An English Divali

Last week’s column focused on the growing American celebration of Divali. This week the focus is on the United Kingdom where Hinduism is fast becoming one of the major religions. Indeed the UK government’s official statistics reveal that Hinduism is the third-largest religion in the UK. Christianity is the main religion in Great Britain according to this census report. There were 41 million Christians in 2001, making up almost three quarters of the population (72 percent — down from 97.4 in 1900). This group included the Church of England, Church of Scotland, Church in Wales, Catholic, Protestant and all other Christian denominations. People with no religion formed the second largest group, comprising 15 percent of the population. The government refused to tabulate what apparently was a very large number of people who put down their religion as “Jedi Knight” — from Star Wars movies — as a form of protest, lumping them instead into “no religion.” About one in 20 (5 percent) of the population belonged to a non-Christian religious denomination.

Muslims were the largest religious group after Christians. There were 1.6 million Muslims living in Britain in 2001. This group comprised three per- cent of the total population and over half (52 percent) of the non-Christian religious population. Hindus were the second largest non-Christian religious group. There were over half a million Hindus (558,000), comprising one percent of the total population and 18 percent of the non-Christian religious population. There were just over a third of a million Sikhs (336,000), making up 0.6 percent of the total population and 11 percent of the non-Christian religious population. There were just over a quarter of a million Jewish people (267,000), constituting 0.5 percent of the total population and 9 percent of the non-Christian religious group. Buddhists numbered 149,000 people in 2001, comprising 0.3 percent of the population of Great Britain. The religion question was the only voluntary question in the 2001 census and eight per- cent of people chose not to state their religion.

In England and Wales, 151,000 people belonged to religious groups which did not fall into any of the main religions. The largest of these were Spiritualists (32,000) and Pagans (31,000), followed by Jain (15,000), Wicca (7,000), Rastafarian (5,000), Baha’i (5,000) and Zoroastrian (4,000). Given this significant Hindu population it is no surprise that the celebration of Divali is done with great pomp and ceremony. Indeed with the flick of a switch, 6,000 bulbs will illuminate this city to mark the start of one of the biggest Deepavali celebrations outside of India. More than 70,000 people were expected to attend official events in this Asian dominated city over two days beginning October 31. The switch-on will follow a ceremony with cultural entertainment, music and dancing that starts in Belgrave Road, at 6 pm. Councillor Piara Singh Clair, the Lord Mayor of Leicester, is the guest of honour and will start the illuminations.

He said: “I am really delighted to be chief guest at this year’s Deepavali celebrations. Deepavali is an opportunity for all cultures to come together. It is a time for family and friends to share and enjoy. I am very proud of Leicester’s Deepavali celebrations.” Maganbhai Patel, president of the Leicester Hindu Festival Council, said: “We are very proud to have been at the heart of this event for more than a decade. Deepavali celebrations here are the biggest outside the Indian subcontinent, and attract visitors to our city from across the world.” This year’s official Deepavali firework celebrations are being sponsored by Alliance and Leicester, a finance major. The celebrations come after students, staff and parents at Abbey Primary School and Community centre enjoyed Raas and Garba dancing last week. Children of all ages dressed in colourful costumes enjoyed dancing to music provided by the Shivranjini group on the first day of Navratri. It is ironic or perhaps divine that  growing Divali celebrations in the UK coincided with the discovery of Hindu murtis in the river Thames.

The banks of the river Thames has yielded many exotic items, including a series of Hindu Gods and Goddesses, some of which could be more than a century old, says this article. The four Deities discovered include Durga, Ganesha, Vishnu and Hanuman. The statues are made of stone or metal. Other discoveries include two metal plaques called yantras, one of copper alloy and the other silver plated. Nikola Burdon of the Museum of London wrote in the London Archaeologist that the copper yantra has details of the nine planets. Some of these Hindu objects are modern, but three of the statuettes and the copper yantra “could possibly date back to the late 19th century,” Burdon says. Burdon says: “As the Ganges is not very accessible to the Anglo-Hindu community, it could be that they are utilising the next best thing — a river that has an impact on their lives and their surrounding.

She also says: “Another explanation is the disposal of damaged religious objects. A Hindu has a responsibility to dispose of them in a respectful  way, by returning them to the earth: this is often done by submerging the object in running water that flows to the sea. But not all the Hindu objects found on the Thames foreshore are broken or damaged.” The Museum of London has consulted Hindu leaders, who seemed surprised by the discoveries. It is not known for how long the deposition of Hindu objects has been practised. Some date to within the past 20 years. But they have been reported only within the past decade. “Deposition and discovery reflect a long tradition in the use of the Thames as a spiritual site,” says Burdon