ENGLAND, May 16, 2005: Hindu Council UK (HCUK) convened an unprecedented landmark event, May 15, 2005, for Hindu leaders, temples and societies to come together to discuss, “Locating Hinduism in the transnational space of the 21st Century.” Anuja Prashar, Hindu Council UK Executive, opened the event by suggesting that, “Today the Hindu identity is being defined for Hindus through various mediums, but not defined by Hindus themselves.” She paid tribute to the Hindu leaders who have been the drivers & role models for Hinduism. The list of strong Hindu role models included, Mr. O. P. Sharma, Dr. V. P. N. Rao, Dr. J. C. Sharma, Professor Bharadwaj, Dr. G. Bhan, Dr. Shastryji, Dr. Dilip Lakhani and Dr. I. Patel. Anuja asked leaders to cooperate and form a collective Hindu voice to empower the future generations of Hindus.
Dr. P. Kumar from Oxford Hindu centre, urged the audience to remain mindful of their role and position within British society, which would remain separate from their relationships with India, as they collectively moved forward to establish an identity for the future. The visiting president of the American Hindu Foundation, Dr. Mihir Meghani, made the audience aware of the human rights atrocities against Hindus which have been documented by his organisation. Dr. V. Rao, an HCUK trustee and executive of the Inter-faith network, recommended that Interfaith dialogue needs to be rejuvenated and structured to take account of the emerging assertion of non-Abrahamic philosophies. The audience participation session in the afternoon revealed many benefits and some risks to creating a collective Hindu voice. However, it was agreed that there is an increasing need to establish a collective Hindu voice for future effective socio-political engagement. Hindu Council UK has been mandated to form a “Think Tank” with an emphasis on the benefit of promoting the pluralistic philosophy of Hinduism.
A daily summary of world news for Hindus and non-Hindus alike