| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 546,982 | — |
| 2011 | 806,199 | +47.4% |
| 2021 | 1,020,533 | +26.6% |
| Religious Affiliation was not recorded prior to 2001. | ||
Hinduism in England is the third largest religion in the country, with over 1,020,533 followers as of the2021 census. This represents over 1.8% of the English population, up from 1.5% in 2011 and 1.1% in 2001. Hindus are predominantly in the cities ofLondon andLeicester, where they make up greater proportions of the population. England has a number ofHindu temples, including theHindu temple at Neasden which is a largeHindu temple inEurope.[1] In 2007, the largest HinduMandir in the North of England,[2] theBradford Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple opened inBradford,[3]West Yorkshire.
Hinduism has been inEngland since the early 19th century. Occasionally there were Hindu scholars, philosophers, reformers and also visitors from the princely states ofIndia.Raja Ram Mohan Roy (born in India in 1772) was founder of aHindu reform movement in India. He was in England in 1829 to visit his Christian friends. He also had audience with KingWilliam IV. Roy died inStapleton, Bristol four years later.
The orientalist and reformerSir R.G. Bhandarkar visited London in 1874. In 1879Aurobindo went to England as a boy with his two brothers to study, living in Manchester, London (St. Paul's School) and Cambridge (King's College) where he stayed until 1893.Swami Vivekananda visited England in 1895 and 1896, having addressed theWorld's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893.[4] In England Vivekananda's talk onHindu philosophy and particularly onVedanta deeply influenced Miss Margaret Elizabeth Noble, who was later known asSister Nivedita.[5]
Early Hindus in England were usually students.Rabindranath Tagore (later aNobel Laureate) went to England in 1878, returning to India in 1880. Fifty years later Tagore was at Oxford[6] deliveringHibbert Lectures (1930) on the Religion of Man.[7]Ramanujan, a mathematical genius and an orthodox Hindu, spent almost five years (1914–19) atCambridge University.Professor Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan wasSpalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at theUniversity of Oxford from 1939 until 1952. Hinduism had already received widespread attention in theVictorian era largely due to the work of theTheosophical Society and emergence of the new field,Indology. In 1878Max Muller, an Indologist, delivered inaugural Hibbert Lectures at Oxford on the Religions of India.
In 1929 Dr. Hari Prasad Shastri (1882-1956),[8] who was a highly learned teacher (Acharya) of Adhyatma Yoga in India, went to England having taught for many years in Japan atImperial andWaseda Universities and then in China also as a professor of philosophy. Hari Prasad Shastri founded Shanti Sadan[9] (temple of inner peace) in London.Trevor Leggett, an EnglishJudo teacher, met Shastri in 1936. He was deeply influenced by Hari Prasad Shastri's yoga teachings.
In 1935Paramahansa Yogananda visited England, returning from the USA. In London he addressed a large meeting at Caxton Hall introduced bySir Francis Younghusband. He again visited England in 1936 addressing more meetings and especially a large gathering at Whitefield Congregational Church, organised by the British National Council of the World Fellowship of Faiths. ASelf-Realization Fellowship Centre in London was formed after Yogananda's departure. In hisautobiography Yogananda commented that the 'English tenacity has an admirable expression in a spiritual relationship'.[10]
There have been three waves of migration of Hindus to England. The first wave was beforeIndia's Independence in 1947. Before theSecond World War Hindu migration to England was minuscule and largely temporary. During thepost-war era, economic conditions compelled many Indians including Hindus to leave their country in search of better opportunities. The fact that Indians, asCommonwealthcitizens, didn't require avisa to enter or live in the United Kingdom was a factor. In the early 1960s, in order to save theNHS, the Conservative Health MinisterThe Rt Hon Enoch Powell recruited a large number ofdoctors including Hindus from the Indian sub-continent
The second wave of migration occurred in the 1970s afterIdi Amin'sexpulsion ofGujarati and other Asians (who wereBritish Overseas Citizens) fromUganda. Initially, Hindu Immigration was limited to Punjabis and Gujaratis. Later Hindu communities from other regions of the Indian sub-continent and countries likeGuyana,Trinidad and Tobago,Mauritius andFiji could be found in England.
The last wave of migration began in the 1990s with two types of people settling in England –Tamil refugees fromSri Lanka and professionals including doctors and software engineers fromIndia.
Leicester'sChanda Vyas became the first female Hindu priest, orpurohita, to conduct ceremonies includingweddings andfunerals, in the United Kingdom, conducting ceremonies in both theEnglish andGujarati languages.[11][12]
According to the 2011Census of England, there are some 806,199 Hindus living there.[13] The two major cities of Hindus are London and Leicester.[14] Within London, Hinduism is found inBrent andHarrow where Hindus make up a fifth of the population, and to a lesser extent, inSouthall,Hounslow,Ilford,East Ham,Croydon,Hendon, andWembley. Outside London,Leicester has a significant concentration of Hindus, largely from East Africa and India, with over 45,000 living in the city.[15]
| Region | 2021[16] | 2011[17] | 2001[18] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Greater London | 453,034 | 5.1% | 411,291 | 5.0% | 291,977 | 4.1% |
| South East | 154,748 | 1.7% | 92,499 | 1.1% | 44,575 | 0.6% |
| East Midlands | 120,345 | 2.5% | 89,723 | 2.0% | 66,710 | 1.6% |
| West Midlands | 88,116 | 1.5% | 72,247 | 1.3% | 56,668 | 1.1% |
| East | 86,631 | 1.4% | 54,010 | 0.9% | 31,386 | 0.6% |
| North West | 49,749 | 0.7% | 38,259 | 0.5% | 27,211 | 0.4% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 29,243 | 0.5% | 24,074 | 0.5% | 15,797 | 0.3% |
| South West | 27,746 | 0.5% | 16,324 | 0.3% | 8,288 | 0.2% |
| North East | 10,924 | 0.4% | 7,772 | 0.3% | 4,370 | 0.2% |
 England | 1,020,533 | 1.8% | 806,199 | 1.5% | 546,982 | 1.1% |
| Ethnic group | 2001 | 2011 | 2021 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Asian | 528,521 | 96.62 | 771,496 | 95.70 | 954,900 | 93.57 |
| –Indian | 462,097 | 84.48 | 613,802 | 76.14 | 846,412 | 79.62 |
| –Bangladeshi | 1,686 | 0.31 | 3,966 | 0.49 | 6,165 | 0.60 |
| –Pakistani | 540 | 0.10 | 3,848 | 0.48 | 1,391 | 0.14 |
| –Chinese | 151 | 0.03 | 2,798 | 0.35 | 328 | 0.03 |
| – Other Asian | 64,047 | 11.71 | 147,082 | 18.24 | 158,435 | 15.52 |
| White | 6,947 | 1.27 | 11,601 | 1.44 | 6,455 | 0.63 |
| –British | 5,552 | 1.02 | 6,552 | 0.81 | 4,795 | 0.47 |
| –Irish | 144 | 0.03 | 272 | 0.03 | 193 | 0.02 |
| –Gypsy and Irish Traveller | 98 | 0.01 | 83 | 0.01 | ||
| –Roma | 58 | 0.01 | ||||
| –Other White | 1,251 | 0.23 | 4,679 | 0.58 | 1,326 | 0.13 |
| Mixed | 5,647 | 1.03 | 9,636 | 1.20 | 10,794 | 1.06 |
| – White and Asian | 3,460 | 0.63 | 6,311 | 0.78 | 7,854 | 0.77 |
| – White and Black Caribbean | 141 | 0.03 | 385 | 0.05 | 206 | 0.02 |
| – White and Black African | 166 | 0.03 | 333 | 0.04 | 205 | 0.02 |
| – Other Mixed | 1,880 | 0.34 | 2,607 | 0.32 | 2,529 | 0.25 |
| Black | 2,968 | 0.54 | 5,414 | 0.67 | 1,887 | 0.18 |
| – African | 984 | 0.18 | 1,856 | 0.23 | 705 | 0.07 |
| –Caribbean | 1,639 | 0.30 | 1,314 | 0.16 | 783 | 0.08 |
| – Other Black | 345 | 0.06 | 2,244 | 0.28 | 399 | 0.04 |
| Other | 2,899 | 0.53 | 8,052 | 1.00 | 47,400 | 4.54 |
| –Arab | 1,025 | 0.13 | 103 | 0.01 | ||
| – Other Ethnic group | 2,899 | 0.53 | 7,027 | 0.87 | 46,297 | 4.53 |
| TOTAL | 546,982 | 100.0 | 806,199 | 100.0 | 1,020,533 | 100.0 |
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Many regional umbrella organisations have been set up to bring local Hindu organisations in a town or region together to engage with local government. These include the Hindu Council of Brent, Hindu Council of Harrow, Hindu Council of Birmingham and the Hindu Council of the North.
At the more local level, Hindus have many organisations that are based on community or linguistic identities. They usually cater to the cultural and community needs of a particularHindu denomination or sub-community. Examples of such organisations include theArya Samaj, Brahmin Society North London, Shree Kutch Leva Patel Community, Great Prajapati Association, International Punjabi Society, South Indian Association, Maharashtra Mandal of London and many others. They usually operate from own or rented premises and arrange large festivals and events, besides providing services to their communities, including religious discourses, match-making services, weddings and others.
There are a number of Hindu organisations that provide various services to different audiences in the fields of education, health care, counselling, advocacy and other areas. These include theChinmaya Mission, which offers classes on the Hindu Scriptures,BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha,Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies,ISKCON Educational Services,City Hindus Network,National Hindu Students' Forum (UK) and theInternational Swaminarayan Satsang Organisation.
There are over 150 Hindu temples in England which provide a wide range of services to different communities within the Hindu community. Some of the larger and more famous temples include theSwaminarayan Temple inNeasden, theBhaktivedanta Manor (Hare Krishna) Temple inLetchmore Heath near Watford, theBalaji Temple in Birmingham, the Sanatan Mandir in Leicester, the Vishwa Hindu Mandir in Southall, theMurugan Temple in Manor Park and the Gujarat Hindu SocietyKrishna Temple inPreston. There are also 6Shri Swaminarayan Temples in different areas of London, not to be confused with the famous SwaminarayanNeasden Temple.
The temples are centres of excellence where the community regularly congregates to worship, learn and socialise. In addition to large festivals like theJanmashtami festival at Bhaktivedanta Manor which attracts 80,000 visitors or theDiwali festival at Neasden which attracts 50,000 people, many temples provide services likeweddings,Hindu sacraments, language classes, further education, computer classes,yoga, counselling and various other services.
In 2008, a campaign was launched to raise funds to establish a temple to serve the 2,500 Hindus inOxfordshire.[19]
In 2020,Historic England (HE) publishedA Survey of Hindu Buildings in England with the aim of providing information about buildings that Hindus use in England so that HE can work with communities to enhance and protect those buildings now and in the future. The scoping survey identified 187 Hindu temples in England.[20]
TheEncyclopedia of Hinduism was unveiled in October 2014 by the British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron at aDiwali function held in London at theQueen Elizabeth II Conference Centre near Westminster. The function was hosted byLord Andrew Feldman, the Chairman of the Conservative Party and attended by more than 1000 guests. PM Cameron and his wifeSamantha lit a ceremonialdiya at the event.[21]
Krishna Avanti Primary School in Harrow is the first state-funded Hindu school in England was approved in 2005,[22] to be run by theAvanti Schools Trust.[23] Construction of the £10 MillionKrishna Avanti Primary School inEdgware, north west London, began in 2008 with the first pupils starting later that year in temporary accommodation.[24] In total there are 6 Hindu schools in England.
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