Sadhana Syllabus

The Sadhana Syllabus is currently a work in progress. Stay tuned for a formal launch soon!

The Sadhana Syllabus is an open-source directory of resources on a variety of topics relating to progressive Hinduism, from caste to environmental justice. Sadhana does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in each resource. However, we believe a diversity of intellectual perspectives is important in the movement to build a progressive Hinduism.

The Sadhana Syllabus emerged from our 2018 Summer Reading Challenge. If you would like to submit a resource to the Syllabus, please email us at info@sadhana.org.

Table of Contents

• Foundations for a Progressive Hinduism

• The Bhakti Movement

• Hindu Rituals

• Hindu Scriptures

• Hindu Epics & Mythology

• Caste

• Hindu Nationalism (Hindutva)

• Poverty & Economic Justice

• LGBTQ Identities

• Feminism & Gender Equality

• The Hindu Diaspora

• Environmental Justice

• Hinduism & Other Religions

foundations for a Progressive hinduism

• Swami Agnivesh, “Reforming Hinduism From Within”

• B.R. Ambedkar, “Brahma, Dharma & Democracy: Another Hindu Riddle”

• Shailly Gupta Barnes, “Articulating a Hindu Theology of Liberation”

• “Clarion Calls for a Progressive Hinduism”

• J.A. Kasturi, Sunita Viswanath, Aminta Kilawan-Narine, and Rohan Narine, “A Progressive Hindu Approach to God”

• Saikat Majumdar, “Left in Polytheism”

• Balmurli Natrajan, “Letter to a Progressive Hindu”

• Balmurli Natrajan, “Searching for a Progressive Hindu/ism: Battling Mussolini’s Hindus, Hindutva, and Hubris”

• Anantanand Rambachan, A Hindu Theology of Liberation: Not-Two is Not One

• Anantanand Rambachan, “A Hindu Theology of Human Flourishing” (YouTube)

• Anantanand Rambachan, “The Need for a Hindu Theology of Liberation”

• Ruth Vanita, "Whatever Happened to the Hindu Left?"

the bhakti movement

• Priya Sarukkai Chabria, “Eight ‘Bhakti’ poems that show India had multiple and diverse paths to devotion”

• Balmurli Natrajan, "The liberation theologists of the Hindu past"

• Nicholas O'Connell, "Subversive Hindu Thought"

• Kabir translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Songs of Kabir

• Gail Omvedt, Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anticaste Intellectuals

• A.K. Ramanujan, Speaking of Siva

Hindu rituals

• Aishik Chanda, “West Bengal’s first priestess solemnises marriages without Kanyadaan”

• T.M. Krishna, “How the appointment of Dalits as priests is perpetuating casteist symbols”

• Arun Kumar, “Ancient Bihar temples show the way with non-Brahmin priests”

• Sapna Pandya interviewed by Sarika D. Mehta, "On Faith, Tradition, and Sexuality"

• Margaret Ramirez, “Shashi Tandon: Fulfilling Hindu priestly duties and starting a quiet revolution”

Hindu Scriptures

• B.R. Ambedkar, “Brahma, Dharma & Democracy: Another Hindu Riddle”

• Shailly Gupta Barnes, "God is reborn: A reading on justice from the Bhagavad Gita"

• Anantanand Rambachan, The Advaita Worldview: God, World, and Humanity

• NeoIndian, “Why you should read the Vedas, and why the religious will never understand them”

Hindu Epics and Mythology

• Shaan Amin, "The Dark Side of the Comics That Redefined Hinduism"

• Kathleen M. Erndl, “The Mutilation of Surpanakha”

• Ramdas Lamb, “Personalizing the Ramayan: Ramnamis and Their Use of the Ramcaritmanas”

• Saikat Majumdar, “Left in Polytheism”

• A.K. Ramanujan, “Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation”

• Paula Richman (editor), Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia

• Devdutt Pattanaik, “On Krishna’s chariot stands Shikhandi”

• Devdutt Pattanaik, Shikhandi and Other Stories They Don’t Tell You

• Devdutt Pattanaik, “The Real Ramrajya”

• Velcheru Narayana Rao, “A Ramayana of Their Own: Women's Oral Tradition in Telugu”

• Nabaneeta Dev Sen, “Rewriting the Ramayana: Chandrabati and Molla”

Caste

• Asam Ahmad, "How to Fight a Deadly Caste System"

• B.R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste

• B.R. Ambedkar, Philosophy of Hinduism

• S. Anand, “Equalisation to annihilation — and beyond”

• Nicholas O'Connell, "Subversive Hindu Thought"

• Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, "Caste and the Hindutva Movement"

• Dalit Panthers Manifesto

• Nirupama Dutt, “Waiting for spring”

• Yashica Dutt, “The Non-Dalit's Guide To Debating Meaningfully About Caste”

• Equality Labs, “Caste in the United States: A Survey of Caste Among South Asian Americans”

• Charu Gupta, “Speaking Self, Writing Caste - Recovering the Life of Santram BA”

• Daniel Immerwahr, “Caste or Colony? Indianizing Race in the United States”

• Ravikant Kisana, “Progressive Millennial Indians, Let’s Talk About How We Never Talk About Caste”

• T.M. Krishna, “How the appointment of Dalits as priests is perpetuating casteist symbols”

• Ramdas Lamb, “Personalizing the Ramayan: Ramnamis and Their Use of the Ramcaritmanas”

• Arun Kumar, “Ancient Bihar temples show the way with non-Brahmin priests”

• Nivedita Menon, “Bharat Mata And Her Unruly Daughters” (link)

• Balmurli Natrajan, “From jati to samaj” (link)

• Balmurli Natrajan, "The liberation theologists of the Hindu past" (link)

• Annalee Newitz, “The caste system has left its mark on Indians’ genomes” (link)

• Gail Omvedt, Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anticaste Intellectuals (Amazon)

• Devdutt Pattanaik: "Beyond Hinduism: Is caste a religious or a regional problem?” (link)

• Anantanand Rambachan, “A Hindu Theology of Human Flourishing” (YouTube)

• Anantanand Rambachan, “Freedom from Caste” chapter from A Hindu Theology of Liberation (link)

• Anantanand Rambachan, “A New Year Resolution for Hinduism: Opening Temple Doors to All” (link)

• Anantanand Rambachan, "Is Caste Intrinsic to Hinduism?" (link)

• Hira Singh, Recasting Caste: From the Sacred to the Profane (SAGE Publishing)

• Varun Soni, “Why I’m haunted by my religion’s dark side” (link)

• Thenmozhi Soundararajan, “The Black Indians” (link)

• Steph Yin, “In South Asian Social Castes, a Living Lab for Genetic Disease” (link)

Hindu nationalism (Hindutva)

• Shaan Amin, "The Dark Side of the Comics That Redefined Hinduism" (link)

• Rajni Bakshi, “Swami Vivekananda’s Disputed Legacy” (link)

• Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, "Caste and the Hindutva Movement" (link)

• Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, "Sangh and Women" (link)

• Amit Chaudhuri, “Modi’s Hinduism” (link)

• Sagarika Ghose, “Manifesto for a liberal Hindu – It’s time for secular Hindus to say: Garv se kaho hum liberal hain” (link)

• D.N. Jha, "Looking for a Hindu Identity" (link)

• Nivedita Menon, “Bharat Mata And Her Unruly Daughters” (link)

• Balmurli Natrajan, "Letter to a Progressive Hindu" (link)

• Ashis Nandy, “A report on the present state of health of the gods and goddesses in South Asia” (link)

• Balmurli Natrajan, "Searching for a Progressive Hindu/ism: Battling Mussolini’s Hindus, Hindutva, and Hubris" (link)

• Constance Jones and James D. Ryan, "Hindu Nationalism" in Encyclopedia of Hinduism (link)

• Anantanand Rambachan, "Hindu Pride and the Future of Hinduism" (link)

• Alex Shams, "Welcome to the Beef Capital of India" (link)

• Vijay Prashad, “Letter to a Young American Hindu”

• Stanley Thangaraj, “Sipping on the Indian Haterade: Hindu American Whiteness and Support for Trump” (link)

• Romila Thapar, interviewed by Ajaz Ashraf: “Before anyone can debate the Sangh, it has to stop abusing its opponents” (link)

• Ramesh Venkataraman, “Hindu way to resist Hindutva” (link)

poverty and economic justice

• Shailly Gupta Barnes, The Shakti – life force – of the poor today" (link)

• Anantanand Rambachan, "Hindus and the Poor People’s Campaign: A Religious and Moral Obligation" (link)

• Nooreen Reza, "Progressive Hinduism and a New Movement Against Poverty" (link)

• Peter Wilberg, “Rudra's Red Banner: Marxism and Moksha” (link)

lgbtq identities

• Lata Jha, "What Two Hindu Temples in the US Tell Us about the Divide among Hindus in India" (link)

• Sapna Pandya, interviewed by Sarika D. Mehta, "On Faith, Tradition, and Sexuality" (link) (transcript)

• Devdutt Pattanaik, “Did homosexuality exist in ancient India?” (link)

• Devdutt Pattanaik, “Declared constitutionally invalid” (link)

• Devdutt Pattanaik, “Hindu, not homophobic” (link)

• Devdutt Pattanaik, “On Krishna’s chariot stands Shikhandi” (link)

• Devdutt Pattanaik, Shikhandi and Other Stories They Don’t Tell You

• Devdutt Pattanaik, “The Real Ramrajya” (link)

• Anantanand Rambachan, “LGBT Address” (link)

• Madhuri Shekar, Hari Venkatachalam, “Same-Sex Marriage and Hinduism” (link)

• Ruth Vanita, Love's Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West

• Ruth Vanita, Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society

• Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai, "Religious Teachers’ Statements on Same-Sex Sexuality" (link)

• Ruth Vanita, “Ruth Vanita Speaks About Hinduism and LGBTQ Identities” (link)

Feminism and gender equality

• Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, "Sangh and Women" (link)

• Nicholas O'Connell, "Subversive Hindu Thought" (link)

• Kathleen M. Erndl, “The Mutilation of Surpanakha” (link)

• Nivedita Menon, “Bharat Mata And Her Unruly Daughters” (link)

• Sapna Pandya, interviewed by Sarika D. Mehta, "On Faith, Tradition, and Sexuality" (link) (transcript)

• Velcheru Narayana Rao, “A Ramayana of Their Own: Women's Oral Tradition in Telugu” (link)

• Nabaneeta Dev Sen, “Rewriting the Ramayana: Chandrabati and Molla” (link)

• Ruth Vanita, Gandhi's Tiger and Sita's Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture (Amazon)

The Hindu diaspora

• Equality Labs, “Caste in the United States: A Survey of Caste Among South Asian Americans” (link)

• Lata Jha, "What Two Hindu Temples in the US Tell Us about the Divide among Hindus in India" (link)

• Deepak Sarma, "The Academic Study of Hinduism: An Alternative Future" (link)

• Steven Ramey, “Hindu Minorities and the Limits of Hindu Inclusiveness: Sindhi and Indo-Caribbean Hindu Communities in Atlanta” (link)

• Vijay Prashad, “Letter to a Young American Hindu”

• Interview with Dr. Varun Soni (link)

• Thenmozhi Soundararajan, “The Black Indians” (link)

• Stanley Thangaraj, “Sipping on the Indian Haterade: Hindu American Whiteness and Support for Trump” (link)

Environmental justice

• Bhumi Project, “The Green Temple” (link)

• Anantanand Rambachan, “Diwali: Hearing Earth’s Cry” (link)

• Hari Venkatachalam, "One Hindu's Environmental Pilgrimage from Triveni Ghat to Tampa to the Future" (link)

Hinduism and other religions

• Richard H. Davis, “A Muslim Princess in the Temples of Visnu” (link)

• David Gilmartin and Bruce B. Lawrence (editors), Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia (link)

• “Indo-Islamic Love Stories and the Story of Rama and Sita” (link)

• Nikhil Mandalaparthy, "When the man who wrote Pakistan's national anthem saw the divine in Hindu god Krishna" (link) 

• C.M. Naim, “The Maulana Who Loved Krishna” (link)

• Ashis Nandy, “A report on the present state of health of the gods and goddesses in South Asia” (link)

• NPR segment, "Why Many Muslims In India Feel Yoga Has Been Weaponized" (link)

• NPR segment, "Om Alone in India" (link) 

• Manoj Singh, “Before the Rise of Hindutva, Gorakhnath Nurtured Muslim Yogis” (link)

• George Wolfe, "Parallel Teachings in Hinduism and Christianity" (link) 

• Joanne Punzo Waghorne, “Chariots of the God/s: Riding the Line Between Hindu and Christian” (link)