Stories from India

Survivors of Hindu-Muslim riots find healing in women’s empowerment

DELHI, India (RNS) — Five years after riots swept through her neighborhood in northeast Delhi, the region around India’s capital, 18-year-old Anam Sa still wakes up in the middle of the night flushed, breathing fast, arms shaking.

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Girls attend a tailoring class at Sabaat in Delhi, India, on Nov. 16, 2025. Photo by Priyadarshini Sen for RNS

How a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery is shifting gender norms

DHARAMSHALA, India (RNS) — When the nonsectarian Dolma Ling Nunnery transitioned to female leadership earlier this year, for the first time in its three-decade history, it marked a radical shift in the landscape of Tibetan Buddhism in exile.

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Buddhist nuns during evening prayers and mediation at the Dolma Ling Nunnery in Dharamshala, India, Sept. 1, 2025. (Photo by Priyadarshini Sen)

Devotees of Krishna bridle at updates to India’s ancient pilgrimage town

VRINDAVAN, India (RNS) — When the protests against a state government plan to redevelop a world-renowned Hindu temple began in May, Varsha Otwani, a 64-year-old homemaker, joined the women’s chorus, donning her sequined red veil, lining her eyes with kohl and smearing her hands with henna.

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Traditionally-dressed women read from religious texts and chant slogans to protest the government’s demand to build a corridor at the centuries-old Banke Bihari Temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Krishna, in Vrindavan, India, August 20, 2025. (Photo by Priyadarshini Sen)