(RNS) — Law school’s notorious stress takes a toll on even the most determined students. But for a group of 20-somethings at New York University School of Law, an ancient tradition offers a framework for handling the pressure.
“Many parts of Hinduism are so well-suited to being able to handle such a high-stress profession,” said Roshni Yaradi, the co-chair of the new Hindu Law Students Association. “Like, many times, you’re handling literal life and death.
“Practices of Hinduism — including yoga, meditation, breath work — things that are so fundamental to the faith, are very stress-relieving and focusing techniques that I think any practicing lawyer should utilize.”
Yaradi and three other women, all Indian American, are the founding members of the only Hindu affinity group at any law school in the nation. HLSA officially started last spring, after taking some time to gain traction and the necessary 50 approval signatures.
Roshni Yaradi, from left, Tanya Bansal, and Megha Bansal at Broome Street Ganesha Temple in New York City. (Courtesy photo)
“If every other religious group has an organization at NYU Law, why don’t we?” thought Rachita Bommakanti, a fellow second-year student and Yaradi’s co-chair.
Indian students are the second-highest population of international students at NYU, after those from China, with more than 4,700 undergraduate and graduate students coming from India to study at NYU in the 2023-2024 academic school year.
“I think it’s a little bit of a reclamation project for us,” said Bommakanti, who hopes the HLSA will help grad-school-age Hindus, from India or the U.S., reconnect with their faith — and its resources for succeeding in the legal profession — while studying in the city.
In their younger years, Yaradi and Bommakanti, both from the DC-Maryland-Virginia area, felt reluctant to join existing Hindu student groups: partially due to what they said was a less developed relationship with their own faith, and partially due to the “very real insecurity” of being a proud, visible Hindu in the country — which is the reason, they say, most young Hindu Americans identify with the cultural, but not necessarily the reli …