LONDON, ENGLAND, July 12, 2006: Hindus living in Britain do not want to be described as “Asian,” according to a big study of the community. Instead, they want to be known as British Indian, Hindu — or even Desi, a Hindi word growing in popularity with the young that means being rooted in one’s home country. At the time of the 2001 Census the Hindu population in Britain had reached nearly 550,000. The report, Connecting British Hindus, to be published in the Commons today, was funded by the Government and carried out by the Runnymede Trust and the Hindu Forum. It found concern about a “general assumption” that any brown-skinned Asian person was Muslim and shows that Hindus feel neglected, marginalized and misunderstood. One example is their funeral traditions. One Hindu says in the report: “Our rituals take two hours and crematoria do not have the time, facilities or space for these rituals. We are trying to build a crematorium, but the planning permission needs to be given.” Another example was the large number of hospitals that will provide halal Muslim food but not vegetarian Hindu food.
Lord Parekh, who is a Hindu, writes in the report that the community is politically “invisible” because it makes “few noises when confronted with injustices.” He says that British Hindus, drawn mainly from Asia and East Africa, have quietly concentrated on building their careers, holding families together and nurturing their children’s education. In three generations, he says, they have risen to senior positions in most of the professions and have a larger middle class than any other ethnic minority except the Jewish community. Yet only two MPs are Hindu. Although relations with other communities are described as excellent, “those with Muslims leave much to be desired,” the Labour peer says.
The researchers interviewed more than 120 people in focus groups, carried out an online survey of nearly 700 and conducted telephone interviews. One finding was that although Hindus are more likely than average to own their own houses, more than a fifth live in overcrowded conditions. Traditionally, several generations live in the same house. Hindus have a high rate of marriage, fewer one-parent families, a high birth rate and a lower divorce rate than the average. Their children do better than average at school. There are pockets of deprivation and half of those surveyed reported discrimination. The Metropolitan Police in London recorded 932 faith hate crimes against Sikhs and Hindus in the month after the July 7 bombings last year. An interviewee in Leicester told researchers: “The Asian word is abused. I would rather someone called me Indian. Russians are Asians. Half of Russia is Asian but they are never called Asian. Chinese are Asians and they’re called Chinese. But Indians, somehow, become Asians, as though they own the whole continent.”