Order Now | Hindu at Heart — Trade Edition
Order Now | Hindu at Heart — Trade Edition
Indu Viswanathan, Ed.D.
I am an educator and scholar curious about wonder, hope, and belonging and how we strengthen communities and schools through inquiry, listening, and compassion.
About Me
I am a scholar of education, fascinated by exploring how inner life, cultural wisdom, and learning shape the world we inhabit and the one we are creating. My work sits at the intersection of ethnography, contemplative practice, and pedagogical design and has always centered the lives and perspectives of learners, families, and educators.
My scholarship grows from deep curiosity about how the stories schools tell and the ones they leave out shape belonging for generations of children and families. That research lives in my book Hindu at Heart: Education, Faith, and What it Means to Belong in America. It also informs my community-facing work, including my ongoing conversations with educators, families, and communities about what it means to create schools and public spaces where everyone's perspective is genuinely welcomed.
My current inquiry asks what becomes possible when we approach these questions not from guilt or grievance, but from wonder — from a genuine desire to understand before we respond. I'm exploring how inquiry, listening, and compassion, drawn from both grounded research and Hindu approaches, can create new pathways toward belonging and community healing in uncertain times.
Learn more about my story below.
My Work
The research that lives in Hindu at Heart lives in the world through workshops, conversations, and partnerships with schools, districts, temples, community organizations, and anyone who wants to create spaces where genuine understanding is possible. My work is grounded in the same orientation as the book: curiosity before conclusion, listening before responding, compassion as a form of civic practice.
My Story
My journey as an educator began in New York City, against the backdrop of September 11, 2001, when I was a Master’s student at Teachers College, Columbia University. I felt called to advocate for compassion and intergroup dialogue amidst rising religious and ethnic discrimination in my beloved New York City. A few years later, I found my spiritual compass, in the form of my Guru, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a Hindu spiritual and humanitarian leader. I embarked on a path of self-discovery and community engagement, shaping my approach to education. For over two decades, I have taught in diverse settings, including New York public schools, educational NGOs and schools in India, and higher education.
Before pursuing my doctorate, I led national research and impact efforts for a school-based program focused on breathwork, meditation, and social-emotional learning, which I now refer to as the seeds of spiritual discipline. That experience of working with educators, researchers, and students led me to recognize the profound impact of contemplative practices and the limitations of current frameworks in fully grasping and communicating their significance and potential. This work in the space of interdisciplinary research led me to pursue a doctorate, where I began asking deeper questions about education, intuition, and human flourishing.
My doctoral research at Teachers College focused on the identity and belonging of second-generation Hindu American teachers in U.S. public schools. My book Hindu at Heart: Education, Faith, and What It Means to Belong in America (Briarcliff Press, 2026) is based on an ethnographic study with Hindu American parents and youth. I explore how Hindu Americans are shaping and shaped by the promises and contradictions of American public education, democracy, and citizenship. I also serve as the Director of Understanding Hinduphobia, a national initiative that I co-founded in 2021. UH supports K–12 and higher education institutions in addressing bias, improving representation, and advancing dignity for Hindu students and communities.
Today, my work carries the themes of Hindu at Heart outward, into schools, communities, and public conversations about belonging, perspective, and what it means to create spaces where everyone's way of seeing the world is genuinely welcomed. As I listen to educators, parents, and young people, I find that the longing for this kind of understanding is everywhere. That longing is what drives the work.
As a mother, educator, and seeker, I hold close the questions that shape our world and the ones we leave unasked. This site is a home for all of that work: grounded in tradition, open to emerging science and society-building, and listening for what comes next, with a steady commitment to protecting the hope, wonder, and possibility our children carry into the future.
Jai Guru Dev
Victory to the Greater Consciousness That Guides Us
Now Available
Hindu at Heart: Education, Faith, and What It Means to Belong in America
A thoughtful examination of how Hinduism and Hindus have figured in the long project of American public education.
Now available - individual and bulk orders from the first premium trade print run.