Hinduism in Sweden

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The "Om" symbol in Devanagari

Kannadigas.[2]

History

Some Indian students who went to Sweden in the 1950s settled down there. Another stream of Indians came from Uganda in the 1970s. Some Indians sought and obtained political asylum after 1984. The Indian community is culturally very active. Different associations hold cultural functions and observe national days.[3]

There were also Tamil Hindu refugees from Sri Lanka and Hindu refugees from Bangladesh. After Sweden’s immigration policy reform in 2008, India has become a leading country of labor supply, mostly of computer specialists.[4]

Shaiva Siddhanta
The Om symbol in Tamil used mainly in Saiva Hindu Temples built by Tamils.

Demographics

In 2005, there were between 7,000 to 10,000

Hindus.[5] Of the 10,000 Hindus, 2,000 were of Tamil origin[6]
and 1,500 were of Bengali origin.

Hinduism is growing in Sweden due to the labour migration of Indian IT and other engineers. According to official Swedish government statistics, the number of inhabitants born in India was approximately 48,000 persons in 2021. In 2020, the Association of Religion Data Archives estimated that there were approximately 13,000 Hindus in Sweden (0.13% of the population).[7]

Hindu Organisations in Sweden

Hindu Forum Sweden (HFS) is the major Hindu association in Sweden. HFS is an umbrella organization of Hindu Forum Europe (HFE). In 2018, this organization also celebrates Hindu festival Diwali with Hindus of Sweden, Swedish politicians and representatives of inter-religious groups. Other associations include:

International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Sweden

Hindu
religion.

The Krishna movement in Sweden functions from a few places in Sweden.

Korsnäs gård, main building 2014
  • Korsnäs Gård, in
    Srila Prabhupada
    who started the movement. Srila Prabhupada visited Sweden in 1973.
  • The Hare Krishna center in Stockholm runs a restaurant, a shop and a small temple.
  • The Almviks gård in the south of Stockholm County is also a country side establishment with a temple. Originally this was an agricultural cooperative but has later changed into a village project combining agriculture with families living there but working elsewhere.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Religion in Sweden". globalreligiousfutures.org.
  2. ^ "Indian diaspora" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-12-26. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  3. ^ "ibid" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-12-26. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  4. ^ "Dear Hindutva Trolls Abusing Muslim Refugees, Tomorrow It Will be Your Turn to be Under Far-Right's Radar of Hatred".
  5. ^ United States Department of State IRF 2005
  6. ^ Tamilnation.org
  7. ^ "National Profiles | World Religion". www.thearda.com. Retrieved 2023-10-30.

External links