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In this episode Mat McDermott speaks with Michigan State Representative Padma Kuppa, who serves the 41st House District.
Padma is an engineer by training, who also served on HAF’s Board of Director for a number of years, before turning to politics. 
We talk about how she decided to focus on elected office, the connections between her Hindu faith and public service, 
the attacks she’s faced based on her Hindu identity, and some of the more contentious public policy issues we’ve faced in the past month. 

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In this episode we’re bringing back HAF’s very own California Advocacy Director Easan Katir, who, doesn’t just do Hindu advocacy work, but rather since 1983 has provided wealth management for families, individuals, and retirement plans. Last time we spoke about Dharmic Investing in general. Today we’re talking about the current state of the financial markets, how to weather them, which sectors are doing well, and how to think about wealth management through the lens of dharma.

Learn more: www.easankatir.com 

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In this episode Suhag Shukla speaks with Keith Sarasin. Keith is a chef, three-time author, restauranteur, and public speaker who grew up in a small city in New Hampshire. Keith learned to cook Indian cuisine studying with a home cook, and went onto study with archeologists and food historians from across India. Keith currently runs Aatma, a pop-up tasting experience showcasing food from the Indian subcontinent. 

https://www.aatmarestaurant.com 

https://www.keithsarasin.com 

https://www.youtube.com/c/KeithSarasin1 

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In this episode Mat McDermott speaks with Dr Varun Gandhi, who describes himself as a life orchestrator, soulpreneur, an angel investor, philanthropist, and last but not least a water doctor. They discuss his work creating a digital course called What’s Your Story that helps you focus your life better to create a better future for yourself, as well as his impressive service over the past couple of years feeding people and provided needed supplies to the community during the pandemic, as well as his goal of feeding 100,000 people this coming Thanksgiving. 

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On Monday, May 2, 2022, National Public Radio’s Morning Edition ran a story titled, "Some South Asian Americans Believe Caste-based Prejudices exist in the US." HAF Executive Director Suhag Shukla was interviewed for the story and spoke to the reporter for over half an hour. The topic is extremely complex and the unintended consequences are serious for millions of Americans of South Asian origin. We’d like to offer listeners the interview in its entirety since only a few seconds were selected for the broadcast, which resulted in the telling of a story that in our view is incomplete.

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In this episode, Deepali Kulkarni speaks to Dr Rajiv Pandit and Sidhi Raina about their reaction to seeing The Kashmir Files, the challenges in speaking up about the ethnic cleansing that the indigenous Hindus of Kashmir faced 30 years ago — including social media and real world professional harassment and doxing — and what they want the world to know about the Kashmiri Pandit Exodus. Follow them on Twitter: @sidhiraina, @rajiv_pandit

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In this one Mat McDermott speaks with Vira Tansey, an Ayurvedic healer and educator based in Florida about the practice of Marma therapy, how to use energetic pressure points in the body to heal, reduce tension, and live a more balanced life.

Learn more about Vira at www.thesisterscience.com. 

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In this episode Deepali Kulkarni speaks with Soumyadip and Mohua from Stories of Bengali Hindus about the attacks the Hindu population in Bangladesh faced during Durga Puja 2021, getting banned on Twitter for sharing the truth about these attacks, and the legacy of the 1971 Bengali Hindu genocide, when some 3 million Bangladeshis, mostly Hindus, were killed.

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In this episode Mat McDermott speaks with Dr Indu Viswanathan and HAF executive director Suhag Shukla. They discuss the curious phenomenon of how stereotypes and misperceptions about Hindus and Hinduism that have their roots in colonial-era scholarship and thinking still get repeated today to negatively portray Hinduism, ironically too often by activists who are themselves anti-colonial in outlook.

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In this episode Samir Kalra speaks with retired CBC journalist and author Terry Milewski about his book Blood for Blood: 50 Years of the Global Khalistan Project, going into the history of and present day activities of the movement for an independent Sikh nation of Khalistan, the horrific violence associated with it, and how that movement continues on to this day with the backing of Pakistan and, by extension, China.

Blood for Blood: 50 Years of the Global Khalistan Project

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In this second part of Deepali Kulkarni’s talk with Vijay Sazawal, international coordinator for the Indo-American Kashmir Forum, and a senior member of the Kashmir Overseas Association, they discuss the most recent violence in Kashmir, the reality of the situation for Kashmiri Hindus today, as well as some more context on the Exodus. 

Indo-American Kashmir Forum

Kashmir Overseas Association 

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In this episode Deepali Kulkarni speaks with Vijay Sazawal, international coordinator for the Indo-American Kashmir Forum, and a senior member of the Kashmir Overseas Association. They have a wide-ranging discussion on the history of Kashmir’s accession to India in 1947, first-hand accounts of the ethnic cleansing of Hindus that happened in Kashmir 30 years ago, and what comes next for the region. 

Indo-American Kashmir Forum

Kashmir Overseas Association 

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In this episode Sheetal Shah speaks with Jolly Yogi Bose, who recently had to put her yoga training to the test after getting lost and separated from her partners on a hike in the Sierra National Forest. Jolly explains how she stayed warm and focused through the frigid ordeal though yogic breathing and meditation exercises and was ultimately rescued.

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In this episode Suhag Shukla speaks with Anjali Rimi, a South Asian, Hindu, Canadian-American woman of trans experience, based in the Bay Area. Anjali is the president and co-founder of Parivar Bay Area, America’s only trans-led, trans-centering queer organization. Parivar Bay Area focuses on centering trans-equity and economic justice within the Indian and South Asian diaspora.

Parivar Bay Area

Parivar Bay Area on Facebook

Parivar Bay Area on Instagram

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In this episode Deepali Kulkarni gets a report from one of HAF’s contacts in Bangladesh on the attacks directed and Hindus and Hindu temples in the past week, stemming from a social media post on Durga Puja. NOTE: This episode contains graphic recounting of physical and sexual violence experienced by Hindus in Bangladesh.

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In this episode Mat McDermott speaks with author Phil Goldberg about the importance and legacy of Paramahamsa Yogananda’s Autobiography of Yogi, on its 75th anniversary of publication.

https://philipgoldberg.com  

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In this episode Mat McDermott talks with HAF executive director Suhag Shukla and HAF managing director Samir Kalra about last month’s Dismantling Global Hindutva conference, Hinduphobia in academia, and why HAF has filed a  Title VI complaint with the Office of Civil Rights against University of Pennsylvania.

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In this episode Deepali Kulkarni speaks with Tashi Dhondup. Tashi is Secretary of the Office of Tibet in Washington DC — a senior member of the Tibetan Government in Exile, now called the Central Tibetan Authority. They discuss the challenges facing the Tibetan people living under Chinese occupation, the CTA’s Middle Way approach in dealing with the government of China, and what the international community can do to help the Tibetan people.  

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In this episode Suhag Shukla speaks with Dr. Indu Viswanathan. Viswanathan has worked in education for more than two decades as a teacher, curriculum developer, teacher educator, and non-profit research director. They talk about the conference on Hinduphobia she helped organize at Rutgers University, the problems with controversial upcoming Dismantling Global Hindutva conference, and how Hindu practices and Hindus continue to be misunderstood by Western academia and researchers. 

Indu Viswanathan on Twitter

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In this episode HAF Human Rights Director Deepali Kulkarni speaks with a Pakistani Hindu leader, who for his safety wishes to remain anonymous, about the latest attacks on Hindu temples and Hindus in Pakistan, and what’s going on with the young Hindu boy charged with blasphemy.

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In this episode HAF Human Rights Director Deepali Kulkarni continues her exploration of the history of why Indian South Africans have been targeted in recent violence, speaking with  South African Hindu community leader Yashika Singh. They go over how Indians were strategically placed as a buffer between other communities in South Africa during the Apartheid era, the challenges facing Indians today, and more.

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In this episode HAF Human Rights Director Deepali Kulkarni speaks with South African Hindu community leader Lux Maharaj. They discuss the history of Indians in South Africa, and Africa more broadly, what led up to the looting and violence directed at South African Indians in the past few weeks, and what the Indian community there may be facing in the future. 

More info: Gauteng Hindus 

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This weeks show is the audio version of a side event HAF held at the International Religious Freedom summit, held in Washington DC last week. The focus of the panel is the 1971 Bengali Hindu Genocide and the ongoing challenges of the Hindu population in Bangladesh.

Featured speakers include HAF Human Rights Director Deepali Kulkarni, Dr. Richard Benkin, independent human rights activist and author of "A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing: The Murder of Bangladesh’s Hindus", and Dr. Sachi Dastidar, Professor, State University of NY and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the India Subcontinent Partition Pr...

In this episode Mat McDermott speaks with Grammy-nominated musician, multi-instrumentalist, and world music pioneer Jai Uttal. They discuss Jai’s path through sacred chanting, the evolution of the Western kirtan scene over the past several decade, and the line that separates cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation.

www.jaiuttal.com

Jai’s latest album “Let Me Burn”

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In this episode Mat McDermott speaks with Dandapani, a former Hindu monk turned international speaker. in the Saiva Siddhanta tradition, currently living at in Nosara, Costa Rica. Dandapani is now an international speaker helping people understand and leverage their mind and be the best version of themselves in order to live a life of purpose and joy. We discuss the retreat center and botanical garden he’s founded, how we can learn to better focus our minds, Hindu practices for dealing with crisis, and the importance of employing reason on our spiritual journeys.

Dandapani on Instagram 

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In this episode, a rebroadcast of a recent HAF webinar, Samir Kalra speaks with Dr Michael Rubin, from the American Enterprise Institute, on contemporary politics in Pakistan and the region, the nation’s support for terrorism, and how this affects the United States.

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In this episode Suhag Shukla speaks Dr Prakash Shah a professor at Queen Mary, University of London. Dr Shah specializes in cultural diversity and law, religion and law, caste and law, immigration, refugee and nationality law, and comparative law. They discuss the Western conceptions of caste in India, the complexity of adding caste discrimination to law in both the UK and the US, and much more. 

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In this episode Suhag Shukla speaks with Ankit Bhuptani, the chairman and founder of the Queer Hindu Alliance in Mumbai, India. He is an advisor to corporations on inclusivity and diversity, the editor of a Gujarati literary magazine, and has participated in the Mumbai Pride Parade since 2010. They speak about being gay in India, the state of homophobia there, how the LGBT+ community is treated by both major political parties in India and much more.

Ankit Bhuptani on Instagram

Queer Hindu Alliance on Instagram

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In this episode Sheetal Shah speaks with Shreya Mahasenan, a junior at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada. Shreya founded the McGill Dharma Society, when she realized there was no Hindu representation for students. They talk about the hurdles she overcame to create the society, the future of MDS, and her strong Hindu faith, which she credits to her family.  

McGill Dharma Society Facebook page

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In this episode Taniel Koushakjian speaks with Michigan state representative (and former HAF board member) Padma Kuppa. They discuss Rep. Kuppa’s journey from being an engineer to the first Indian American elected to the Michigan legislature, her passion for environmental advocacy, and her newly introduced legislation recognizing Diwali, Vaisakhi, Lunar New Year, and Eid in Michigan.

Representative Padma Kuppa

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In this episode Mat McDermott speaks with Parth Parihar. Parth is a member of the Board of Trustees of Hindu Students Council and a PhD candidate in economics at Princeton University. Earlier this spring he organized, along with Dr Indu Vishwanathan, a conference on Hinduphobia at Rutgers University, which brought together a wide range of speakers on the topic. We discuss the nature of Hinduphobia today, how this is affecting students on college campuses, and much more.
Hindu Students Council YouTube 

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