Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment

The Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment (founded 1994) is an organization based in East Lansing, Michigan. It is a signatory to a wide range of public resolutions and petitions and works towards creating awareness on civil rights and humanitarian issues. Shrikumar Poddar was one of three founding trustees of the Bharatiya Temple of Lansing^[1], who established the temple as a non-profit organization in January 1982.

Activities

The centre has worked on issues such as:

• Urging Congress to support civil liberties ^[2][3]
• Ending the genocide in Darfur, Sudan ^[4].
• Meeting the demands of the Narmada Bachao Andolan and halting the construction of the Maheshwar and Narmada dam projects ^[5][6],
• Promoting harmony and dialogue between Hindus Muslims, as well as opposing communalism and human rights violations^[7][8][9].

The center opposed revisionist edits proposed by two extremist Hindu organizations in California's textbook curriculum (see Californian Hindu textbook controversy), and has been active in interfaith dialogue ^[10].

References