There are numerous Hindu temples in United Kingdom. Here is a look at the top 10 Hindu temples in Britain. Keep in mind that the popularity and significance of temples can change, and new ones may be established as the Hindu diaspora is growing in England. There is also a great interest in Hindu teachings in Britain as it is closer to science, nature, environment and answers man’s main mental concerns and worries. Neasden Temple (BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir), London: This is one of the largest Hindu temples outside of India and is known for its stunning architecture and cultural exhibitions. Southampton Hindu Temple, Southampton: This temple serves the Hindu community in the Southampton area and hosts various religious and cultural events. Shree Sanatan Hindu Union (Hindu Temple and Community Center), Leicester: This temple is an important center for the Hindu community in Leicester and the surrounding areas. Bhaktivedanta Manor, Watford: This is a Hare Krishna temple and...

Hinduism's ability to accept atheism as a school of thought stems from its intrinsic philosophical diversity and tolerance. Here’s an expanded perspective: Diverse Philosophical Traditions : Hinduism encompasses a wide range of philosophical perspectives, known as darshanas, which include schools of thought that are explicitly atheistic (like the Charvaka school) or agnostic. Acceptance of Doubt and Inquiry : Hinduism values inquiry and questioning as pathways to understanding truth. This openness allows for atheistic viewpoints to coexist alongside theistic ones without conflict. Concept of God in Hinduism : Hinduism's conception of the divine is highly diverse and inclusive. While many Hindus worship personal gods and goddesses, others interpret the divine as an abstract principle or cosmic force, which aligns with atheistic views that reject personal gods. Focus on Dharma and Ethics : Hinduism places significant emphasis on dharma (righteousness, duty) and ethical conduct r...

Shree Swaminarayan Mandir at Kingsbury in North London, with solar panels and rainwater harvesting system and many other eco-friendly measures, is believed to the first modern Hindu Temple to be completely eco friendly. The temple is noted for its traditional Hindu architecture but what makes it stand out from some of the modern Hindu temples built in Europe and United States is the green initiatives. The 20 million pound temple includes a multi-function hall with facilities for sports and receptions and was funded entirely by was funded entirely by Hindus. You can find more about the construction of this unique Hindu temple here at the official website.

Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir, the new Hindu Temple at Wembley (at Ealing Road north-west London ) in United Kingdom , opened on May 31, 2010. The temple which took nearly 14 years to complete is believed to have cost more than £16m. The temple has been built using the ancient temple architecture methods mentioned in the temple building scriptures associated with Hinduism. Majority of the portion of temple are hand carved in limestone. The hand carving was done at Sola Town in Gujarat , India . The hand carved pieces were transported to England and was pieced together at Wembley. The temple houses 41 hand carved Hindu deities all made in pure marble. The temple has murtis of all the important deities in Hinduism including Shiva, Sita Ram, Srinathji, Radha Krishna, Ambaji, Ganesha, Hanuman, Mahadevi or Durga and Tirupati Balaji.

A devout Hindu, Davender Ghai, aged 71, had asked for an open-air cremation when he dies but it was denied by Newcastle city council in Britain . Davender Ghai had argued then that denying him an open-air ritual ‘will enslave his soul in endless earthly entrapment.’ This legal debate in England had taken place in March 2009. Now through an appeal in Court of Appeal, Davender Ghai won the right to be cremated on a traditional funeral pyre. Mr Ghai agreed that he was willing to be cremated within existing rules with his funeral pyre ‘enclosed in a structure.’ Dailymail.UK reports Davender Ghai was refused permission for the ceremony by Newcastle City Council and lost a challenge to that decision at the High Court in London in May last year. But today the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, who headed a panel of three appeal judges, over turned those rulings. He said: … it seems to us that Mr Ghai's religious and personal beliefs as to how his remains should be cr...

Davender Ghai, a practicing Hindu, had asked for an open-air cremation when he dies but it was denied by Newcastle city council in Britain . Davender Ghai had argued then that denying him an open-air ritual ‘will enslave his soul in endless earthly entrapment.’ This debate had taken place in March 2009. It seems an appeal on the matter in the High Court will be taken up in this week. Jay Lakhani has started another debate by suggesting in his article in the Guardian UK that Hindus don't need open-air cremation. And there is no religious reason to demand open-air cremations. To pursue this 'right' in court goes against the spirit of Hinduism. To a Hindu like me, what was particularly worrying in the earlier hearing, at the high court, was the insistence that unless cremation takes place in the open air, the soul remains trapped in the body. Ghai complained that, without such a cremation, his soul would be enslaved in "in endless earthly entrapment". Such insi...

Davender Ghai, an elderly Hindu man, who wants an open-air cremation in United Kingdom when he dies, lost his case in the High Court in London . The devout Hindu was challenging the decision by Newcastle City Council in 2006, northeast England, which denied to let his body be burnt on an open-air pyre in line with his Hindu religious beliefs. Davender Ghai is the founder of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society (AAFS) and had argued that a traditional open-air funeral pyre was essential for the release of his spirit into the afterlife and had suggested a site in a remote part of Northumberland. He wants his body to receive Vedic last rights and burned close to flowing water. Similar to what is the usual practice in Kashi. BBC Reports On Friday, Mr Justice Cranston ruled that pyres were prohibited by law, and the prohibition was "justified". Mr Justice Cranston said that Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who had resisted Mr Ghai's legal challenge, argued that peop...

Pressure is mounting on United Kingdom (UK) to let all retired Gurkha servicemen stay in the country. This after UK government put up strict conditions to settle in Britain for those Gurkha servicemen who left the army before 1997. The Gurkhas have been a unique part of the British Army for two centuries and their history with the British Army begins with colonization of India by Britain . Most of the Gurkhas are Hindus and are famous for their bravery. More than Forty-three thousand Gurkhas died in two world wars fighting for UK . The Economist reports The Gurkha saga has been going on for years, with pay, pensions and immigration rights the main battlefields. The grievance now at stake is that Gurkhas who retired before July 1997 are not granted an automatic right to settle in Britain, on the grounds that they were based in Hong Kong until 1997 and were therefore unlikely to have strong British ties. Newer Gurkha recruits, who are based in Britain, and Commonwealth recruits...

Raja Ram Mohan Roy is one of the great reformers of India who challenged unethical practices Hindu society and culture and fought for women's rights and for an end to the practice of ‘sati.’ He died in 1833 while visiting Bristol in Britain . A tomb was raised here his memory. Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s tomb at Arnos Vale in Bristol had fallen into disrepair. The tomb, an architectural gem, was recently restored and opened to public. The restoration of the tomb was made possible by a donation last year of more than £50,000 from Aditya Poddar, a Kolkata Businessman. In 1997, a statue of Raja Ram Mohan Roy was placed on College Green in Bristol .

Hindus carry their faith and the idols of gods to any place they go. They will find a small neat corner for the idol in the home and from here the Hindu directly communes with god and shares burden, joys and sadness. Such a place set up 29 years ago by Dhirajlal and Sushila Karia in a spare bedroom in Essex in England is today a popular Hindu Temple and hundreds of people daily visit to pray and get blessings. Paul Harris writes in Mail Online about the Hindu Temple in the spare bedroom some excerpts from the article The couple created the temple as none was available locally when they moved in the Seventies from North London . The original plan was that the couple, their son, daughter, family and friends would worship there. Three decades later, and thanks to word of mouth and reports in some newspapers, Britain 's most unlikely temple has been visited by Hindus from as far away as Canada and Nepal , and by tourists from other religions. In the room, 17 gods a...

Starting from May 16, 2008, the British Library in London will be exhibiting more than 100 paintings from the 17th-century Mewar Ramayana manuscripts. The free-entry exhibition is titled 'The Ramayana: Love and Valour in India 's Great Epic' and will end on September 14, 2008. About the 17th-century Mewar Ramayana manuscripts Commissioned by Jagat Singh, this illustrated manuscript of the 'Ramayana' is on the grandest scale, consisting of seven large volumes with over 400 paintings. Four of the original seven volumes are in the British Library, having been given by Maharana Bhim Singh to James Tod, the historian of the Rajputs, in about 1820. The principal artist working in the Udaipur court studio in the 17th century was Sahib Din. His known works span the years 1628 to 1653. By select and inventive borrowings from the type of popular work produced in the Mughal capital, he was able to transform Rajput painting into a sophisticated vehicle for the depiction ...

The Prefect Ganesh, written by Terrence McNally, an America playwright, is a quest for philosophical answers in India by two middle-aged suburban women with help of Hindu God Ganesha. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. The Perfect Ganesh will be presented at various venues in Britain in March and April 2008 by Phizzical Productions and South Asian Touring Theatre Consortium. Two middle-aged suburban women Margaret Civil and Katharine Brynne abandon their annual vacation ritual and purchase a holiday package to India . Both women are tired of their unsuccessful marriages and both had not yet got over personal tragedies, which include the death of their respective sons. In India , the two women come across the happy and benevolent Ganesha as guide. Katherine Brynne wants to find a perfect Ganesha statue to add to her collection and this is when Ganesha appears and become part of the play. The Perfect Ganesh is set in the India of early 1990s and is directed...

Britain ’s first state-funded Hindu School , the Krishna-Avanti school in Harrow , has come under criticism from Hindu organizations over its definition of ‘practising Hindu.’ The school is set to open in Harrow , north London , in September 2008 and the ‘practising Hindu’ definition is outlined in the admission policy of the school. According to the admissions policy document, the Krishna-Avanti school defines practising Hindus as those who follow a version of Hinduism requiring daily practice of deity worship and prayer either in the temple or at home; undertake weekly temple-related charity work; participate fortnightly in temple programmes; accept and put into practice the teachings of the Vedic scriptures, in particular the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita; and abstain from meat, fish, eggs, alcohol and smoking. The admissions policy also allows for available places to be filled by children from families ‘broadly following’ the tenets of Hinduism. But even this requires them t...

The Dussehra Festival in Scotland is noted for the colorful Ramlila parade and the burning of the huge effigies of ten-headed Ravana, his brother Kumbhakarna and Meghnad, son of Ravana. Another interesting aspect is that the huge effigies of the demons are made by the inmates at Saughton Prison in Scotland . Dussehra which celebrates the victory of Lord Rama over Ravana, symbolizes the victory of good over evil. It is a Herculean task to move the 40 feet high and 6 feet wide effigies from the prison to Calton Hill, where it will be burned. Transporting the effigies and the wind at Calton Hill are the main concern areas. The effigies were normally made by Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop but in 2006 it was made by the inmates at Saughton Prison due to funding problems. The amazing work done by the prisoners prompted the organizers to approach the prison authorities this year too. The festival is organized by the Scottish Indian Arts Forum.

The first Hindu State Primary School in Britain planned by the I-Foundation, a Hindu group, is all set to open in Edgware next September. At present there are no Hindu faith schools in Britain , while most other faiths have one. Hindu parents were concerned about their children losing touch with their culture and religion. On Monday night, the London Borough of Harrow voted in favour of granting planning consent for the 236-place primary school, on Camrose Avenue , Edgware. The local authority's approval for the plans follows the government's pledging of support for more religious schools where there is parental demand. About a third of schools in England are faith schools - including Jewish, Sikh, Muslim and Christian denominations. (BBC Reports) Apart from educating the children in academics, the Hindu faith school plans to provide firm grounding in their spiritual and cultural values. According to I-Foundation The voluntary...

Cremation laws in the United Kingdom do not permit open air cremations like the one practiced in Hinduism. A recent attempt to establish an open air cremation site was blocked by the Newcastle City Council. Davender Kumar Ghai, a 68-year-old practicing Hindu, challenged the council order in the court and demanded the right to be cremated on an open-air pyre when he died. A High Court has approved to take up the Judicial Review petition. But no date has been set for the Judicial Review petition. Times of India reports Davendar Kumar Ghai, founder and president of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society, created headlines last July when he arranged the first human funeral pyre in Britain since the Home Office authorised the outdoor cremation of Sumshere Jung, a Nepalese princess and the ...

It’s unholy to compare Football hooligans and Hindu gods but designer Aitor Throup has used this unholy alliance to become one of Britain ’s most intriguing and innovative young designers. The design is based on a simple story. It is about a group of Football Hooligans accidentally killing Hindu boy in a racist attack. The only way they could live with such tragedy was to honor the boy’s life by dedicating their lives to Hinduism or by attempting to become Hindu Gods. If you are not used to ultra modern ideas of fashion designers then it might be hard understand and digest the concept. In simple words, images of Hindu gods have been fused with classic casual clothes.  The top left pic is inspired by Hanuman. The down right is inspired by Narasimha.  Now the top right is not Ganesh but Airavat. He has also got a design on Ganesh.