According to organisers, though conversions are carried out every year on Vijaya Dashmi, this year the numbers were high on account of the Una Dalit flogging incident.
The development is being seen as a sign of the growing political prominence of Hindus in America. Hinduism is the fourth largest faith in the US, representing approximately one per cent of the US population in 2016.
The Oscar winning Hollywood actress became interested in Hinduism after seeing a picture of Hanuman devotee Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba, who died in 1973.
Religious minorities in India have been subjected to "violent attacks, forced conversions" and 'Ghar Wapsi' campaigns by groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh after the Modi government assumed power in 2014, a US Congress-established panel has said.
In a dig at Adityanath's earlier warning that rioters damaging public property will have to pay, the Congress general secretary said saffron denotes Hinduism, a religion that does not advocate violence or 'revenge'.
Amid the 'intolerance' debate, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, a constituent of ruling the NDA, on Friday lashed out at those saying "go to Pakistan", asserting that the "nation owns us and we own the nation".
'Second-class citizenship would have been meaningless to a Hindu in the Mughal empire.'
Her husband Swaraj Kaushal tweeted a screenshot of a post by a Twitter user who asked him to 'teach' the minister 'not to do Muslim appeasement'.
According to the report, the wife, Tanvi Seth, had not been living in Lucknow for past one year but was residing in Noida.
Secretary general of CBCI Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas on what he doesn't like about the new education policy.
The country has its own triangular flag with an emblem of Paramashiva and Nandi and is called the 'Rishabha Dhvaja'.
Mark Tully on the India he loves.
While the Trump campaign promises that re-electing President Donald Trump will "reduce obstacles to religious freedoms" for Hindus in America, the rival Biden campaign on Tuesday said former vice president Joe Biden has made outreach to the Hindu faith community a priority.
The VHP leadership notes that 'ghar wapsi' wasn't something started after the Modi govt took over. Archis Mohan reports
Three Indians have joined a Sikh rights group in filing an amended lawsuit appealing a US court to designate the RSS as a "terror group".
At an online book release event, former vice president Hamid Ansari lays to rest the controversies surrounding his tenure.
'Modi cannot drag India back into a primitive epoch resembling the religious wars in medieval Europe and at the same time claim to represent the aspirations of modernity among Indians,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'This is what Hindu Rashtra looks like, which has been enabled by conditions of democracy.'
According to temple sources, the priest insisted on the ritual despite the foreigner's claim that he had embraced Hinduism and changed his name to Pranavahi
Mayor Bloomberg shared a breakfast chat with representatives of six major faiths at the Mayor's annual inter-faith meet. Hinduism was represented by Dr Uma Mysorekar of the Hindu Temple Society of North America and six other Krishna devotees.
Khan said Islamabad has taken the first step on a new path to peace and progress.
'If Mr Modi continues growing as a Hindu Hriday Samrat, better that it is done by restoring ancient temples than demolishing medieval mosques,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'I don't believe that it beholds democracies like us who claim to be the largest democracy in the world, to have such a thin skin about the possibility of foreign commentary.'
A Bharatiya Janata Party leader in West Bengal has gone a step ahead of controversial party MP Sakshi Maharaj, asking Hindu women to bear five children "to protect Hinduism".
'Thanthris (chief priests of temples) have no right to determine who is a believer'.
Kapil Mishra had been invited because he was an "anti-corruption crusader", one 'IIT B for Bharat' organiser said. But in his half hour-long speech, Mishra didn't mention corruption. His entire focus was on the long "battle" Hindus had fought for their identity.
'You don't win elections on the basis of borrowed players.' 'There is a great crisis of leadership for the BJP in Bengal'
'I have understood one thing very clearly -- 99 per cent of Muslims love Hindustan, their ancestral roots belong to Hinduism.' 'Even his language and dialect belongs to Hindustan. His culture is also Hindustani. Due to some historic reasons he changed his religion. Changing one's religion is not akin to changing one's ancestors, castes and sub-castes, language and dialects or his loyalty.' 'Divide and rule has not helped India progress and led to backwardness of people of this great country.' RSS leader Indresh Kumar, the patron of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, an RSS-backed organisation that actively works with Muslims, tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com how the RSS is reaching out to Muslims.
Against the backdrop of denial of permission for his rally in Varanasi, Narendra Modi on Thursday said that he and the Bharatiya Janata Party were being "troubled" by the Election Commission and wanted the poll body to "answer".
Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite Indian films of 2021.
Count among The Light of Asia's many, many admirers over 132 years: Gandhi, Tagore, Vivekananda, Nehru and Ambedkar, Tolstoy and Kipling, Yeats and Eliot, Alfred Nobel, Dmitri Mendeleev and C V Raman. Jairam Ramesh reveals why he decided to write a book on Edwin Arnold, who wrote The Light of Asia.
A significant ritual is to consume neem leaves, a custom that marks the beginning of the festival. Neem also helps in boosting the immune system.
India witnessed religiously motivated killings, arrests, riots and coerced religious conversions and the police in some cases failed to respond effectively to communal violence, according to the US State Department report on International Religious Freedom.
Arundhuti Dasgupta maps a trail from the southernmost tip to its suburbs.
Here are some interesting images of the BJP president visiting the popular Lalbaugcha Raja.
What is there in Wendy Doniger's book that has raised the hackles of the Hindu right wing? A K Bhattacharya explains
In a sign of the growing political prominence of Hindus in America, the Trump and Biden campaigns are wooing this religious minority community like never before. Hinduism is the fourth largest faith in the US, representing approximately one per cent of the US population in 2016.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's decision to appoint Hindutva hardliner Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh chief minister has drawn an avalanche of reactions from opposition parties.
'The message from those in power is clear. Either agree with us or suffer the consequences'
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