Read R&E’s interviews with Asia expert Ainslee Embree and researcher Timothy Shah on the Hindu-Muslim violence in western India.

India, which is mostly Hindu, and Pakistan, which is mostly Muslim, are once again on the brink of war over the disputed region of Kashmir. Both nations have nuclear weapons. Hindu-Muslim tensions extend beyond Kashmir, though. Within India, where Hindus make up 80% of the population and Muslims make up 14%, violent outbreaks that began in February may already have taken thousands of lives.

In India, sex selection by sonogram is officially illegal, but widely practiced. And there is no Hindu or legal prohibition on abortion.

The work of Mother Teresa’s worldwide missionary order continues, and so does the work of another missionary nun in Calcutta, who ministers to the poor in a different way.

Many second generation American Hindus are fascinated by the religion’s philosophy, but rarely go to the temple or practice rituals, and often don’t understand them. There is a danger that the beliefs the rituals embody are at risk.

Alongside Christians and Jews in all their variety, there are now Muslims and Buddhists and Sikhs and Hindus, a million Hindus in all, struggling, as have all other newcomers, to establish their faith and traditions in the United States.

Part two of our series on the Tibetan Buddhists in exile in India. They’re refugees not only from Chinese oppression in Tibet but also from what the Dalai Lama calls “cultural genocide.”

The Dalai Lama was just 15 years old when the Communist Chinese invaded Tibet, burned its monasteries, and slaughtered upwards of a million of its people. Now, he is the spiritual leader of six million Tibetan Buddhists is and is trying to rally support for freedom for his homeland. He preaches compassion, but some of his followers wonder if his methods can work.