Hindu
Hinduism is one of the world’s oldest religions, and has over 900 million adherents worldwide. Hinduism is not a single doctrine, and there is no single founder or teacher.
* Hinduism originated around the Indus Valley near the River Indus in modern day Pakistan.
* About 80% of the Indian population regard themselves as Hindu.
* Hindus believe in a universal eternal soul called Brahman, who created and is present in everything.
* But they worship other deities such as Ram, Shiva, Lakshmi and Hanuman, recognising different attributes of Brahman in them.
* Hindus believe that existence is a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, governed by Karma.
* Hindus believe that the soul passes through a cycle of successive lives and its next incarnation is always dependent on how the previous life was lived.
* The Vedas are the most ancient religious Hindu text and define the truth.
* Hindus believe that the texts were received by scholars directly from God and passed onto generations by word of mouth.
* Hindus celebrate many holy days, but the Festival of Lights, Diwali is the most well known.
* The 2001 census recorded 559,000 Hindus in Britain, around 1% of the population.
The information above comes from the BBC Religion website.
BBC Hinduism webpages.
