LONDON: Hinduism in England is the third largest religion in the country and represent over 1.8% of the English population. British Hindus include Hindu communities like Gujaratis, Punjabis, Tamils from Srilanka, Nepali Hindus, Fijians, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyanese & Mauritians among others. In the recent years other Indian origin Hindu communities have made UK their home.
The largest concentration of Hindus is in London and Leicester. A number of regional and cultural organisations have been set up over the years to bring local Hindu communities together. There are also a few umbrella organisations which try to bring together the voice of Hindu communities to engage with each other and represent the community e.g., HCUK, HFB etc.
The community overall is highly educated and contributes significantly to the GDP of the country. The crime rate within the community is also very low. Despite all this the community has often felt ill represented in the local and national politics.
The Hindu Manifesto for GE 2024 is a first consolidated effort to bring forward the vision and aspirations of the British Hindu community to the forefront so that the political parties and candidates understand the long pressing needs of the community and develop better understanding of what the community expects from them.
In the UK the ethnic minorities distribution and representation is better understood from a religious spectrum as opposed to nationality or other classifications primarily because communities from a number of commonwealth countries have migrated to the UK in the last 70 years and they are organised and represented locally through their religious bodies including temples, mosques, synagogues and gurudwaras.
Other minority communities including the Jews, Sikhs and Muslims have been producing a community manifesto for a number of election periods now and it is the first time that the British Hindu community have consolidated the efforts to produce a manifesto which covers a range of issues that are close to the community and represents their vision and aspirations.
Ever since the manifesto has been released, there has been a lot of interest in the Manifesto and a number of hustings organised by the hindu community has seen parliamentary candidates taking keen interest in reading the manifesto and providing their endorsement to the demands listed in the Hindu manifesto.
There have also been some publications questioning the need for a Hindu manifesto, and also questioning some issues listed in the manifesto. It is clear that there is some misunderstanding within sections of the media on the demands listed in the Manifesto and a lack of understanding on the need for a Hindu Manifesto. Let’s look at some of these questions and why there was a need for the Hindu Manifesto for GE 2024:
Why Use Religion in a democracy for representing community demands: United Kingdom is a thriving Democracy and at the same time by law United Kingdom is still a Christian country, as at the institutional level the Anglican Church maintains its status of religion of the state and King is still the Head of the Church.
This also means that ethnic minority representation both in the parliament and in local government on the basis of minority religions is within the charter of the democratic values of the country. And as stated before the Hindu community in the UK is representative of communities from various parts of the world and they come together under the common religious identity which binds them culturally, spiritually and religiously.
Streamlining Visa for elderly dependants: The streamlining of Visa policies so that elderly dependents who are struggling because of being away from their family and children has been a long-standing demand of the minority communities. There should be better options to travel and stay with their families in the UK than just being able to visit on a short tourist visa. The elderly dependents often have lost their partner, do not have any other members of family back home and are dependent on their children living and working in the UK. This is a demand based on principles of equality and human rights enshrined in the laws of the land and there is precedence of similar Visa regulations in other countries like the USA, Canada etc.
Anti Hindu Hatred: Last year there were communal riots in Leicester which is the one of the largest Hindu population town in the UK. Hindu places of worship were attacked and vandalised. The community has felt deprived of justice from the policing action and the administrative response to the violence in Leicester. The politicians and media have also not done enough to support the community and the community has felt targeted despite being a largely peaceful and law-abiding community.
The demand to recognise and include Anti-Hindu hatred as Hate crime is a pivotal demand of the community and it is not based on any knee jerk response to Islamophobia or any other such parallels but out of genuine lack of support the community received when they were attacked in the 2023 Leicester riots.
A large number of Hindu Organisations have provided their support and endorsement to the Hindu Manifesto for GE2024 and parliamentary candidates participating in the hustings over last few weeks have also shown their understanding, support and endorsement for the manifesto.