2024-07-05 15:50:26
London: Before the general elections in Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is seen trying to woo Hindu voters. Recently Sunak along with his wife Akshata visited Sri Swaminarayan Temple in London. After offering prayers, he said that I am a Hindu and take inspiration from my faith. Sunak also said that he is proud to take oath as a Member of Parliament on the Bhagavad Gita. Before the elections to be held on July 4 in Britain, this effort of Conservative Party’s Rishi Sunak is being seen as an attempt to woo British Hindu voters. The reason for this is that there are about 10 lakh Hindus in Britain, who are going to be important in the upcoming elections.
According to the Firstpost report, how important Hindu voters are in the elections in Britain can be gauged from the fact that Sunak’s main rival Keir Starmer also visited the Swaminarayan temple in Kingsbury. He also shared his vision for a strategic partnership with India and made many promises to the Indian community. Starmer condemned Hinduphobia in Britain during this time. On the other hand, Sunak said that this temple is a great example of the contribution of the Hindu community to the development of Britain. He said that education, hard work, family, these are my values and these are Conservative values.
How influential are Hindus in Britain?
The number of followers of Hinduism in Britain is more than 1 million. With its population, Hinduism is the third largest religion in Britain. In Britain, major organizations like BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha UK, Chinmaya Mission and ISKCON UK are considered to be representatives of Hindus. British Hindus constitute 1.6 percent of the total population in England and Wales. This number is very important in elections. The number of Hindus has increased rapidly in Britain. In 2001, the number of Hindus in Britain was 552,421, which increased to 835,394 in 2011. At present, there are a total of 1,066,894 Hindus in Britain.
The Hindu community in Britain lives in cities. 97 percent of Hindus living in Britain live in London and South-East regions. The political influence of British Hindus cannot be understood only from the population figures. The influence of the community is very high due to its strong network. Despite lagging behind in pre-election surveys, Sunak’s Conservative Party is hopeful that it will get the votes of Hindus. As Britain’s first Prime Minister of Indian origin, Sunak is trying to woo British Indian voters.
Sundar Katwala, director of the British Future think tank, says it is a positive thing for the Conservative Party that they have a British Indian leader Rishi Sunak. However, there is no scale to decide how much it matters to British Indian voters that the party leader is from their background.