Aseem Ravindra Shukla is the Director of
Minimally Invasive Surgery
Minimally invasive procedures (also known as minimally invasive surgeries) encompass surgical techniques that limit the size of incisions needed, thereby reducing wound healing time, associated pain, and risk of infection. Surgery by definition ...
in the Department of Urology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PA and is a Professor of Surgery (Urology) at the
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest me ...
.
Shukla is the co-founder and board member of the
Hindu American Foundation
The Hindu American Foundation ( ) is an American Hindu advocacy group founded in 2003. The organisation has its roots in the Hindu nationalist organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad America and its student wing Hindu Students Council. Scholars arg ...
.
Medical career
Education
Dr. Aseem Shukla completed undergraduate studies at the University of Florida and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of South Florida. He then went on to do his residency in General Surgery and Urology at the same institution. Following that, he did his fellowship in pediatric urology at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, consistently ranked the number one children's hospital in the United States.
Shukla completed residencies in general surgery and urology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine and a fellowship in pediatric urology at The
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is a children's hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with its primary campus located in the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia in the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. The ...
(CHOP). Prior to returning to CHOP, he served as director of urology at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital and held associate professorships in urology and pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Shukla additionally served as the Residency Program Director of the University of Minnesota Department of Urology. At CHOP, Dr. Shukla is the Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery with a keen clinical and research interest in robotic-assisted
laparoscopy
Laparoscopy () is an operation performed in the abdomen or pelvis using small incisions (usually 0.5–1.5 cm) with the aid of a camera. The laparoscope aids diagnosis or therapeutic interventions with a few small cuts in the abdomen.Medl ...
, urinary reflux,
hydronephrosis
Hydronephrosis describes hydrostatic dilation of the renal pelvis and calyces as a result of obstruction to urine flow downstream. Alternatively, hydroureter describes the dilation of the ureter, and hydronephroureter describes the dilation of th ...
, urinary tract reconstruction,
hypospadias
Hypospadias is a common variation in fetal development of the penis in which the urethra does not open from its usual location in the head of the penis. It is the second-most common birth abnormality of the male reproductive system, affecting abo ...
and disorders of sexual differentiation.
International Bladder Exstrophy Collaboration
Shukla is active in efforts to develop pediatric urology as a discipline globally. Since 2009, Shukla leads an annual complex pediatric urological surgery teaching course and multi-institutional collaboration—The International Bladder-Exstrophy and Epispadias Collaborative—at the
Civil Hospital in
Ahmedabad, India that is supported by the Association for the Bladder Exstrophy Community and Hindu American Physicians in Seva. Shukla is also a volunteer surgeon for the Foundation for the Children of Iran, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1991 by Princess
Yasmine Pahlavi
Yasmine Pahlavi ( fa, یاسمین پهلوی, née Etemad-Amini, Persian: ; born 26 July 1968), is the wife of Reza Pahlavi, the last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran.
Biography
Yasmine Etemad-Amini was born in Pars Hospital i ...
, to help arrange medical and surgical treatment for Iranian children.
Religious Advocacy
Shukla is the co-founder and board member of the
Hindu American Foundation
The Hindu American Foundation ( ) is an American Hindu advocacy group founded in 2003. The organisation has its roots in the Hindu nationalist organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad America and its student wing Hindu Students Council. Scholars arg ...
, a religious advocacy group founded in 2002. Shukla frequently writes
weblogfor the Washington Post'
On Faithsection and participated in a widely read online debate with Deepak Chopra over the Hindu roots of yoga.
Debate with Deepak Chopra
In April 2010, Shukla, on a ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
''-sponsored
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
on faith and religion, criticized Chopra for suggesting that
yoga
Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-conscio ...
did not have origins in
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or ''dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global po ...
but is instead an Indian spiritual tradition which predated Hinduism. Later on, Chopra tried to explain yoga as rooted in "consciousness alone" which according to him, is a universal, non-sectarian eternal wisdom of life expounded by Vedic rishis long before historic Hinduism arose. Chopra accused Shukla of having a "fundamentalist agenda." In a rejoinder entitled "Dr. Chopra: Honor thy heritage" Shukla called Chopra an exponent of the art of "How to Deconstruct, Repackage and Sell Hindu Philosophy Without Calling it Hindu!" Responding to the allegation of being a fundamentalist, Shukla accused Chopra of raising the "bogey of
communalism
Communalism may refer to:
* Communalism (Bookchin), a theory of government in which autonomous communities form confederations
* , a historical method that follows the development of communities
* Communalism (South Asia), violence across ethnic ...
" in order to divert the argument. The Shukla vs. Chopra debate, and the Hindu American Foundation'
Take Back Yogacampaign, was subsequently covered in the New York Times and Newsweek magazine.
Debate with Wendy Doniger
In March 2010, Shukla debated with
Wendy Doniger
Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born November 20, 1940) is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works include, 'The Hindus: an alternative history'; ' ...
on elements of one of her books on a ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'' sponsored
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
on faith and religion, and accused her of sexualising and exoticising some of the holiest passages in the Hindu scriptures. Doniger replied that her book has sold well in India and asked her critics to show specifically where her interpretations of texts were wrong.
Aseem Shukla, 'Whose history is it anyway?'
Washington Post, March 17, 2010.
References
Sources
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shukla, Aseem
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American urologists
American Hindus
University of Minnesota faculty
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania faculty