Critical Podium Dewanand Hinduism
Hinduism As a World Religion Down the Ages. Hindus
around the World
Sacrificer unknown
Sacrifice code wfor0417
Sacrifice date 25 march 2009
Hinduism As a World Religion Down the Ages
Hindus around the World
http://www.shopumust.com/hindus.html
Hinduism commands the adherence of approximately 850
million people in the world. Thus every 7th human
being is a Hindu. This makes Hinduism the third
largest religion in the world, after Christianity
(approx. 2 billion) and Islam (1.3 billion). These
figures certainly give the impression that Hinduism is
a world religion. However, a look at the geographical
spread of Hindus (Table 1) shows that the impression
is deceptive:
(Source: Encyclopedia Brittannica)
CountryApproximate Percentage of
Total Hindu PopulationNumber of Hindus in Millions
India 82 800
Nepal 89 19.69
Sri Lanka 15 2.67
Bangladesh 11 16
Bhutan 20 0.17
Pakistan 1.3 2.2
Malaysia 7.1 1.2
Indonesia 2.3 3.8\
Singapore 6 0.09
Vietnam -0.05
Hong Kong <1.0 0.04
Burma 2.0 0.24
SouthAfrica 2 0.7
Mauritius 50.6 0.58
Kenya, Uganda <1.0 0.2
Kuwait,Oman, UAE 15 0.17
Fiji 41 0.3
Trinidad and Tobago 302 40.36
Guyana 2938 0.25
Surinam 3030 0.1
Jamaica 30 3
Canada 0.5 0.22
USA 0.41
UK 0.5 0.4
Netherlands 1 0.16
It is clear that more than 95% of all Hindus reside in
India and approx. 98% in South Asia. Besides, Hindus
in most countries outside South Asia are emigrants
from India and other countries of the region. Only the
Hindus of South Asia, Vietnam and Indonesia are
indigenous. In contrast, Christians dominate countries
of the entire Western hemisphere, Europe, Oceania and
southern half of the African Continent while Islam
dominates in scores of countries in North Africa, West
Asia besides Albania in Europe, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Maldives and Bangladesh in South Asia and Malaysia,
Brunei and Indonesia in the Far East. The two
predominant reasons for the geographical confinement
of Hinduism are:
1. Traditionally, Hinduism is a non-proselytizing
religion i.e., Hindus do not normally convert people
of other faiths to their own. Forcible conversions
have never been carried (except in a solitary instance
around the Independence of India) and even peaceful
methods have not been employed on any significant
scale. This contrasts totally with the record of
Semitic faiths like Christianity and Islam.
2. In the last few centuries, Hindus in many countries
have suffered severe reverses due to absorption by or
conversion to other religions or massacres and
persecution leading to migrations to India or
conversion to other faiths.
It is pertinent to point out, however, that several
fundamental tenets of Hinduism have been accepted
whole heartedly by Non-Hindus all over the world. For
instance, one in four residents of the United States
believes in the doctrine of rebirth. The
Hindu-Buddhist spiritual discipline of Yoga has been
gaining popularity in the West for quite some time and
has even been granted recognition by certain churches.
1.2 Historical Decline of Indigenous Hindu Communities
As stated earlier, Hinduism has suffered serious
reverses in the last few centuries and this has lead
to the displacement or extinction of several
indigenous Hindu communities. Following is a brief
account of the same in different regions of the world
(the adversities faced by emigrant Hindu communities
like in Surinam and Fiji are beyond the scope of this
section):
1. Sinkiang (China):
This region, referred to as `Uttara-Kuru' in Hindu
scriptures, was inhabited by an Indo- Aryan people
called Tocharians in remote antiquity. The Tocharians
adhered to Abhidhamma Buddhism and Saivite forms of
Hinduism before the onslaught of Mongol tribes from
the East and the Arabs later. As a result, the
Tocharians simply disappeared or were absorbed by the
invading peoples. According to Indian traditions, the
Shakadvipee and Kamboj Brahmins residing in Bikaner,
Ghaziabad and several other parts or North India are
descendants of the Tocharians who fled to India1.
2. The Middle East:
Ancient Indian texts refer to Caspian Sea as Kashyapa
Sagar and the Black Stone at Kaaba, Mecca (revered by
Muslims) is referred to as a `Sivalinga' ( a Hindu
icon representing Lord Siva) by a Hindu text
`Bhavisyat Purana'. This could demonstrate that Indian
merchants traveled often to these regions for carrying
on trade. Ruins of Hindu temples are encountered in
Coastal Iran, Baku (Azerbaijan) and Iraq. Historical
records mention that fanatical mobs led by St. Gregory
massacred the tiny emigrant Hindu merchant community
in what is now Iraq, and smashed the temples and the
idols therein2.
3. Afghanistan:
Referred to as Gandhara and Vahlika in ancient
Hindu-Buddhist scriptures, Hinduism (Saivite) and
Buddhism (Mahayana) were the dominant faiths of the
ancestors of present day Pathans inhabiting the
Eastern and Southern parts of Afghanistan, before the
advent of Islam. Around 654 C.E., Arab forces started
attacking the Hindu Kingdoms of Kabul and Zabul ruled
by the Shahiya kings. The Pathans resisted for 2
centuries before they were overwhelmed and forcibly
converted to Islam3. So great was the massacre of
Hindus that the local mountain range was renamed as
`Hindu Kush' meaning `Hindu slaughter'4. With the fall
of the communist regime in 1980's and after demolition
of the Babri Masjid in India on December 6, 1992, the
75000 Hindu minority, mainly resident in Kabul,
Jalalabad and Kandhar, was targeted selectively and
their religious sites were descecrated15. They fled
en-masse to cities like Delhi in India, where they are
settled now. Several modern day Indian Hindu
communities like the Sehgals are descendent of Afghan Hindus who fled
Islamic persecution in Afghanistan several centuries
ago. The Afghan Hindus have set up a website13, to
highlight their situation.
4. Kashmir (India and Pakistan):
This region is referred to as Kashmir and Kashyapasara
in Hindu texts like the Nilamata Purana and was the
seat of Mahayana Buddhism, Vedic Hinduism and
Pratyabijna school of Hindu philosophy. Kashmir was
regarded as a cradle of Hindu scholarship till as late
as the 13th Century C.E. For instance, the Moorish
traveler Al-Beruni, who sojourned in India, states in
his memoirs5- "The Hindus have inveterate hatred for
Muslims for the forces of Islam have utterly ruined
the prosperity of Hindustan. The Hindus have been
scattered like atoms of dust and their sciences have
retreated to far off places like Kashmir, Benares and
the South." The large scale massacres and forcible
conversions of Hindus, burning of Hindu scriptures,
destruction of temples by the subsequent Muslim rulers
of the region have been documented vividly6,7 and are
being left out. In modern times, the possession of
Kashmir has been a major bone of contention between
India and Pakistan ever since the two countries were
partitioned from erstwhile British India in 1947 C.E.
At that time, encouraged by Pakistan, the fanatically
Muslim Pathan, Afridi and Chitrali tribesmen invaded
the Hunza, Balistan, Gilgit, Ladakh, Poonch, Rajouri,
Mirpur and Muzaffarabad regions of Jammu and Kashmir
and let loose a reign of terror9. The genocide of the
20% minority of Hindus in these regions was total. For
instance, the 100,000 strong proud Hindu Vaish
community of Mirpur and Poonch areas was massacred,
and their women-folk were sold as slaves in cities of
Pakistan. More recently, in the last 15 years,
terrorism in the Kashmir valley, partly fueled by
Islamic fundamentalism, has lead to massacres of the
Hindus in the valley. Almost the entire Kashmiri Hindu
community (300,000) has fled to Jammu, Delhi and other
parts North India to escape the wrath of Islamic
terrorists. Members of this erudite and cultured
community have set up websites to highlight their
plight 14. In this year alone, the Kashmiri militants
have killed approximately 150 members of this minority in
parts of Kashmir- 29 were killed in the village of
Barankot on April 18, 1998, for their refusal to
convert to Islam8.
5. Pakistan:
Pakistan was a Hindu country till the invasion of
Sindh by Arabs in 712 C.E. and of Punjab later on by
Turks and Afghan Muslims. Thereafter, barring brief
periods, Hindus of the region suffered violent bouts
of persecution and discrimination at the hands of
their Muslim rulers. Hoards of Muslims Sufis also
descended from Iran and Central Asia to preach and
propagate Islam while the practice of Hindu customs
and study of Hindu texts was abolished. Consequently,
millions of Hindus were either killed for refusal to
convert to Islam, or converted (either under duress,
or due to their own will to escape the disabilities of
the Hindu caste system, or to escape crippling Jaziyah
tax imposed by Muslim rulers on Hindus or to acquire
material advantages in the Muslim state), or fled to
other parts of India (for instance, the Arora
community of N. India is from Aror- the ancient
capital of Upper Sindh)26. It is well known that the
Muslim majority areas of India were carved out from
British India to form Pakistan. The country was comprised of
two wings- West Pakistan (modern Pakistan) and East
Pakistan (Bangladesh). The word Pakistan means "Land
of the Pure"- implying that the founders of Pakistan
established an Islamic state for pure Muslims from
India dominated by `impure' non-Muslims. Hindus
constituted 11% of the population of Pakistan (28% in
Sindh, 11% in West Punjab, 7% in N.W.F.P. and 8% in
Baluchistan) in 1946 C.E. when large scale massacres
of Hindus started10,11. The Hindu community fled
en-masse from Punjab and N.W.F.P. and later from Sindh
as a result of which, they are now a tiny minority of
1.3% there. Most Pakistani Hindus now live in the
remote and barren parts of the province of Sindh,
where they form a 6% minority. They are not even the
largest minority in Pakistan- the Christians form the
largest minority (1.5%). daily persecution of the
hapless Hindu minority continues 12,13 as a result of
which migration to India and conversion to Islam in
Pakistan under duress is still in progress. The
Pakistani Hindus have set up a web-site15 that is
worth visiting.
6. Bangladesh:
Islam spread mainly through peaceful conversion of the
natives by active Muslim Sufis and Pirs like
Suhrawardy of Sylhet but persecution of Hindus leading
to their massacres, destruction of temples etc. were
not uncommon. To start with, Hinduism was not firmly
established in most parts of Bangladesh when Islam
arrived. Most inhabitants followed a mixture of
animist, tantric Buddhism and primeval Hindu beliefs.
In 1947 C.E., when East Pakistan was formed, Hindus
constituted 34% of the population there but relentless
persecution and Govt. triggered communal rioting and
massacres of Hindus started soon and millions of
Hindus migrated to India or converted to Islam under
duress16,17. In 1971 C.E., the Bengalis started a war
of Independence from West Pakistan. The West Pakistani
dominated army of Pakistan retaliated brutally. Hindus
were targeted in particular18. About 3.0 million
Bengalis (including 2.4 million Hindus) were
massacred. About 10 million Bengalis (of which 8
million were Hindus) fled to India. After the establishment of
Bangladesh, the Hindus there (already down from 34% to
16%) heaved a sigh of relief but their hopes were
dashed soon after when Bangladesh was declared as an
Islamic nation. A series of discriminatory acts have
been passed19 by the Bangladeshi Govt. to the
disadvantage of Hindus and daily suppression of Hindus
by their Muslim neighbors continues. The plight of
Bengali Hindus is poignantly narrated in a
semi-fictitious book "Shame20" by Taslima Nasreen- a
Bangladeshi Muslim. As a result, she drew a fatwah
ordering her death from the Muslim clergy of
Bangladesh. The author now lives in Sweden under
asylum. After the demolition of the Babri Mosque in
India in Dec. 1992, fanatical Muslim mobs went on a
rampage in Bangladesh, destroying 200 temples, killing
2000 Hindus and raping several 1000 Hindu women 21. In
September-October 1997, the Durga Puja celebrations of
Hindus were attacked by Muslim youth all over the
country in about 100 places. Hindus were demanded to pay the Jaziyah tax
for `practicing pagan customs in a Muslim country.'22
Due to continued persecution, the % of Hindus has
dwindled to 11% and some estimate it to be as low as
8% now.
7. Indonesia:
This country was once the seat of powerful Hindu
empires like the Majhapit in the island of Java and
Sri Vijaya in the island of Sumatra. Indonesians
believe that Hindu culture was brought to Indonesia by
Sage Agastya- who is a legendary Sage in the Hindu
tradition and is credited with spreading Vedic Hindu
culture south of the Vindhya mountain range in Central
India. The belief of Indonesians might be apocryphal,
but evidence of practice of Hinduism as early as 4th
Century C.E. in parts of Indonesia is known from
inscriptions. In the early 15th Century C.E., Muslim
traders from India and elsewhere and Muslim Holy men
called Sufis carried the message of Islam to Sumatra
and thence to other islands of the archipelago. Large
numbers of Indonesians peacefully converted to Islam
and several petty rulers of islands in the region too
accepted Islam for commercial reasons. However, the
rulers and the population of the Majhapit kingdom on
Java resisted, leading to protracted warfare between
Muslim Indonesians and the Majhapit kingdom.
Occasionally, Hindus in the Muslim ruled areas
suffered persecution but such instances were rare23.
The boundaries of the kingdom shrunk towards east and
eventually the royal family fled to the adjoining
island of Bali, where Hinduism is still the religion
of masses. Hindus are also found in large numbers in
the adjacent island of Lombok and also in the eastern
shores of Java and I have personally witnessed their
festivities and customs during my visit to Indonesia
in March-April 1996. Soon after the advent of Islam in
Indonesia, European powers like the Dutch and the
Portuguese became rulers of Indonesia and checked the
cultural Islamization of Indonesia as a result of
which, despite being overwhelmingly Muslim (86%),
Indonesians still adhere to their pre-Islamic Hindu
culture. The Javanese, especially are called the
`Abangan' (easy going) Muslims. Thus, the Javanese
still have Hindu names, enact Hindu epics like the
Ramayana. A lot of their greetings and customs are distinctly Hindu, as
known from my personal experience with my Javanese
friends. The emblem of the National Airlines of
Indonesia is the bird Garuda- the mount of the Hindu
deity Lord Vishnu. Hinduism is one of the five
officially recognized religions in Indonesia (the
other being Confucianism, Christianity, Islam and
Buddhism). The Hindu New Year is a national holiday in
Indonesia. In recent decades, Indonesian Muslims have
targeted members of the predominantly Christian
Chinese minority and Christian24 Indonesians with
violent attacks but the Hindus have not been molested.
Approximately 500000 members of the animist Tengger
community in Eastern Java have embraced Hinduism25 in
the last three decades while 2 million have opted for
Christianity.
8. South East Asia:
Hinduism and Buddhism reached Thailand, Laos, Vietnam,
Kampuchea and Burma simultaneously and there was a
fusion of these two sister religions there, with the
Buddhist element generally dominating. The largest
Hindu temple in the world (Angkor Wat) is found in
Kampuchea. By and large, Hindu practices have been
absorbed peacefully into Buddhism in the region and
distinctly Hindu customs are employed only when there
is no Buddhist parallel (like the coronation
ceremonies of Thai kings). These ceremonies are
performed by descendants of Brahmin priests who were
invited to the region by local kings several centuries
back. This was learnt by during personal visits to
these countries in the year 1986.
9. India:
Indians were referred to as `Hindus' in ancient times
and the two terms were fairly synonymous. However,
large parts of the country passed under Islamic rule
and under subsequently under Portuguese, French, Dutch
and British rule. Millions of Hindus were converted to
Islam and Christianity till, by 1947 C.E.
approximately 25% and 1.5% of the population of the
Indian Subcontinent had converted to Islam and
Christianity respectively. While Hindus converted to
other religions, they themselves refused to accept any
converts. Thus, most indigenous Muslims26 and
Christians are descended from Hindu and Buddhist
Indian ancestors. We may summarize the following
causes for the conversion of Hindus to Islam and
Christianity:
a. Hindu Caste System:
The social structure of the Hindu society put some
communities/castes at a severe disadvantage in all
temporal matters. Islam and Christianity offered these
communities social equality and so several Low Caste
Hindus and tribals left their ancestral beliefs. For
instance, the socially inferior Lohana Rajputs of
Bahawalpur (now in Pakistan) converted to Islam when
the Muslim Sufi Farid offered them sops for converting
to Islam. About 80% Christians in India have Low Caste
or Tribal origins.
b. Forcible conversions:
This was an important factor in the spread of Islam in
South Asia. Often, the invading Muslims offered a
choice between Islam and death to the inhabitants of
subjugated Hindu areas31. The stories of cruelty and
barbarianism of Islamic rulers are folklore among the
Hindu masses of India. Similarly, in the Portuguese
ruled part of Goa32, Catholicism was often forced upon
the Hindus and Muslims there. It is estimated that the
8 century long Islamic rule witnessed the massacre of
80 million Hindus26. This is the root cause of the
on-going Hindu-Muslim fued in South Asia.
c. Anhilation of symbols of Hinduism:
Islamic rule in India saw a widespread destruction of
Hindu places of worship27, burning of libraries (Eg.
Vikramshila in 1200 C.E.), burning of Hindu scriptures
(Eg. Emperor Aurangzeb ordered destruction of Hindu
scriptures in Thatta in Sindh and in Multan in West
Punjab), selective massacres of Hindu priestly class;
prohibition of Hindu customs and rituals; desecration
of rivers, ponds etc. held sacred by Hindus (for
instance, Timur threw slaughtered cows into River
Ganga at Hardwar and massacred the entire Hindu
population of Delhi, while sparing the Muslim-Sayyad
quater of the city). All these acts demoralized the
leaderless Hindus further and drove them to accept the
faith of the victorious - Islam.
d. Worldy allures offered to converts:
Often Hindus found it easier to rise in the Muslim run
administration system by converting to Islam since the
Muslim rulers of India by and large favored their
co-relgionists for the top positions. Hindu traders
were often charged higher taxes than their muslim
counterparts. Most Muslim rulers exacted the crippling
Jaziya tax from hapless Hindu masses to keep them in
poverty. Hindus often had to pay taxes to practice
various aspects of their religion (Eg. Temple entry
tax, pilgrimage tax). Some Muslim rulers pardoned the
crimes of Hindu criminals if they converted to Islam.
All these measures forced several Hindus to convert to
Islam.
e. Unfair Laws against Hindus:
While Hindus could convert to Islam and still retain
their inheritance, the reverse was not allowed. Hindus
were not allowed to marry Muslim women unless they
converted to Islam while Muslims could easily marry
Hindu women. Emperor Jehangir26 (1605-1628 C.E.)
ordered approx. 400 Hindu families of Northwest Punjab
to convert to Islam since their men had married Muslim
women. Some Muslim rulers insulted/decapacitated
Hindus by preventing them from carrying arms or riding
elephants etc.
f. Higher growth rate of Muslim Population:
This was due to the greater fertility rate of muslim
women, prevelance of widow remarraige amongst Muslims,
polygamy and continuous influx of Muslims from Persia,
Central Asia etc. into India.
g. Superstitious beliefs of Hindus:
As a result of nightmarish experiences that Hindus had
with Muslims and the Portuguese, Hindu masses reduced
social intercourse with Muslims and Christians. Those
Hindus, who interacted with Muslims or Christians,
were osctracised by the Hindu society and often
excommunicated. For instance, the court musicians of
Moghul Emperor Muhammad Shah `Rangila', who were
Brahmins, faced great ostracism from Hindus and so
were forced to convert to Islam. (Their descendants
are the famous Dhrupad singers- Dagar brothers).
Similary, an entire community of Hindus were declared
outcastes by neighbouring Hindus in Vasai (Thane
district of Maharasthra) after they accidently drank
water from wells that had been `polluted' by pieces of
bread that had been thrown into them intentionally by
the Portuguese! Hindus also stopped admitting
non-Hindus into Hinduism and even to this day, many
Hindus oppose the idea of converting non-Hindus to
Hinduism. Thus, conversion was a one way traffic from
Hinduism to other faiths.
1.3 Emigrant Hindus - The Hindu Diaspora:
a. Oceania:
Till recently, Australia and New Zealand followed a
`white only' policy which excluded most Asians from
the continent. Only recently have the two countries
relaxed immigration rules to allow more Asians
including Indians to emigrate. In case of Indians, it
is widely known that Indian Christians are favored
over non-Christians for immigration. An estimated
100000 Indians are now settled in Australia and
presumably most of them are Hindus. Most Indians here
are recent arrivals and hail from affluent sections of
the Indian society. They still adhere to the same
forms of Hinduism as are practiced in India, without
of course the facilities of Hindu temples and
priesthood. It is too early for then to
`Australianize' their Hindu beliefs. The only island
with any significant Hindu population is Fiji. Indians
are approximately 46% of the total population and
accordingly, Hindus could account for a little less
than 40% of all inhabitants. Indians/Hindus here are
essentially descendants of the
rebellious `Purubiya' (of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar regions of India) settlers who were taken from
India in large numbers more than a century ago to work
in sugar plantations there. Due to their cultural
origin, Fijian Hindus study the `Ramacharitamanas' and
devotional texts on Lord Hanuman with great faith, put
saffron flags atop their houses very often and
celebrate Hindu festivals like Holi, Vijayadashmi,
Diwali in the North Indian manner. A few years back,
the pro-Christian forces lead by General Rabuka, who
is a native Fijian, captured control of the island and
put several humiliating restrictions on the practice
of religious beliefs of Hindus. However, he has since
been succeeded by a Prime Minister of Indian origin,
who has removed these restrictions. Nevertheless, this
episode has shaken the confidence of Hindus there and
has made them realize the need to organize in a better
manner to thwart any such future incidents.
b. Europe:
Barring Britain and Netherlands, no other European
country has a sizeable Hindu community. Hindus in
Great Britain number about 400 000 or approximately
0.7% of the population. They are mainly Gujaratis and
Punjabis who emigrated either directly from India or
from erstwhile British colonies like Kenya, Nigeria,
Guyana. About two decades back, the Ugandan dictator
Idi Amin singled out the Indian ccommunity (mainly
Gujarati) for harassment as a result of which 65000 of
them fled Uganda, mainly for England. The Hindus of
Britain practice their faith very actively and have
established a chain of beautiful temples all over the
country. The Swaminarayan temple at Neisden (in
Greater London) is a beautiful marble edifice
constructed recently and has already been christianed
as the `Taj Mahal of England.' British Hindus are also
well organized as is evident from their collective
protest against actions perceived by the community as
insulting to or discriminating against Hindu
sentiments. For instance, approximately a decade back, about 10000
Hindus marched in protest in London when permission
was refused for construction of a Hindu temple at the
outskirts of London on the grounds that the temple
architecture violated local architectural traditions.
In 1989, the `Shila Pujan' ceremony advocated by the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad- a Hindu organization that has
been clamouring for the construction of a Temple at
Ramajnmabhoomi at Ayodhya, drew widespread support- so
much so that the English mayor of Kent- a town with a
large Indian population, presided over the ceremony34.
Netherlands too has a large Hindu population, mainly
people who fled from Surinam in the 1960's to escape
the Creole perpetrated atrocities. It is of interest
to note that 14% of population of East Europe is Gypsy
who were originally Hindus of Afghanistan and Punjab
(in India and Pakistan) enslaved by invading Islamic
hordes and carried off to Central Asia and beyond. In
course of time, the Gypsies have become
Christians to survive but still retain several
vestiges of their Hindu/Indian past. The Lithuanians
are another interesting community of Europe. They were
the last European nation to adopt Christianity and so
still retain several features of their Pagan cultural
past. Lithuanian mythology has a lot in similarity
with Vedic mythology and in addition to the now
extinct Vedic Sanskrit (language of Hindu revelation),
Lithuanian is the only `accented' language. Indian
participants Surinder Attri and Arvind Ghosh recently
participated in the International Pagan Conference at
Lithuania and in personal communications to me,
expressed amazement at the similarity between folk
Lithuanian culture and Vedic beliefs. It appears that
Lithuanians are also aware of their link with ancient
Indian culture and are proud of it35. Europe also has
distinguished centers of oriental/Hindu studies like
Utrect (Netherlands), Helsinki (Finland), Berlin
(Germany), Vienna (Austria) where oriental scholars
continue to produce excellent works on Hindu culture
and philosophy. As for indeginous Hindus, there are
hardly any in Europe and most of them are Hare
Krishnas. Native Italian Hindus recently petitioned
the Italian Govt. for state recognition of Hinduism- a
process that is expected to take approximately 15
years. Portugal too has a tiny Hindu minority
emigrated from Goa. Portuguese Hindus have constructed
a beautiful Hindu temple in the heart of Lisbon on
land that has been donated by the Govt. of Portugal.
c. North America:
Details of Hindu Diaspora in Canada and the United
States will be covered in the next chapter. This
subsection will deal mainly with the Hindu communities
in the Caribbean Islands. Indians, predominantly
Hindus, were introduced as indentured laborers in 1838
in British Guiana and later to Trinidad, Jamiaca,
Grenada, St. Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe and
Surinam. Right from the beginning, they had to face
sustained attacks on their religions by aggressive
Christian missionaries on one hand and state sponsored
discrimination against Hindu religious practices on
the other. Thus, Hindu marraige and cremation customs
were not recognized and upon the death of a Hindu man,
the state treated his widow as concubines and his
children as bastards, especially in Jamaica and
Grenanda. Lack of awareness of their own relgious
beliefs, apathy of Hindu priests, lack of effective
leadership in the Indian community and intermarraige
with Christian creole majority caused enmasse
conversion of Indians to Christianity and their absorption into mainstream
communities in Jamaica and Grenada. In Guadeloupe
though, the tiny Hindu minority has constructed
several Hindu temples to keep its faith alive.
d. South America:
Three countries in this continent have a sizeable
Hindu population- Surinam, Guyana and Trinidad and
Tobago. In Trinidad and Guyana, the Hindus suffered
considerable erosion in their ranks but their greater
numbers and the Hindu response lead by Arya Samaj has
stopped the conversions and Hinduism is still the
relgion of majority of immigrant Indians. In all
countries barring Surinam, Hindus face some disability
or the other in practicing their religion and are
under constant Christian missionary propaganda and
enticements. For instance, several Hindus have had
their children converted to Christianity so that they
could have the opportunity of a better school
education. Surinamese Indians form 37% of the
population of their country and 82% of them adhere to
Hinduism. In Guyana, Indians are 53% of the population
with Hinduism being the faith of 60% of them. All over
the Carribean, immigrant Indians are descedent from
Purubiya Hindus and so follow the Hindu customs of
Gangetic Plains in
varying degrees.
e. Africa:
Before the United States took over a decade back,
South Africa had the largest immigrant Indian
community in the world. Immigrant Indians form about
3% of the total population of South Africa and so
number approx. 1 million. They are concentrated in the
eastern regions of Natal and Transvaal of the country.
About 65% are Hindus, 15% Muslims and the rest
Christians. Indian Christians are mainly Hindu
converts who adopted their new faith in the first half
of the century. These large scale conversions jolted
the Hindu community of South Africa and Arya Samaj -
an aggressive and reformist Hindu sect stepped in to
stem the tide of defection from Hinduism. Since then,
Hindus have consolidated themselves and conversions to
Christinaity have ceased. Indian Hindus are mainly
Gujaratis and Tamils and continue to follow their
regional variations of Hinduism. Mauritius- an island
in the Indian ocean has a 63% Indian majority of which
80% follow Hinduism. Hindus in Mauritius have been
well organized from the start and wield considerable clout
in political matters, with several successive Prime
Ministers being of Indian Hindu origin. Mauritian
Hindus still frequent the pilgrim centers of India,
but have now established the 13th Saivite Jyotirling
on the island, after the 12 in India. The
conscecration ceremony was attended by the Mauritian
Prime Minister Mr. Anirood Jaganaut (Aniruddha
Jagannatha) and was preced by the emptying of pitchers
of water from Holy rivers of India into a lake at the
banks of which the temple was to be constructed. Arya
Samaj is an important sect of Hindus on the island,
but most Hindus follow the customs observed by Hindus
of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India since
their anscestors came from these areas. Several 1000
Indians also reside in the former British colonies of
Kenya and Tanzania. Although they form less than 1% of
the population of these countries, they have
considerable economic clout and are a well respected
minority.
Again, Hindus there have a very restricted interaction
with the locals and do not seek converts. Diwali is a
national holiday in Kenya. During recent bomb blasts
at the US Embassy at Daar-es-Salaam in Tanzania and
Nairobi in Kenya, Hindu Students Councils of these
countries were at the forefront in providing medical
aid to the victims36.
f. Asia:
Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and
the Middle East have sizebale immigrant Hindu
communities. The Indian/Hindu community of Burma is a
legacy of the British rule when almost a million
Indians (mostly Bengali) emigrated to Burma. However,
when Burma obtained its freedom in 1948 C.E., most of
them returned to India. Those still there often
intermarry with local Burmese and there have been
several cases of conversion to Buddhism37. Indians
number approximately 10% of the population of Malaysia
and 70% of them are Hindus. They mainly reside in the
rubber plantations of the Penang province and are
predominatly from the Coromandal coast of Tamil Nadu
in India, from where the British took them a few
decades back to work in the rubber plantations. There
have been cases of friction between the Hindu minority
and the indigenious Muslim community. In 1979 C.E.,
mobs of Malay muslims ran amuck plundering Hindu
temples and smashing idols of Hindu deities38. In the
beginning of this year also, there was a fear of a riot when 1500
Muslims attacked a newly built Hindu temple next to a
mosque, complaining that the loud speakers of the
Hindu temple were provocative. The Prime Minister of
Malaysia (Mahathir Mohammad) had to step in to defuse
the tension and ordered the relocation of the temple.
Muslims are barely over 50% of the population in
Malaysia and have yet declared it an Islamic state,
putting mainly Buddhist Chinese and Hindu Indians at a
disadvantage vis-a-vis `Bhumiputra' Muslim Malays.
Singaporean Hindus too number 7% of the population of
the Island and maintain close cultural and religious
links with the parent Tamil Hindu community of India.
There are several beautiful Hindu temples in Singapore
and Hindus of the Island have also set up a beautiful
website. Hindus emigrant from India form a double
digit % of the population of several Arab countries
like Kuwait, U.A.E., Oman, Yemen and so on. However,
these countries are strictly Islamic nations
and brook no competition from rival faiths. Cremation
is disallowed in these countries and only the
comparatively liberal states of Sharjah (one of the 7
Emirates of U.A.E) and Oman have allowed construction
of one Hindu temple each. Saudi Arabia does not allow
Hindus to worship icons even in the privacy of their
homes in the country and has barred the entry of all
Sikhs and all Hindus bearing the surname `Singh.'
References:
Considerable help has been taken from information
available on the web in addition to books. Both are
referenced below:
Pt. Udayavira Sastri; Samkhya Darsana ka Itihasa;
Virjanand Vaidika Shodha Samsthana; Ghaziabad, India
Sita Ram Goel; History of Hindu-Christian Encounters;
Voice of India; Delhi, India; 1986
Sita Ram Goel; Heroic Hindu Resistance to Islamic
Invaders (654 A.D. to 1206 A.D.); Voice of India;
Delhi, India
Web
http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/modern/hindu_kush.html
Tawarikh-e-Hind
Narendra Sehgal; Converted Kashmir: A Bitter Saga of
Religious Conversion; Utpal Publications; Delhi; 1991
(Available on-line at Reference # 8.b)
K. N. Pandit; Baharistan-I-Shahi: A Chronicle of
Medieval Kashmir (An English Translation); Firma KLM
Pvt. Ltd.; Calcutta; 1989 (Available on-line at Ref. #
8.b)
Web http://www.hindunet.org/kashmir/killingsApr98
Web http://www.kashmir-information.com/
Bal Raj Madhok; Kashmir- The Storm Centre of the
World; A. Ghosh - Publisher; Houston; 1992
Massacres of Sikhs and Hindus in West Pakistan; Sri
Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee; Amritsar, India
Details personally heard from members of numerous
migrants from West and East Pakistan now residing in
Delhi (including my maternal grand-parents and my
In-laws)
Web
http://rbhatnagar.ececs.uc.edu:8080/human_rights/pakistan/pak_herald_
report_1.ht\
r9/6/98
Web www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/6706/index.html
Web http://www.hindunet.org/kashmir
Web `Pakistani Hindu Patrika'
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/7295
Baljit Rai; Muslim Fundamentalism in the Indian
Subcontinent; B.S. Publishers; Chandigarh, India; 1991
S.K. Bhattacharya; Genocide in East Pakistan; A. Ghosh
- Publisher; Houston; 1987
Web
http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/modern/hindu_bangla.html
Web
http://rbhatnagar.ececs.uc.edu:8080/human_rights/bangladesh/introduct
ion.html
Taslima Nasrin; Shame; Prometheus Books; New York;
1997
Arvind Ghosh; Koran and Kafir; A. Ghosh - Publisher;
Houston; 1994
Web http://www.hvk.org/hvk/articles/1197/0051.html
Ira Marvin Lapidus; A History of the Islamic
Societies; Cambridge University Press; New York; 1988
Web http://www.domini.org/openbook/
Robert W. Hefner; Hindu Javanese: Tengger Tradition
and Islam; Princeton University Press; Princeton, New
Jersey; 1985
Kishori S. Lal; Indian Muslims - Who Are They?; Voice
of India; Delhi; 1992
Ram Swarup, Arun Shourie, Jay Dubashi, Ssita Ram Goel,
Harsh Narain; Hindu Temples - What Happened to Them?
(Two Volumes); Voice of India; Delhi; 1997
Kishori Saran Lal; Early Muslims in India; Aditya
Prakashan; Delhi; 1984
Dwarka Nath; A History of Indians in Guyana; Published
by the author- 30 Crowther Road, South Norwood,
London; 1970
I. J. Bahadur Singh (Ed.); Indians in the Carribbean;
Sterling Publishers Private Ltd., New Delhi; 1986
Margaret A. Gibson; Accomodation Without Assimilation;
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York; 1988
Titus; Islam in India and Pakistan
A. Prilokar; Goa Inquisition; Voice of India, Delhi
Hindu Vishwa; A VHP publication (annual); 1989 issue
Emails from Sri Surinder Paul Attri- an Indian
participant from the United States at the World Pagan
Conference 98' at Vilnius, Lithuania
Email received from the Hindu Students Council of
Kenya
Personal conversations with Mr. Sibal, an Indian
importer of rice from Burma
Collin Maine; The Dead Hand of Islam; The Australian
Humanist Asscociation; Sydney; 1982
Karen Isaksen Leornard; The South Asian Americans;
Greenwood Press; Westport, CT; 1997
Madhok, Balraj; What is a Hindu Rashtra?
Chatterjee, Abhas Kumar; Concept of a Hindu Nation;
Voice of India; Delhi
Mazumdar, Shampa; " Sacred Spaces: Socio spatial
adaptations of Hindu Migrants"; PhD dissertation;
Northeastern University, Boston; 1995
***
Critical Podium Dewanand Hinduism
All rights reserved.
|