Indians

The Magic and Beauty of India: A Photo Essay

Eliot Hess

I was lucky to have visited India during the “Spring Festival of Playing Holi” or the “Festival of Colors.” It is a Hindu festival that is celebrated by smearing, or throwing, colored chalk at others and then spraying water to make the colors run. Everyone is fair game. The trip left me with a lasting sense of spiritualism and beauty. I felt peace and harmony as never before. Even though there is obvious poverty in many regions of the country, there is still a sense of contentment you can’t find anywhere else.

Indian-Americans Push Back Against Hate Crimes

Jaya Padmanabhan

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported a total of 867 hate incidents in the ten days following the election. The national advocacy organization South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), meanwhile, recorded 207 hate or bias-related incidents aimed at South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Middle Eastern, and Arab communities in 2016. The SAALT figures mark a 34 percent increase from 2014, with 95 percent of the reported cases motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment.

Lawsuit Brings to Light Discrimination Tactics at 7-11 Corp.

Sunita Sohrabji

On July 11 — as 7-Eleven (also known as 7-11) stores across the nation were giving away free Slurpees to celebrate the company’s birthday – the Franchise Owners Association of Greater Los Angeles filed a lawsuit against the giant, multinational corporation, alleging racism, ageism, and unscrupulous business practices. The suit said it represents 1,200 franchisees in the area, the majority of whom are South Asian American.

Environmental Victories of 2013

ICT Staff

Native peoples reintroduced fading species, restored habitats and stopped big industry in its tracks. Several species began coming back, many of them thanks to the efforts of tribal programs. Northwest tribes were pleased to see a record return of Chinook salmon to the Columbia River. A healthy wolf population flourished in Yellowstone National Park, strengthening the wildlife web around it. Here are some of the more notable wins, and the tribes involved in making them happen.

A Century-Old Silent Film Resurfaces and Claims Its Place in History

Jordan Wright

How a silent film featuring an all-Native American cast came to be made, lost (seemingly forever), discovered nearly a century later (in shambles), then restored and shown to the cast’s descendants is one of the most fascinating stories in the annals of American filmmaking. The Daughter of Dawn may be the only all-Native cast silent film ever made.

Russia’s Ban on the Bhagavad Gita Angers Indians

Viji Sundaram

From New America Media: The Russian archbishop who tried to malign the Indian sacred text, the Bhagavad Gita, should have known that hell hath no fury like 885 million Hindus scorned. That fury has been unleashed worldwide this week over remarks by Archbishop Nikon of the Russian Orthodox Church branding Krishna, the protagonist in the Bhagavad Gita, an “evil demon.” State prosecutors in the Siberian city of Tomsk successfully sought help from the courts to ban the scripture for its “extremist” views and accused it of insulting non-believers, according to Russian media.

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