Mounted at the Smithsonian Institution's Sackler Gallery, the show's stated purpose is to "illuminate yoga's central tenets as well as its obscured histories."

Both Martin Luther King and Gandhi were people who gained tremendous inspiration from their faith traditions and were able to perform tremendous feats of courage through the implementation of non-violence.

Lord Hanuman is one of the most popular idols in the Hindu religion and is worshipped as a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion. The 'monkey god', is revered by Hindu communities around the world, including a considerable segment of the population on the paradise island of Mauritius.

While media coverage has focused on the implications of Penguin's decision to pull the book and destroy all copies in India, there are some important contextual factors to understand to help articulate why this isn't merely a case of religious extremists getting their way (as Doniger has claimed).

What would it be like to embrace and support an alternative future, rather than history, of Hindu studies?

Only days ago, news leaked that Penguin Books India had quietly settled a 2011 lawsuit filed against it by a conservative Indian education reform group, which required the publisher to withdraw and destroy all available copies of the Indian edition of University of Chicago professor Wendy Doniger's book The Hindus: An Alternative History.

There are Hindus who decline to celebrate a lie. They refuse to participate in the oblivious celebration of racial, national, and class privilege that denies them their own voice. They do not share the academic and literary elite's admiration for a book like The Hindus.

Schools that are able to nuance the separation of church and state do have a tremendous opportunity to use temple visits to supplement what students are learning about Hinduism.

In addition to the rich meaning of the vocabulary for debate, dialogue and argumentation, there are many dramatic scenes of debate, and even insult, within Indic traditions from their very inception. What if we reminded ourselves that Hindu texts were filled with questions as well as answers?

Hindu American community members must work to build interfaith, cross-cultural, and common cause alliances with others impacted by bullying so that the community's voices resonates much more strongly with education policy makers.

While the other festivals have been celebrated throughout the Hindu diaspora, the malleability of the Diwali narrative and its pan-Indian nature has made it syncretistic.

Should they be "repatriated" if they were obtained illegally? Are they art? In whose eyes are they considered art? Or are they artifacts?

An ad campaign by an Indian non-profit advocacy group for women and children called Save the Children India has generated international buzz with a series of posters which depict bruised and beaten Hindu goddesses.

With the spiritual wealth accumulated through centuries of discourse within India, Diasporic Hindu communities have been able to use that capital in helping to evolve the spiritual traditions and acclimate within diverse settings across the globe.

As I strolled down the streets, and sat at one of India's northern hill stations, those who didn't know me would often look at me funny -- a full grown, bearded, well-dressed Indian man flipping through a stack of illustrated Hindi children's storybooks.

The best way to report about the Hindu American community is to engage in genuine dialogue with its members. Showing up to festivals barely scratches the surface of understanding and often gives journalists the wrong impression about the diversity within a community.