:Hinduism in Uganda

According to ARDA, there were about 355,497 (0.93%) Hindus in Uganda in 2015{{Cite web|url=https://www.thearda.com/internationaldata/countries/Country_230_2.asp|title=Uganda, Religion And Social Profile|website=thearda.com|access-date=2021-08-29|archive-date=2021-08-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826224434/https://www.thearda.com/internationalData/countries/Country_230_2.asp|url-status=dead}} In 2020, ARDA figures showed that Hindus made up 0.8% of the population.[https://www.thearda.com/world-religion/national-profiles?u=230c&u=23r The ARDA website, retrieved 2023-08-08]

{{Main|Expulsion of Asians from Uganda}}

File:Idi Amin -Archives New Zealand AAWV 23583, KIRK1, 5(B), R23930288.jpg expelled all Hindus and other Asians in 1972 from Uganda. Twenty years later, Uganda reversed that law.]]

{{Historical populations

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|source = {{cite book|author=Kim Knott|title=Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXheCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT114|year=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-106271-1|page=114}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.thearda.com/internationaldata/countries/Country_230_2.asp|title=Uganda, Religion And Social Profile|website=thearda.com|access-date=2021-08-29|archive-date=2021-08-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826224434/https://www.thearda.com/internationalData/countries/Country_230_2.asp|url-status=dead}}

|1970|65000

|2015|355497

}}

After colonialism ended, Hindus (along with Jains and Sikhs) were discriminated against in East Africa including Uganda. This was a part of the policies of various East African governments in their promotion of Africanization based on laws and policies under which commercial and professional sectors of the economy had to be owned by indigenous Africans.{{cite book|author=Steven Vertovec|title=The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jRRUAQAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-136-36712-0|pages=87–89|chapter=Chapter 4}}{{cite book|author1=Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J.|author2=Ndhlovu, Finex|title=Nationalism and National Projects in Southern Africa: New Critical Reflections |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J90WAgAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Africa Institute of South Africa|isbn=978-0-7983-0395-8|pages=62–74}} The Hindus, along with Jains, Sikhs, Jews and other religious groups, were affected during this period of xenophobic targeting of Asians and Europeans by African leaders.{{cite book|author=Ronald Aminzade|title=Race, Nation, and Citizenship in Postcolonial Africa: The Case of Tanzania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zQ6hAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |year=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-43605-3|pages=89–90}}{{cite book|author1=John E. Roemer|author2=Woojin Lee|author3=Karine van der Straeten|title=Racism, Xenophobia, and Distribution: Multi-issue Politics in Advanced Democracies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NbbPdXV4cDoC&pg=PA147|year=2007|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-02495-3|pages=147–148}}{{cite book|author1=Harold G. Coward|author2=John R. Hinnells|author3=Raymond Brady Williams|title=The South Asian Religious Diaspora in Britain, Canada, and the United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXrdXMaaYCkC&pg=PA80 |year=2012|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-9302-1|pages=80–81}}

When General Idi Amin came to power by overthrowing an elected government in Uganda, he adopted a policy of religious and ethnic cleansing against people of Asian religions. Himself a Muslim, he announced that he had a dream, where "Allah told him that the Asians, exploiters who did not want to integrate with the Africans, had to go".{{cite book|author=M.G. Vassanji|title=No New Land|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FdCVIo4JrWwC&pg=PA25|year=2012|publisher=McClelland & Stewart|isbn=978-1-55199-707-0|page=25}}{{cite book|author=John S. Pobee|title=Religion in a Pluralistic Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5oCws-rwwNwC&pg=PA41|year=1976|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-04556-2|pages=40–41}}{{cite book|author=E. Khiddu-Makubuya, Victoria Miriam Mwaka and P. Godfrey Okoth|title=Uganda, thirty years of independence, 1962–1992|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOEtAQAAIAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Makerere University Press|page=243}} In 1972, he selectively expelled the Hindus along with other Asians from Uganda, and seized their properties. Most of those expelled were second or third generation Hindus, many with dual Ugandan and British citizenship. While he expelled Hindus and people of other religions with origins in India, Idi Amin did not expel Christians of British or French origins living in Uganda.{{cite book|author=Jean-Marie Henckaerts|title=Mass Expulsion in Modern International Law and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s3kaTLyAKo0C|year=1995|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=90-411-0072-5|pages=22–25}}

According to Kim Knott, professor of Religious and Secular Studies at Lancaster University, there were 65,000 Hindus in Uganda in 1970, but all were expelled by Idi Amin.{{cite book|author=Kim Knott|title=Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXheCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT114|year=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-106271-1|page=114}} The expelled Hindus mass migrated to other countries during this period, particularly the United Kingdom (28,000 refugees{{refn|group=note|These numbers are total, and include non-Hindus from Asia who were expelled, such as Sikhs.{{cite book|author1=Pashaura Singh|author2=Louis E. Fenech|title=The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7YwNAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA499 |year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-100411-7|pages=499–500}}}}), India (15,000 refugees), Canada (8,000 refugees), the United States (1,500 refugees) and in smaller numbers to other countries such as Australia.{{cite book|author1=P. Panayi|author2=P. Virdee|title=Refugees and the End of Empire: Imperial Collapse and Forced Migration in the Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8cCHDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA42| year=2011| publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-30570-0|pages=42–43}} The expulsion removed most of Uganda's "industrialists, traders, artisans and civil servants", states Christopher Senyonjo, and their properties were re-allocated to civilians and Ugandan Army officials who supported Idi Amin.{{cite book|author=Christopher Senyonjo|title=In Defense of All God's Children: The Life and Ministry of Bishop Christopher Senyonjo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nrfxCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT42|year=2016|publisher=Church Publishing|isbn=978-0-8192-3244-1|page=42}} Uganda faced a shortage of skilled professionals such as doctors, bankers, nurses and teachers. It triggered a financial crisis and a collapse of businesses, including cement and sugar production, causing long-term economic devastation in Uganda.{{cite book|author=C. Davis|title=Creating Postcolonial Literature: African Writers and British Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VOKIXdIQO9gC&pg=PT56 |year=2013|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-32838-0|page=56}}

Twenty years after the Idi Amin expulsion, Uganda reversed its laws selectively targeting Hindus and other Indian religions. This policy, offered in cooperation with the World Bank, included a return of properties seized by Idi Amin's government, such as empty and unused factories, back to the families if they returned and recreated employment.

Hindus are a tiny minority in the total Ugandan population of about 27 million. The official demographics lists Christians and Muslims separately, but includes Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and traditional African religions as others. Approximately 65% of the South Asians living in Uganda are Hindus.{{cite book|author1=Constance Jones|author2=James D. Ryan|title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgMmceadQ3gC&pg=PA10 |year=2006|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-7564-5|pages=10–11}} There is a Swaminarayan temple in Kampala.[http://www.baps.org/Global-Network/Africa/Kampala.aspx BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir], BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, Africa

{{reflist|group=note}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |author=Steven Vertovec|title=The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jRRUAQAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-136-36712-0 }}
• {{cite book|author=Richard Carver|title=Where Silence Rules: The Suppression of Dissent in Malawi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZyIpVV3FZlAC&pg=PP4|year=1990|publisher=Human Rights Watch|isbn=978-0-929692-73-9}}

{{Africa in topic|Hinduism in}}

Category:Anti-immigration politics in Africa

Category:Religion in Africa

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