Hinduism in England

In 1879 Aurobindo 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.

[4] In England Vivekananda's talk on Hindu philosophy and particularly on Vedanta deeply influenced Miss Margaret Elizabeth Noble, who was later known as Sister Nivedita.

Hinduism had already received widespread attention in the Victorian era largely due to the work of the Theosophical Society and emergence of the new field, Indology.

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 at Imperial and Waseda Universities and then in China also as a professor of philosophy.

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.

During the post-war era, economic conditions compelled many Indians including Hindus to leave their country in search of better opportunities.

In the early 1960s, in order to save the NHS, the Conservative Health Minister The Rt Hon Enoch Powell recruited a large number of doctors including Hindus from the Indian sub-continent The second wave of migration occurred in the 1970s after Idi Amin's expulsion of Gujarati and other Asians (who were British Overseas Citizens) from Uganda.

Later Hindu communities from other regions of the Indian sub-continent and countries like Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Mauritius and Fiji could be found in England.

The last wave of migration began in the 1990s with two types of people settling in England – Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka and professionals including doctors and software engineers from India.

[12] Within London, Hinduism is found in Brent and Harrow where Hindus make up a fifth of the population, and to a lesser extent, in Southall, Hounslow, Ilford, East Ham, Croydon, Hendon, and Wembley.

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.

[18] The Encyclopedia of Hinduism was unveiled in October 2014 by the British Prime Minister David Cameron at a Diwali function held in London at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre near Westminster.

[21] Construction of the £10 Million Krishna Avanti Primary School in Edgware, north west London, began in 2008 with the first pupils starting later that year in temporary accommodation.