NORWAY, August 9, 2013 (The Foreigner): As an alternative religion, Hinduism was first brought to Norway as early as 1914 by a guru, Swami Sri Ananda Acharya (1881-1945). He settled in Alvdal in Osterdalen in Hedmark County and lived there until his death in 1945. There’s a bust of him in the Alvdal Community Centre. There still are Hindus of Norwegian heritage who attend to his teachings.
Other international organisations associated with Hindu gurus came into Norway in the late 20th century. These include Ananda Marga, Transcendental Meditation, the Mehr Baba Association, and the Osho movement.
Two groups of Hindus brought Hinduism into Norway as a diaspora religion: those who migrated to western countries seeking work or education, and minority group refugees who fled repression and war. The first group comprised mostly Hindus from Punjab and other parts of northern India who settled in the Oslo-Drammen region.
The second was far larger. It included a small group of Gujarati Hindus that Dictator Idi Amin expelled from Uganda in August 1972. Tamil Hindu migrants from Sri Lanka began arriving in small numbers in the 1970s, then in greater numbers after civil war broke out in Sri Lanka in 1983. Today, three-quarters of the Hindus from south Asia living in Norway are Tamil Hindus from Sri Lanka.
There are four Hindu Temples in Norway: Santan Mandir Sabha at Slemmestad near Drammen, Sivasubramanayr Alaym (Norwegian Hindu Centre) at Ammerud in Oslo, Bergen Hindu Sabha at Danmarksplass in Bergen and Sri Tiller Ganesha at Tiller in Trondheim.