Take a Quiz on Hindu Diaspora

Hindu religion and culture in Singapore can be traced back to the 7th century AD, when Temasek was a trading post of Srivijaya empire.^[1] Chola empire of 10th century brought Hinduism to Singapore.

Cambodia was first influenced by Hinduism during the beginning of the Kingdom of Funan (first to sixth century ). Hinduism was one of the Khmer Empire‘s official religions from 1st century to 13th century. Cambodia is the home of the holy temple of Angkor Wat, the largest Hindu temple in the world. The main religion adhered in Khmer kingdom was Hinduism.

Cambodia was first influenced by Hinduism during the beginning of the Kingdom of Funan (first to sixth century ). Hinduism was one of the Khmer Empire‘s official religions. Cambodia is the home of the holy temple of Angkor Wat, the largest Hindu temple in the world. The main religion adhered in Khmer kingdom was Hinduism.

In 1951, Hindus constituted 12.9% of the Pakistani population (this includes East Pakistan, modern day Bangladesh), which made the Dominion of Pakistan the second largest Hindu-population country after India.^[15]

In the 1951 census, West Pakistan had 1.6% Hindu population, while East Pakistan (modern Bangladesh) had 22.05%.^[16] By 1997, the percentage of Hindus remained stable at 1.6% in Pakistan,^[17] while it dropped to 10.2% in Bangladesh.^[18]

First Hindus, it is believed, came to Australia about 4,000 years ago and brought new technology like fire, cooking and new advanced stone tools.[ref].

A 2013 study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology found that there was a migration of genes from India to Australia around 2000 BCE. These new arrivals came at a time when dingoes first appeared in the fossil record, and when Aboriginal peoples first used microliths in hunting. In addition, they arrived just as one of the Aboriginal language groups was undergoing a rapid expansion.^[27][28]

Both Java and Sumatra were subject to considerable cultural influence from the Indian subcontinent. The earliest evidences of Hindu influences in Java can be found in 4th century Tarumanagara inscriptions scattered around modern Jakarta and Bogor.

Hinduism (during 2016-2018) is one of the fastest growing religions in Australia mostly through immigration.^[3] Hinduism is also one of the most youthful religions in Australia, with 34% and 66% of Hindus being under the age of 14 and 34 respectively.^[4]

Hinduism is the leading single religion of the Indo-Caribbean communities of the West Indies. Hindus are particularly well represented in Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, where they constituted 25 percent of the total population, as of 1995. Smaller groups of Indo-Caribbeans live elsewhere in the Caribbean, especially Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Barbados, St Lucia, Cayman Islands and Bahamas.

Unlike various states of Malaysia and Indonesia, Singapore places no restrictions on religious freedoms of Hindus. In Singapore, the Hindu festival of Deepavali is recognised as a national public holiday. Some non-Indians, usually Buddhist Chinese, participate in various Hindu activities.

The social structure consisted of catur wangsa (four varnas) – brahmana (priests), satriya or “Deva” (warriors), waisya (merchants), and sudra (farmers, artisans, commoners).^[52] There is no historical or contemporary cultural record of untouchables in Balinese Hindu society. The wangsa – termed castes by some accounts, classes by other accounts – were functional, not hierarchical nor segregated in Hindu society of Bali or Java. Further, there was social mobility – people could change their occupation and caste if they wished to.^[53][54]

The Balinese temple is called Pura. These temples are designed on square Hindu temple plan, as an open air worship place within enclosed walls, connected with series of intricately decorated gates to reach its compounds.^[45] Each of these temples has a more or less fixed membership; every Balinese belongs to a temple by virtue of descent, residence, or affiliation. Some house temples are associated with the family house compound (also called banjar in Bali), others are associated with rice fields, and still others with key geographic sites. In rural highlands of Bali, banua (or wanwa, forest domain) temples in each desa (village) are common.^[46]

After Malaysia gained its independence from British colonial empire in 1957, it declared its official state religion as Islam, and adopted a discriminatory constitution as well as the Sedition Act of 1971 which limited public debate on Malaysia’s treatment of religion, language and citizenship policies.^[15][16][17] In recent decades, there have been increasing reports of religious persecution of Hindus, along with other minority religions, by various state governments of Malaysia and its Sharia courts.^[15][18] Hindu temples built on private property, and built long before Malaysian independence, have been demolished by Malaysian government officials in recent years.^[19] Since the 1970s, there has been large scale emigration of Hindus (along with Buddhists and Christians) from Malaysia.^[20][21][22]

To safeguard the interest of the Hindu organisations and Hindu temples, the Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) was formed on 23 January 1965. The formation of MHS was greatly due to the ingenuity of the late Shri K. Paramalingam KMN., a barrister at law and was then the Director General of Public Trustee Department, assisted by the late Shri K. Ramanathan, Shri. G. V. Thevar, Shri Hari Chand Saradha, Shri. S. Palanivel Pillai, and Shri S. Dhuraiappah. Shri K. Ramanathan also was the president of Malaysian Indian Congress from 1950 – 1951 and the founder of Malaysian Arulneri Thirukkuttam.

Since the late 1940s, reform movements have caught the attention of many Guyanese Hindus. The most important, the Arya Samaj movement (Aryan Society), was founded in India in 1875; the first Arya Samaj missionary arrived in Guyana in 1910.

An annual Giant Swing ceremony known as Triyampavai-Tripavai was held in major cities of Thailand until 1935, when it was abolished for safety reasons.^[34] The name of the ceremony was derived from the names of two Tamil language Hindu chants: Thiruvempavai and Thiruppavai. It is known that Tamil verses from Thiruvempavai — poet pratu sivalai (“opening the portals of Shiva’s home”) — were recited at this ceremony, as well as the coronation ceremony of the Thai king.^[35]

According to T.P. Meenakshisundaram, the name of the festival indicates that Thiruppavai might have been recited as well.^[36] The swinging ceremony depicted a legend about how the god created the world. Outside shops, particularly in towns and rural areas, statues of Nang Kwak as the deity of wealth, fortune and prosperity (version of Lakshmi) are found.^[37][38]

The Khmer Society was arranged in a hierarchy reflecting the Hindu Varna system. The kshatriyas — royalty, nobles, warlords, soldiers, and warriors — formed a governing elite and authorities. Other social classes included brahmins (priests), traders, artisans such as carpenters and stonemasons, potters, metalworkers, goldsmiths.

One of the few temples remaining in Karachi today is the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Karachi. The Pakistan Hindu Panchayat, Pakistan Hindu Council and the Pakistani Hindu Welfare Association are the primary civic organizations that represent and organise Hindu communities on social, economic, religious and political issues in most of the country, with the exception of the Shiv Temple Society of Hazara, which especially represents community interests in the Hazara region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in addition to being the special guardians of the Shiva temple, at Chitti Gatti village, near Mansehra.

The Indus river is a holy river to many Hindus, and the Government of Pakistan periodically allows small groups of Hindus from India to make pilgrimage and take part in festivities in Sindh^[24] and Punjab.^[25]

Among Hindu kingdoms in Java, Majapahit kingdom was the largest and the last significant Hindu kingdom in Indonesian history. Majapahit was based in East Java, from where it ruled a large part of what is now Indonesia. The remnants of the Majapahit kingdom shifted to Bali during the sixteenth century after a prolonged war by and territorial losses to Islamic sultanates.^[23]

The Chams Balamon (Hindu Brahmin Chams) form a majority of the Cham population in Vietnam while most of the remainder are Cham Bani followers of Islam. The term Balamon is considered to have been derived from Brahmin,^[41] however another study suggests that 70% are considered to descend from the Nagavamshi Kshatriya caste^[42] (pronounced in Cham as “Satrias”), and claim to be the descendants of the Champa Empire.^[43] In any case a sizeable proportion of the Balamon Hindu Cham are considered Brahmins.

Hindu temples are known as Bimong in the Cham language and the priests are called Halau Tamunay Ahier.

Unique rituals and festivals of Balinese Hindus, that are not found in India, include those related to death of a loved one followed by cremations, cockfights, tooth filings, Nyepi and Galungan.

The empire’s official religions included Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism until Theravada Buddhism prevailed, even among the lower classes, after its introduction from Sri Lanka in the 13th century.^[10] Since then, Hinduism slowly declined in Cambodia, and finally being replaced by Theravadan Buddhist as the major faith in the kingdom.

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (above) found in 1989 suggests Indian cultural influence in the Philippines by late 9th century AD, likely through Hinduism in Indonesia, prior to the arrival of European colonial empires in the 16th century. The 9th century Laguna Copperplate Inscription found in 1989, deciphered in 1992 to be Kavi script (Pallava alphabet) with Sanskrit words.^[1]

The golden Agusan statue discovered in another part of Philippines in 1917 has also been linked to Hinduism and believed to be Shakti.^[2] Juan Francisco suggests that the golden Agusan statue may be a representation of goddess Sakti of the Siva-Buddha (Bhairava) tradition found in Java, in which the religious aspect of Shiva is integrated with those found in Buddhism of Java and Sumatra. The Rajahnate of Butuan, in present-day Agusan del Norte and Butuan City, used Hinduism as its main religion along with indigenous Lumad nature-worships. A Hindu Tamil King of the Rajahnate of Cebu was also recorded.^[4]

The social structure among Fijian Hindus has lacked any caste structure.^[11] Scholars^[11][14][15] suggest that this lack of formation or observance of caste system among Fijian Hindus may have been because of the nature of work in Fijian plantations where everyone’s profession revolved around farming, because Fijian Hindus lived together from the time they arrived in coolie ships, and because of demographic constraints faced by them. Extensive exogamy has been observed among Hindus of Fiji since the earliest days of plantation settlements, just like in other major indentured Hindu labor settlements in Mauritius, Natal (South Africa) and the Caribbean.^[16][17][18]

Among the non-Balinese communities considered to be Hindu by the government are, for example, the Dayak adherents of the Kaharingan religion in Kalimantan Tengah, where government statistics counted Hindus as 15.8% of the population as of 1995. Many Manusela and Nuaulu people of Seram follow Naurus, a syncretism of Hinduism with animist and Protestant elements.^[6] Similarly, the Tana Toraja of Sulawesi have identified their animistic religion as Hindu. The Batak of Sumatra have identified their animist traditions with Hinduism.

After Pakistan gained independence from Britain on 14 August 1947, 4.7 million of the country’s Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India, while 6.5 million Muslims migrated from India to Pakistan.^[7] The 1998 census of Pakistan recorded less than 2.5 million Hindus.^[14] The overwhelming majority of Hindus in Pakistan are concentrated in Sindh province.

It is unclear when the first Indian voyages across the Bay of Bengal occurred. Conservative estimates place the earliest arrivals to Malay shores at least 1,700 years ago.^[11] The growth of trade with India brought coastal people in much of the Malay world into contact with Hinduism. Thus, Hinduism, Indian cultural traditions and the Sanskrit language began to spread across the land. Temples were built in the Indian style and local kings began referring to themselves as Raja and more desirable aspects of Indian government were adopted.^[12]

Subsequently, small Hindu Malay states started to appear in the coastal areas of Malay peninsular notably the Gangga Negara (2nd century), Langkasuka (2nd century), and Kedah (4th century). Between 7th and 13th centuries many of these small, often prosperous peninsular maritime trading states came under the loose control of Srivijaya empire, a great Hindu Malay kingdom centred in Palembang, Sumatra.^[13]

Majority of Malaysian Hindus are Tamils.  Most Malaysian Hindus are settled in western parts of Peninsular Malaysia. Indian Hindus and Buddhists began arriving in Malaysia during ancient and medieval era. A large number of Hindus from South India were brought to Malaysia by British colonial empire during the 19th and 20th century, as indentured labourers to work on coffee and sugarcane plantations and tin mining; later they were deployed in large numbers, along with Chinese Buddhists, on rubber plantations. The British kangani system of recruitment, designed to reduce labour turnover and enhance labour stability, encouraged Hindu workers to recruit friends and family from India to work in British operations in Malaysia. The kangani system brought numerous Tamil Hindus into Malaysia by early 1900s.^[14]

In contemporary times, Hinduism in Bali is officially referred by Indonesian Ministry of Religion as Agama Hindu Dharma, but traditionally the religion was called by many names such as Tirta, Trimurti, Hindu, Agama Tirta, Siwa, Buda, and Siwa-Buda.^[44] The terms Tirta and Trimurti emanate from Indian Hinduism, corresponding to Tirtha (pilgrimage to spirituality near holy waters) and Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) respectively.

As in India, Hinduism in Bali grew with flexibility, featuring a diverse way of life. It includes many of the Indian spiritual ideas, cherishes legends and myths of Indian Puranas and Hindu Epics, as well as expresses its traditions through unique set of festivals and customs associated with a myriad of hyangs – the local and ancestral spirits, as well as forms of animal sacrifice that are not common in India.^[44]

1998 – Various Hindu organizations came together to form their first Hindu Council of Australia with members drawn from other Hindu organizations. First public celebration of Deepavali festival and Ravan dehan (burning of Ravan’s effigy) was celebrated by Hindu Council of Australia in Sydney.

Both Java and Sumatra were subject to considerable cultural influence from the Indian subcontinent. The earliest evidences of Hindu influences in Java can be found in 4th century Tarumanagara inscriptions scattered around modern Jakarta and Bogor.

Hindu religion and culture in Singapore can be traced back to the 7th century AD, when Temasek was a trading post of Srivijaya empire.^[1] Chola empire of 10th century brought Hinduism to Singapore.

Hindu communities are found in several countries of South America, but they are strongest in Guyana and Suriname. There are about 550,000 Hindus in South America, chiefly the descendants of Indian indentured labourers in the Guianas. There are about 270,000 Hindus in Guyana, 150,000 in Suriname, and some others in French Guiana. In Guyana, Hindus form 35% of the population.

Hinduism in Fiji has a following primarily among the Indo-Fijians, who are descendants of indentured workers brought to Fiji by the British, as cheap labor for colonial sugarcane plantations.^[1] Hindus, along with Indian Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, started arriving in Fiji starting with 1879 through 1920 when slavery-like indenture system was abolished by Britain. Some Indo-Fijians came to the island nation in the 1920s and 1930s. Fiji identifies people as Indo-Fijians if they can trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent, but not necessarily India. Most of the Hindus in Fiji, however, are of Indian descent.

Despite the fact that today Thailand is a Buddhist majority nation, many elements of Thai culture and symbolism demonstrates Hindu influences and heritage. For example, the popular epic, Ramakien, is based on the Ramayana.^[31] The Royal emblem of Thailand depicted Garuda, the vahana (vehicle) of Vishnu.^[32]

The Thai city, Ayutthaya near Bangkok, is named after Ayodhya, the birthplace of Rama. Numerous rituals derived from Brahmanism are preserved in rituals, such as use of holy strings and pouring of water from conch shells.

1991 – Hindus from Sri Venkateswara temple Helenburgh, Sri Mandir and newly formed Vishwa Hindu Parishad came together to celebrate Ganesh Visarjana festival, first large scale public celebration of a Hindu festival in Sydney, Australia. Visarajana of clay Ganesha idols was performed at Stanwell Tops beach. The program was coordinated by Dr Balasubramaniam and Surinder Jain.