Nikhil Mandalaparthy

I have reported from India’s most famous Sufi shrines, marched with 350 religious leaders protesting an oil pipeline in northern Minnesota, traveled across India interviewing dozens of Hindu religious leaders about rising Islamophobia and religious violence, and evaluated the impact of one of Pakistan’s largest welfare programs.

As a community organizer, journalist, researcher, and curator, I am committed to promoting religious pluralism and social justice both in South Asia and North America.

My writing and reporting has been published in several outlets, such as Religion News Service, Foreign Policy, and Religion Dispatches, and has been supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and ProPublica. I’ve been quoted and interviewed by publications including BBC World Service, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, Jewish Currents, and The Wire.

I am currently a freelance consultant for a few different nonprofit organizations, and also a 2023-2025 cohort member of Interfaith America’s Sacred Journey Fellowship. Most recently, I served as Deputy Executive Director of Hindus for Human Rights, and I am an Executive Board Member of Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus. With the Aspen Institute’s Religion & Society Program, I helped launch a national network of civic and faith leaders advancing religious pluralism in the United States. I have conducted quantitative and qualitative research for organizations including the World Bank, Stimson Center, and the University of Washington.

For more, see: https://nikhilmandala.com/about