ABSTRACT
Introduction Since the end of the Second World War, Britain’s Hindu population – then no more than a few thousand – has grown rapidly. In the 2001 census, when respondents were fi rst asked to specify their religious affi liation, 557,985 residents identifi ed themselves as Hindu. Of these, just over one third were British-born. However, while the ancestral origins of virtually all of Britain’s Hindus lay in the Indian subcontinent, not all came directly from India. A substantial proportion belonged to families whose members had previously settled in Britain’s overseas colonies – especially those in East Africa – from where they subsequently moved to the UK.
