Aseem Ravindra Shukla is the director of
minimally invasive surgery in the Department of Urology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and is a professor of surgery (urology) at the
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Shukla is the co-founder and board member of the
Hindu American Foundation.
Medical career
Education
Aseem Shukla graduated from
Cooper City High School.
He completed his undergraduate studies at the
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...
. 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.
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, also known by its acronym CHOP, is a children's hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its primary campus is located in the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia, next to the University of ...
(CHOP). Prior to returning to CHOP, he served as director of urology at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital and held associate professorships in urology and pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Shukla also served as the residency program director of the University of Minnesota Department of Urology. At CHOP, Shukla is the director of minimally invasive surgery with a 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.Medli ...
, urinary reflux,
hydronephrosis
Hydronephrosis is the hydrostatic dilation of the renal pelvis and Renal calyx, calyces as a result of obstruction to urine flow downstream. Alternatively, hydroureter describes the dilation of the ureter, and hydronephroureter describes the dila ...
, urinary tract reconstruction,
hypospadias
Hypospadias is a common malformation in fetal development of the penis in which the urethra does not open from its usual location on the head of the penis. It is the second-most common birth defect of the male reproductive system, affecting about ...
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 has ld 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 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, a religious advocacy group founded in 2002. Shukla has written for the ''Washington Post's'' "On Faith" section and participated in an online debate with Deepak Chopra over the Hindu roots of yoga.
[The theft of yoga, The Washington Post, April 18, 2010]
Debate with Deepak Chopra
In April 2010, Shukla, on a ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
''-sponsored
blog
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
on faith and religion, criticized Chopra for suggesting that
yoga
Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...
did not have origins in
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
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" in order to divert the argument. The Shukla vs. Chopra debate, and the Hindu American Foundation'
Take Back Yoga campaign, was subsequently covered in the New York Times and Newsweek magazine.
Debate with Wendy Doniger
In March 2010, Shukla debated with
Wendy Doniger on elements of one of her books on a ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' sponsored
blog
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
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