Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships On April 6, 2009, President Obama announced Bhargava as one of nine appointees completing the 25-member Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She was the only Hindu American and the only representative of an Eastern religious tradition on the council. The
Pew Research Center confirmed she served on the council's interreligious dialogue and cooperation task force and advised the Obama administration on the President's June 2009 address in Cairo. Bhargava brought greater awareness of issues facing Dharmic communities — Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains — to the White House and the country. In July 2009, Bhargava published "U.S. Community-Building in a Dharmic Environment" in
The Wall Street Journal, articulating the need for Dharmic communities to "transform, mobilize talent and resources, and institutionalize the service, or seva, component" in American civic life. Following a year of deliberations, the council's full recommendations were published in
A New Era of Partnerships: Report of Recommendations to the President (March 2010), submitted to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.{{cite web assessment report titled
Call to Serve: Hindu American Community Building Through Seva,{{cite web to the President and senior administration officials.
Hindu American Seva Communities In 2009, following her White House appointment and under the guidance of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Bhargava founded Hindu American Seva Charities (later renamed Hindu American Seva Communities) as a national movement for Hindu and Dharmic faith-based community service. {{cite web the Corporation for National and Community Service and collaborated with the Oxford Research Centre for Hindu Studies on the BhumiSeva initiative to encourage temples to adopt environmentally sustainable practices.{{cite web HASC developed community service tools including UtsavSeva, connecting Hindu festivals to social justice themes, and SevaVotes.org, a civic engagement initiative for Dharmic Americans.{{cite web leaders including the
Dalai Lama,
Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati,
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,
Mata Amritanandamayi,
ISKCON, BAPS Swaminarayan, and
Chinmaya Mission. Bhargava co-hosted four conferences with the White House to advance Dharmic seva and social justice. The first, held July 29–31, 2011 at the
Eisenhower Executive Office Building, was titled "Energizing Dharmic Seva: Impacting Change in America and Abroad." At that conference, the
Bhagavad Gita was placed on the White House podium, described as a historic first.{{cite web Rabbi Joshua Stanton as "a sacred moment and one of conscious transition" for Dharmic religious communities in America.{{cite web Through its White House work, HASC advocated for re-authorization of the
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), addressed Bhutanese refugee issues, supported the appointment of the first Hindu American military chaplain, and partnered with the Department of Education on the President's Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge.{{cite web
DHS Advisory Committee Bhargava served on the
Department of Homeland Security's Faith-Based Security and Communications Advisory Committee under Secretary Janet Napolitano. The committee published its findings as the
Faith-Based Security and Communications Advisory Committee Final Report (May 2012), in which Bhargava is listed as a member. {{cite web
Developing Emergency Operations Plans for Houses of Worship (2013), reflecting her expertise bridging federal emergency management and faith-based community leadership.{{cite web ==Federal executive career==