LONDON, ENGLAND, Janaury 10, 2005: Sarah Teather, Member of Parliament, made the following “Early Day Motion” in the House of Commons, according to the Hindu Council UK (“source”). Twenty MPs cosigned the motion.
“That this House notes with concern the implications for Hindu temples of the new Home Office immigration rules affecting ministers of religion, effective from 31st August 2004, which require all such ministers to demonstrate fluency in the English language to level 4; notes that this hampers the recruitment of Pujaries, in particular, whose roles are highly specialized and who are trained in India; further notes that the role of a Pujari is to perform the daily rites for the Hindu Gods in the temple and aarti, which involve caring for the Gods on a daily basis with prayers and meditation; further notes that these daily rites are central to the Hindu religion; further notes that the role of a Pujari does not involve preaching to the congregation and that this role is generally performed by swamis, sadhus or Hindu preachers, who have knowledge of English; further notes that the Pujari’s job required knowledge of Hindu texts written in Sanskrit and knowledge of Gujarati and Hindi for sung worship, but not English; regrets that the Home Office would appear to have introduced regulations based on a Judao-Christian model of worship without considering the implications for other faiths; and calls upon the Home Office to amend its regulations to provide an exception to Pujaries because they do not preach.”
The Hindu Council UK reports that some temples have had the immigration application for their choice of able Sanskrit-speaking scholar priests rejected, as with the Swaminarayan temple in Sarah Teather’s constituency.
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