Author: Liz Hawley
Publication: Leicester Mercury
Date: May 10, 2004
URL: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=132407&command=displayContent&sourceNode=132390&contentPK=9881896
More than 100 first-generation Hindus
in the city are taking part in a new project to record their memories of
emigrating to Britain.
The British Hinduism Oral History
Project will give future generations a chance to get to know themselves
- through the voices of Hindus who were first in the family to move to
Britain.
Hindus who came to Leicester in
the 1970s, fleeing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, are among those who have
been invited to recording sessions at temples and libraries this summer.
Their spoken memories of arriving
in Britain will be taped, transcribed and stored permanently at a museum
in Oxford.
In total, 300 interviews of first
generation Hindus will be carried out around the country, and around 150
of them will be in Leicester.
Nathubhai Jagjivan, trustee chairman
of Shree Sanatan Mandir temple, in Weymouth Street, came to Britain in
1972.
He said: "It is a good idea to store
our memories for future generations. People will be able to find out what
it was like for the first generation in this country and compare it to
now.
"When I came here, there was no
Indian food and that is one of the things that has changed in the last
few years. There is nothing you can't get in this country now."
Fellow first-generation Hindu Pravin
Acharya came to Britain in 1968. He brought up his family in Leicester.
He said: "When I first came here,
I was very disappointed, because it was winter and I had come from East
Africa, where it was hot.
"There were no Indian clothes shops,
no Indian cinemas and there were not many temples. There were not many
Asians around.
"This project is a good idea and
I think it will help give future generations more of an identity in years
to come."
Leicester was chosen for the study
because it has the largest population of Hindus outside India.
It is feared that without capturing
the history of the older generation, the Hindu community in Britain will
lose access to their heritage.
The interviews will be stored in
the Hindu Archive at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, and used as a
resource for future research and media projects.
Shaunaka Roshi Das, the director
of the centre, said: "It is a chance for first-generation Hindus to engage
with their own history, explore issues of identity and begin to interpret
their tradition, establishing British Hinduism."
It is the only national project
of its kind.
The project is being run in Leicester
at the Shree Hindu temple, in St Barnabas Road, between May 10 and 17,
at the Shree Jalaram Prarthana Mandal, in Narborough Road, between May
17 and 24, and at the Shree Ram Mandir, in Hildyard Road, between June
7 and 14.
Recordings are also being carried
out at Leicester Libraries between June 14 and June 28.
