Hinduism in England

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Historical Population
YearPop.±%
2001 546,982—    
2011 806,199+47.4%
2021 1,020,533+26.6%
Religious Affiliation was not recorded prior to 2001.
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Hinduism in England is the third largest religion in the country, with over 1,020,533 followers as of the 2021 Census. This represents over 1.5% of the English population, up from 1.1% the previous decade. Hindus are predominantly in the cities of

Bradford Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple opened in Bradford,[3] West Yorkshire
.

Year Percent Increase
2001 1.1% -
2011 1.5% +0.40%
2021 1.8% +0.30%

History

Hindu reform movement in India. He was in England in 1829 to visit his Christian friends. He also had audience with King William IV. Roy died in Stapleton, Bristol
four years later.

The orientalist and reformer

World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893.[4] In England Vivekananda's talk on Hindu philosophy and particularly on Vedanta deeply influenced Miss Margaret Elizabeth Noble, who was later known as Sister Nivedita.[5]

Early Hindus in England were usually students.

Max Muller
, an Indologist, delivered inaugural Hibbert Lectures at Oxford on the Religions of India.

In 1929 Dr. Hari Prasad Shastri (1882-1956),

Imperial and Waseda Universities and then in China also as a professor of philosophy. Hari Prasad Shastri founded Shanti Sadan[9] (temple of inner peace) in London. Trevor Leggett, an English Judo
teacher, met Shastri in 1936. He was deeply influenced by Hari Prasad Shastri's yoga teachings.

In 1935

Sir Francis Younghusband. He again visited England in 1936 addressing more meetings and especially a large gathering at Whitefield Congregational Church, organised by the British National Council of the World Fellowship of Faiths. A Self-Realization Fellowship Centre in London was formed after Yogananda's departure. In his autobiography Yogananda commented that the 'English tenacity has an admirable expression in a spiritual relationship'.[10]

There have been three waves of migration of Hindus to England. The first wave was before

doctors
including Hindus from the Indian sub-continent

The second wave of migration occurred in the 1970s after Idi Amin's expulsion of Gujarati and other Asians (who were British Overseas Citizens) from Uganda. Initially, Hindu Immigration was limited to Punjabis and Gujaratis. Later Hindu communities from other regions of the Indian sub-continent and countries like Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Mauritius and Fiji could be found in England.

The last wave of migration began in the 1990s with two types of people settling in England –

Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka and professionals including doctors and software engineers from India
.

Demographics

According to the 2011 Census of England, there are some 891,679 Hindus living there.[11] The two major cities of Hindus are London and Leicester.[12] Within London, Hinduism is found in Brent and Harrow where Hindus make up a fifth of the population, and to a lesser extent, in Southall, Hounslow, Ilford, East Ham, Croydon, Hendon, and Wembley. Outside London, Leicester has a significant concentration of Hindus, largely from East Africa and India, with over 45,000 living in the city.[13]

British Hindus by Ethnic group
Ethnic group 2001 2011 2021
Number % Number % Number %
Asian 528,521 96.62 771,496 95.70 954,900 93.57
–
Indian
 462,097 84.48 613,802 76.14 846,412 79.62
–
Bangladeshi
 1,686 0.31 3,966 0.49 6,165 0.60
–
Pakistani
 540 0.10 3,848 0.48 1,391 0.14
– Chinese 151 0.03 2,798 0.35 328 0.03
– Other Asian 64,047 11.71 147,082 18.24 158,435 15.52
White 6,947 1.27 11,601 1.44 6,455 0.63
– British 5,552 1.02 6,552 0.81 4,795 0.47
– Irish 144 0.03 272 0.03 193 0.02
– Gypsy and Irish Traveller 98 0.01 83 0.01
– Roma 58 0.01
– Other White 1,251 0.23 4,679 0.58 1,326 0.13
Mixed 5,647 1.03 9,636 1.20 10,794 1.06
– White and Asian 3,460 0.63 6,311 0.78 7,854 0.77
– White and Black Caribbean 141 0.03 385 0.05 206 0.02
– White and Black African 166 0.03 333 0.04 205 0.02
– Other Mixed 1,880 0.34 2,607 0.32 2,529 0.25
Black 2,968 0.54 5,414 0.67 1,887 0.18
– African 984 0.18 1,856 0.23 705 0.07
– Caribbean 1,639 0.30 1,314 0.16 783 0.08
– Other Black 345 0.06 2,244 0.28 399 0.04
Other 2,899 0.53 8,052 1.00 47,400 4.54
–
Arab
 1,025 0.13 103 0.01
– Other Ethnic group 2,899 0.53 7,027 0.87 46,297 4.53
TOTAL 546,982 100.0 806,199 100.0 1,020,533 100.0

Hindu organisations

Gopuram and vimana at Shri Venkateswara (Balaji) Temple United Kingdom

Many regional umbrella organisations have been set up to bring local Hindu organisations in a town or region together to engage with local government. These include the Hindu Council of Brent, Hindu Council of Harrow, Hindu Council of Birmingham and the Hindu Council of the North.

At the more local level, Hindus have many organisations that are based on community or linguistic identities. They usually cater to the cultural and community needs of a particular

Hindu denomination or sub-community. Examples of such organisations include the Arya Samaj
, Brahmin Society North London, Shree Kutch Leva Patel Community, Great Prajapati Association, International Punjabi Society, South Indian Association, Maharashtra Mandal of London and many others. They usually operate from own or rented premises and arrange large festivals and events, besides providing services to their communities, including religious discourses, match-making services, weddings and others.

There are a number of Hindu organisations that provide various services to different audiences in the fields of education, health care, counselling, advocacy and other areas. These include the

ISKCON Educational Services, City Hindus Network, National Hindu Students' Forum (UK) and the International Swaminarayan Satsang Organisation
.


Temples

Main article: List of Hindu temples in England
Swaminarayan Temple
at Neasden, London which is the largest Hindu Temple in Europe

There are over 150 Hindu temples in England which provide a wide range of services to different communities within the Hindu community. Some of the larger and more famous temples include the

Neasden Temple
.

The temples are centres of excellence where the community regularly congregates to worship, learn and socialise. In addition to large festivals like the

Hindu sacraments, language classes, further education, computer classes, yoga
, counselling and various other services.

In 2008, a campaign was launched to raise funds to establish a temple to serve the 2,500 Hindus in Oxfordshire.[14]

In 2020, Historic England (HE) published A Survey of Hindu Buildings in England with the aim of providing information about buildings that Hindus use in England so that HE can work with communities to enhance and protect those buildings now and in the future. The scoping survey identified 187 Hindu temples in England.[15]

Encyclopedia of Hinduism

The

diya at the event.[16]

Hindu schools

Main article: Avanti Schools Trust

Krishna Avanti Primary School in Harrow is the first state-funded Hindu school in England was approved in 2005,[17] to be run by the Avanti Schools Trust.[18] Construction of the £10 Million Krishna Avanti Primary School in Edgware, north west London, began in 2008 with the first pupils starting later that year in temporary accommodation.[19] In total there are 6 Hindu schools in England.

See also

References

  1. ^ Hindu London, BBC, 6 June 2005. URL accessed on 5 June 2006.
  2. ^ largest mandir in the North to open in Bradford
  3. ^ details of opening ceremony
  4. ^ Romain Rolland (1997), The life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel (translated from the original French by E.F. Malcolm-Smith), page 86, fifteenth impression published by Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta (first published in 1931).
  5. ^ Pravrajika Atmaprana (1992), Sister Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, page 5, published by Sister Nivedita Girls' School, 5 Nivedita Lane, Calcutta 3 (first published in 1961).
  6. ^ Sen K. M. (1961), Hinduism, The World's Oldest Faith, page 109, Penguin Books, London, England
  7. ^ Tagore, Rabindranath (1963), The Religion of Man, Unwin Books, London England (first published in 1931)
  8. ^ "Hari Prasad Shastri: Life and Work". www.worldwisdom.com. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
  9. ^ "Center of Non Duality | Advaita Vedanta | London". Shanti Sadan. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
  10. ^ Paramahansa Yogananda (1986), Autobiography of a Yogi (sixth impression), pages 360, 465, published by Jaico Books, Bombay (first Indian edition in English was puiblished in 1963).
  11. ^ 2011 Census: Religion, local authorities in England and Wales: Table KS209EW
  12. ^ Minority religions mainly in London. National Statistics. Accessed 5 Jun 2006.
  13. ^ [1] BBC News 28 September 2003
  14. ^ Hindu worshippers in first prayer BBC News, 15 September 2008
  15. ^ Singh, Jasjit; Tomalin, Emma (2020). "A Survey of Hindu Buildings in England. Historic England Research Report 203/2020". research.historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-06-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ Joanna Sugden (reported by), Britain's PM David Cameron Unveils Encyclopedia of Hinduism, The Wall Street Journal, 28 October 2014.
  17. ^ First UK Hindu school in London BBC News, 12 October 2005
  18. ^ "North London Hindu school will be 'the first of many'". BBC. 25 April 2020.
  19. ^ Hindu state school beginning work BBC News, 6 June 2008

External links

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