 Official logo of HFB | |
| Formation | December 2003 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Location |
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| Website | Official website |
The Hindu Forum of Britain (abbrHFB) is an umbrella organisation of Hindu groups in the United Kingdom. [1] Scholars have observed parallels between its discourse and Hindutva organisations in India and suggest possible links. [2]
The Hindu Forum of Britain emerged from a "Hindu Security Conference" held in London in December 2003. The conference was organised in response to an act of vandalism in a Hindu temple in west London, which caused concern among local Hindus. [2] The Forum was launched in response to the perceived ineffectiveness of the Hindu Council UK, an older umbrella organisation of Hindu groups. [2] The Hindu Forum claimed to represent a widely varying number of organisations—at one point, it claimed to represent 420 different groups—but few of these were active participants. According to the Forum, as of 2011, only 36 groups had contributed to funding the umbrella group, and were thus eligible to contest elections to its national executive. [2] It rose rapidly in prominence as the result of participating in several consultations held by the UK government, where its status as an umbrella group made the government more willing to approach it as a group representing Hindu perspectives. [2]
The Hindu Forum expressed opposition in 2006 to an exhibition at London's Asia House Gallery featuring paintings by Indian artist M. F. Hussain. [2] The organisation and its allies planned a protest outside the gallery, but two of the paintings were vandalised the evening before it was scheduled to occur. The Hindu Forum and its allies denied any connection to the vandalism: the gallery cancelled the exhibition citing reasons of security. [2] The organization also tried to mobilise support to protest against the French comedy Les Bronzés 3: Amis Pour La Vie for alleged denigration of idols. [3] [4]
In April 2007, Shambo, a bull belonging to the Hindu temple Skanda Vale, tested positive for bovine tuberculosis. The government ordered the bull slaughtered, a decision which Skanda Vale disputed, and launched a public campaign against. The campaign stated that as cows were sacred to Hinduism, and that killing the bull would thus violate British Hindus' right to practice their religion. The Hindu Forum joined this campaign, at one point stating that its volunteers would form a human chain around the bull if necessary to prevent its killing. [5] [6] The campaign was unsuccessful, and the bull was put to death. [5]
The administration of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its partial autonomy in 2019. The UK Labour Party described the act as a human rights violation. The Hindu forum and several other groups, including the Overseas Friends of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), expressed outrage at the move, and stated that its members would be canvassing support for the Conservative Party. [7]
Following the protest against Hussain's exhibition in 2007, a group of scholars published a statement criticizing the Hindu Forum of Britain. It argued that the Hindu Forum and its allies were using the same methods as Hindu fundamentalist organisations in India, thereby undermining the nation's "constitutional right to freedom of thought and expression". [8] [4] Historian Edward Anderson writes that though the Forum has the image of a mainstream and representative organisation, its methods and discourse resemble that of organisations with an allegiance to Hindutva. This includes efforts to control the use of "Hindu imagery", and efforts to prevent the inclusion of caste in UK anti-discrimination legislation. [2] John Zavos, a scholar of Hindu Nationalism and South Asian diaspora politics, reiterates such concerns. [9]
The Evening Standard reported in 2007 that the then-secretary general of the HFB, Ramesh Kallidai, maintained a close association with Hindu nationalist organisations in India, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). [10] Kallidai had spoken at a conference of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh earlier in 2007, praising its founder M. S. Golwalkar, and in 2004 had defended the VHP in British parliament, describing it as a peaceful organisation. [10]
The former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown praised the work of the HFB in facilitating the integration of the British Hindu community. [11]
A representative of Nithyananda attended a Diwali event held in October 2022 at the Houses of Parliament as a guest of the Hindu Forum of Britain. Nithya Atmadayananda, a prominent supporter of Nithyananda, was photographed with Bob Blackman and President of the Hindu Forum of Britain Trupti Patel. The event was attended by Rami Ranger. The brochure for the event featured a full-page advert for Kailasa UK containing images of Nithyananda. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
Hindutva is a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the current ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Hinduism:
Bajrang Dal is a Hindu nationalist militant organisation that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). It is a member of the right-wing Sangh Parivar. The ideology of the organisation is based on Hindutva. It was founded on 1 October 1984 in Uttar Pradesh, and began spreading more in the 2010s throughout India, although its most significant base remains the northern and central portions of the country.
The Sangh Parivar refers, as an umbrella term, to the collection of Hindutva organisations spawned by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which remain affiliated to it. These include the political party Bharatiya Janata Party, religious organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad, students union Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), religious militant organisation Bajrang Dal that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and the worker's union Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. It is also often taken to include allied organisations such as the Shiv Sena, which share the ideology of the RSS.
The Hindu American Foundation is an American Hindu non-profit advocacy group founded in 2003. The organisation has its roots in the Hindu nationalist organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad America and its student wing Hindu Students Council.
Hinduism is the third-largest religious group in the United Kingdom, after Christianity and Islam; the religion is followed by over one million people representing around 1.6% of the total population. According to the 2021 United Kingdom census Hindus are primarily concentrated in England, particularly in Greater London and the South East, with just under 50,000 Hindus residing in the three other nations of the United Kingdom. Hindus have had a presence in the United Kingdom since the early 19th century, as at the time India was part of the British Empire. Many Indians in the British Indian Army settled in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The National Hindu Students' Forum (NHSF (UK)) is a network of Hindu societies operating on university and further education campuses in the United Kingdom. The NHSF (UK) was started in 1991 by young British Hindus, and has chapters on many university campuses around the United Kingdom. The NHSF has been described by historian Edward Anderson as having ties to the Sangh Parivar, a group of Hindu nationalist organisations in India such as the RSS and the BJP. In early years the NHSF had the same address as the HSS, a UK charity, per Manoj Ladwa, the then HSS spokesman. Ladwa later served as a senior advisor to Narendra Modi during his successful Indian election campaign of 2014. Although the HSS is considered to be inspired by the RSS, a UK charity commission inquiry in 2016 found no formal links between the two.
Ramesh Kallidai is the former Secretary General of the Hindu Forum of Britain which is the largest umbrella body representing British Hindus. Kallidai was the first Secretary General of the organisation. He has also served as a Commissioner of Integration and Cohesion to the British Government, appointed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. In 2007, the Evening Standard reported that the then-secretary general of the HFB, Ramesh Kallidai, maintained a close association with Hindu nationalist organisations in India, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Kallidai had spoken at a conference of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh earlier in 2007, praising its founder M. S. Golwalkar, and in 2004 had defended the VHP in British parliament, describing it as a peaceful organisation.
Hinduism is a minority religion in Sweden practised by 0.13% of the population or 13,000 people out of a population of 10.5 million. Hinduism is practised mainly by persons of Indian origin and non-resident Indians together. A majority of them are Tamils, Punjabis, Bengalis, Gujaratis, Telugu's and Kannadigas.
Shambo was a black Friesian bull living in the interfaith Skanda Vale Temple near Llanpumsaint in Wales who had been adopted by the local Hindu community as a sacred animal. He came to public attention in April 2007, when a routine skin test for bovine tuberculosis tested positive, indicating he may have been in contact with the bacterium that causes the disease. As a result, the Welsh Government required that the bull be slaughtered. Skanda Vale disputed this and campaigned for a reprieve, expressing their belief that the sanctity of all life is the cornerstone of Hinduism. They were backed in this stance by the Hindu religious community at large. Farmers supported the Welsh Government's policy that cattle which tested positive to the skin test are culled in the interests of other local cattle.
Sadhvi Rithambara is a Hindu Vestal (Sadhvi), public speaker and nationalist ideologue who is the founder-chairperson of Durga Vahini, the women's wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), established in 1991. She gained national prominence with VHP in the late 1980s through the Jan Jagran Abhiyan, and in the 1990s during the run up to the Babri Masjid demolition. Subsequently, she was named an accused in the Liberhan Commission report, though later acquitted by the CBI court in 2020.
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 1.8% of the English population, up from 1.5% in 2011 and 1.1% in 2001. Hindus are predominantly in the cities of London and Leicester, where they make up greater proportions of the population. England has a number of Hindu temples, including the Hindu temple at Neasden which is a large Hindu temple in Europe. In 2007, the largest Hindu Mandir in the North of England, the Bradford Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple opened in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) is an Indian right-wing Hindu organisation based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "to organise, consolidate the Hindu society and to serve and protect the Hindu Dharma". It was established to construct and renovate Hindu temples, and deal with matters of cow slaughter and religious conversion. The VHP is a member of the Sangh Parivar group, the family of Hindu nationalist organisations led by the RSS.
Raminder Singh Ranger, Baron Ranger, is a British businessman, and the founder of Sun Mark and Sea Air & Land Forwarding, an international marketing and distribution company. He is also chairman and managing director of Sea Air and Land Forwarding Ltd.
Ghar Wapsi is the programme of religious conversion to Hinduism from Islam, Christianity, and other religions in India conducted by Indian Hindu nationalist organisations Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and their allies. The term owes to the Hindu nationalist ideology that all people of India are ancestrally Hindu and, hence, conversion to Hinduism is one of "returning home" to their ancestral roots.
The National Council of Hindu Temples (NCHTUK) is an umbrella body of Hindu temples (mandirs) in the United Kingdom. It connects a network of over 200 temples in the country. It supports the temples, their management, employees and operations in order to enable public access to some of the oldest heritage sites of Hinduism. NCHTUK is also involved in areas of interfaith dialogue at forums like The Interfaith Network UK.
In December 2021, a dharma sansad of Hindu ascetics was held at Haridwar in Uttarakhand, India, where hate speeches were delivered in which the speakers called for a genocide against Muslims in the name of protecting Hinduism. The government's apathy in the face of the hate event has been condemned by a wide cross section of Indian society, including retired military leaders, civil society activists, students, academics, and retired judges.
Hindus for Human Rights is a U.S.-based non-profit advocacy group founded in 2019.
INSIGHT UK is an organisation of British Hindu and British Indian (BHI) communities in the United Kingdom. It has also been called an advocacy group on behalf of these communities.
