Project Samaanata

Samaanata means Equality. Project Samaanata encompasses Sadhana's work to address gender justice, women's rights, and LGBTQI rights, issues, and inclusion. To jump to different parts of this page, follow these links:

• Healthy Relationships here

• Domestic Violence Outreach here

• LGBTQI Rights, Issues and Inclusion here

healthy Relationships series

Through this project, we hope to promote love in all its forms — love of oneself, one's partner, and one's community. Sadhana has conducted workshops in partnership with local organizations and governmental entities to address domestic violence, respect for our LGBTQ allies, alcohol & substance abuse, mental health, and suicide. We aim to open the doors to closeted issues in order to facilitate healing and dialogue in a safe and open space. 

Previous partners for workshops have included the Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence, NYC Commission on Human Rights, CONNECT NYC, CADVA, the NJ Arya Samaj Humanitarian Mission, Caribbean Voice, the Rajkumari Cultural Center and the Caribbean Equality Project.

Domestic Violence outreach

Because of Sadhana’s work in the Hindu and immigrant community, women in crisis—particularly women in abusive marriages—are occasionally referred to us. Sadhana’s Project Samaanata Domestic Violence Advisory Committee is a group of advocates and attorneys who come together to help assist and guide these women, and connect them to the resources they need such as attorneys, shelters and counsellors. Current members of the Committee are Roli Khare Rastogi, Sulekha Prasad, Sarika Saxena, and Hamel Vyas. Sadhana currently holds a Domestic Violence Outreach workshop annually.

LGBTQI RIGHTS, CONCERNS AND INCLUSION

Our core belief in the notion of "Ekatva" means that we are all one with each other and one with the divine, regardless of gender and sexual orientation.

Listen to Sadhana Advisory Board Member Professor Anantanand Rambachan's talk about this subject. In accordance with our emphasis on social justice, Sadhana has started an initiative to illuminate the rich representations of gender and sexual diversity within Hinduism, and to advocate for the continued celebration of LGBTQI individuals within contemporary Hindu communities. Broad, capacious, and ever-changing, the wide ranging beliefs and practices we call Hinduism have long honored various voices of gender and sexuality. We plan to reanimate those voices by building a database of Hindu mythic stories, sacred scriptures, traditional practices, and academic texts that portray same sex desire as natural and joyful, and that foreground the lives of non-gender binary individuals who are in Hinduism known as tritiya-prakriti – literally, “third nature”. In addition to sharing the time-honored celebration of gender and sexual diversity in Hinduism, we are working on expanding our service to LGBTQI communities by creating a database of Queer-friendly Hindu spaces, including places of worship, pandits eager to perform gay marriages, and Queer community centers for people of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean descent. Ultimately, we aim to share our vision, asserting our contention that the practice of Hinduism is inclusive, loving, and just. 

We also share this wonderful message from Professor Ruth Vanita, author of many books including Love's Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West. Ruth Vanita is an Indian academic, activist and author who specialises in British and Indian literary history with a focus on gender and sexuality studies, and LGBTQI studies. She also teaches and writes on Hindu philosophy. Her important and assuring Youtube message focuses on the essences of Hinduism and LGBTQ identities.