Dr Kim Knott

The following three statements were made by scholars of religion to represent ISKCON in different forums. Both INFORM and The Institute for the Study of American Religion (ISAR) made their statements for inclusion as evidence in a recent legal challenge brought by ISKCON against alleged misrepresentations by the German Federal Government. The evidence by Dr, Kim Knott was presented at a public enquiry into the proposed change of use and new access for Bhaktivedanta Manor, England. All three are useful for different perspectives and illustrate the importance of good research and academic study into ISKCON, especially when very few people know what it is and what tradition it represents.

Robert Towler, BA PhD
Information Network Focus on Religious Movements (INFORM)
9 August 1994

Background information on INFORM

The Information Network Focus on Religious Movements (INFORM) has been asked by the International Society for Krsna Consciousness (ISKCON) to make a statement about our experience of ISKCON and of the social and personal problems to which, in our experience, it gives rise.

INFORM is a registered charity, based at the London School of Economics, whose overall objective is to help people by providing information about new religious movements that is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. Despite its modest size, INFORM now has one of the world's most comprehensive databases on the subject. It also has an international network of specialists upon whom it can draw and to whom it provides information. It produces literature, arranges seminars, provides speakers for schools, colleges and universities and trains counsellors in problems associated with the new religious movements and the families of their members; it organises support groups for ex-members and for relatives and friends of members, and puts such people in touch with one another on an individual basis when appropriate. In addition, because it is in touch with many of the groups, INFORM is often able to mediate between an enquirer and a movement, getting people back in touch with one another, helping individuals to recover money or property, and generally putting pressure on movements to behave reasonably and compassionately towards ex-members or the families and friends of current members.

A significant role of INFORM is to be available not only with information but also with understanding and a sympathetic ear when a distraught relative or friend does not know where to turn after learning that someone has joined a new movement about which they know little or nothing. Although INFORM does not tell enquirers what to do, it can offer suggestions about the kind of approaches which are more likely to alleviate than to exacerbate a difficult situation, alerting people to potential problems but reassuring them on matters about which they may be unnecessarily worried. (More detailed information about INFORM'S approach is to be found in the book by Eileen Barker, who started the unit, entitled New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction, London, HMSO, 1989).

INFORM was established with the support of the British Home Office and the mainstream Churches, and its Patrons are Lord Dahrendorf (Warden of St Antony's College Oxford, and formerly Director of the London School of Economics), the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle. When it was set up in 1988, as well as receiving help from the mainstream Churches, INFORM was supported by a substantial three-year grant from the Home Office, which was extended for a further three years to the end of 1993. Since 1988, grants have been given also by a number of trusts and foundations.

Enquiries received in the last full year

During 1993 we handled 1,017 new enquiries, significantly more than the 727 enquiries received in 1992. A further sixty enquiries were from people who had been in touch with INFORM before and had further questions. Since most enquiries involve contact with more people than the original enquirer, and sometimes with up to six or ten people, INFORM was in touch with more than two thousand people in the course of the year. These were people with whom we were in touch directly, and the number is much larger if one takes account those with whom we were in contact indirectly. As in previous years, the enquiries came from a wide range of people. Many were from relatives of converts to new religious groups, whilst others were from concerned friends, chaplains and parochial clergy, Citizens' Advice Bureaux, Students' Unions and government departments, notably the Home Office. A statistical breakdown of the enquiries shows that 35 % came from relatives, friends and others with personal or pastoral concerns; 5 % from members of movements; 5 % from governmental and quasi-governmental agencies; 14 % from students and academics; 25 % from the media; 4 % from other organisations, and 12% from other individuals.

The religious movements about which INFORM received ten or more new enquiries during the year are as follows, with the number of enquiries received in 1992 listed in parentheses.

The situation in respect of ISKCON

By contrast, INFORM received only six enquiries concerning ISKCON in 1993. Of these six, only one was from a person who was worried by the prospect of someone joining the group - the mother of a young man. The mother was concerned that her son had a somewhat unstable personality, and that he might join ISKCON at a period when he was feeling depressed and use his membership of the group as some kind of crutch, rather than working on becoming more mature and stable. When INFORM got in touch with ISKCON, the Society's representative said they 'would not take anyone under eighteen without their parents' written consent', and that they 'liked to involve parents, especially if someone wanted to become a full-time devotee'. The young man's father was encouraged to visit one of the ISKCON centres, where he received the same message and was much reassured.

Of the remaining five cases, two were from students doing research for essays or dissertations; one was from a member of ISKCON from an Eastern European country who wanted advice on how the group might defend itself against defamation by the anti-cult movement; one was from a reporter from the Catholic Herald, a Roman Catholic weekly newspaper, who was researching an article on ISKCON; and one was from a man who had a friend who had just left ISKCON, and who wanted INFORM to recommend some reading so that he could talk intelligently and sensitively to the friend who had so recently left the group.

Of these six enquiries, therefore, only one was typical of the many hundreds received by INFORM from distraught friends and relatives of people who have just joined, or are thinking of joining, a new religious movement, and even then was not truly typical of these types of enquiries.

Summary of the experience of INFORM

In our experience, of all the many new religious movements in existence today, ISKCON gives rise to comparatively few problems or enquiries. It is highly visible and therefore subject to considerable attention, but in the cultural and religious plurality that characterises contemporary Europe, it represents one strand of traditional Indian spirituality. Given its colonial past, this is particularly relevant in the United Kingdom, where the significant numbers of immigrant families from the Indian sub-continent positively welcome the presence of a familiar style of religiousness.

____________________________________________________________

Dr. J. Gordon Melton. Director
The Institute for the Study of American Religion
17 August 1994

I have been requested to make a statement on the International Society for Krsna Consciousness (ISKCON) with special reference to some specific questions. I am a graduate of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1968) and Northwestern University (PhD, 1975) with a doctorate in the history and literature of religions. I am the founder and director o the Institute for the Study of American Religion, a research facility in Santa Barbara, California devoted to the study of religious groups and organisations with a special interest in so-called New Religious Movements, i.e., those many groups which have originated in the West or come to the West from other parts of the world and have recruited members from the local populations. I am also (since 1985) a research specialist with the Department of Religious Studies of the University of California Santa Barbara and an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church.

As part of my official duties I have written some twenty-five books, including two college texts: The Cult Experience (1992) and The Encyclopaedic Handbook of Cults in America (1986, l992). I have also authored a variety of what have become standard reference books including the Encyclopaedia of American Religions (1992); Religious Groups in America: A Directory (1991), and the Encyclopaedia of African American Religions (l993). Along the way, I have consulted with the US Army on the issue of new religions' service in the Armed Forces and assisted the Army Office of Chaplains in the preparation of the several editions of their Handbooks on the Beliefs of Certain Selected Groups (1978, 1991). Some consideration of ISKCON was included in most of the books named above.

Since I have concentrated my study on New Religious Movements since the 1960s, I have frequently been called into court to speak about various religious groups, including ISKCON. Several of the new religions such as ISKCON have been controversial due to the unfamiliarity of the public with the new and different ideas and practices they espoused. Early concerns voiced by the parents of some young adults in the 1970s, turned into a laundry list of charges against ISKCON and a number of other groups lumped together under the generic name of 'cults' in North America and 'sects' or other labels elsewhere. Much of the scholarly work that has been done on New Religions during the last two decades has been devoted to examining the many charges that have been brought against them.

Further distorting our research on New Religions has been the insertion of several pseudo-scientific hypotheses concerning the nature of life in groups such as ISKCON. For example, during the 1970s two people, neither with any medical training, announced the discovery of a new disease. Having discovered this new disease, they saw no need to check their findings with anyone with medical training before announcing their findings to the world in a popular text. In spite of their ignorance of medicine and physiology, they asserted that various common religious practices such as prayer, meditation and chanting, including that practised within ISKCON, caused brain damage by denying the brain its 'food', i.e. information. This bizarre idea was presented in a book called Snapping. For a brief time, members of what had by that time become part of an anti-cult network hailed the book and several popular newsstand magazines such as Science Digest, ran articles about it. However, it was never considered a serious scientific hypothesis and after several articles in scientific journals refuting the book's ideas, Snapping soon passed from the scene.

More recently, several people have espoused the idea of brainwashing (also termed thought control, coercive persuasion or mind control). Proponents suggested that cults had discovered a new psychological technology, a technology that has somehow escaped the rest of the psychological world. With this technology it 'brainwashed' young recruits and held them with such force that they were unable to break the spell of attachment to the group. These ideas, which seemed to have a body of evident behind them, provoked a heated debate amongst social scientists in the early 1980s. In the mid 1980s, the whole brainwashing perspective was thoroughly evaluated by the American Psychological Association. After looking at a detailed report prepared by the major advocates of this perspective, the Association concluded that the idea of brainwashing and mind control, as popularly applied to the new religious movements, was scientifically unacceptable. It had been arrived at through a sloppy methodology and poor scientific work. Subsequently the American Sociological Association and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion reached a similar conclusion. As a result, testimony concerning brainwashing and mind control have properly been banished from consideration by American courts as an idea lacking any scientific credibility.

Concerning ISKCON

Having made these several general observations, let me turn to some consideration of ISKCON. I have studied this organisation since its emergence into prominence in the early 1970s and its founding of a centre in Chicago, where I was then residing. Because of their unique dress and, to the average Westerner, their unusual practices such as chanting Hindu kirtans on the street, they were most photogenic and were soon singled out to illustrate articles on cults and new religions.

As we have come to know ISKCON, we have become aware that it is a representative of the mainstream Indian Vaishnava religion and follows the same scriptures used by many denominations of Hindus. In the West they have many followers within the Indian ethnic community and are a part of most Hindu ecumenical organisations in both North America and Europe. As such they follow teachings and practices that have a venerable tradition in India. Also, like most older religions, including Christianity, they follow scriptures which were written centuries ago when modern ideas such as those about democratic government or the rights of women were as yet undeveloped. As most Christians are aware, the Bible is quite compatible with and in many ways, very supportive of autocratic government, and many leading Christian theologians have argued against democratic tendencies. In addition, many Hindu holy books such as the Bhagava-gita show the same compatibility. However, just as Christians have developed a commitment to democratic values, so too have members of ISKCON.

I have also seen no lack of commitment to the values of family and marriage within ISKCON. However, like the Roman Catholic orders, ISKCON members also place a high value on the celibate ordered life, and a number of its members have become the equivalent of monks and nuns. The value placed on such an ordered life is no more an attack upon the family than that implied in the existence of Franciscans or Dominicans.

Life in ISKCON, while strange to many Westerners, follows a pattern established many years ago in India. It includes spending regular periods each day chanting a mantra, eating a vegetarian diet and, for some, living a semi-communal lifestyle. While these practices are certainly different from that of most people, there is no evidence that following them have had any harmful effects upon either the Indian public or any person ever affiliated with ISKCON. There is simply no evidence that ISKCON'S religious practices adversely affect mental or physical health. While many anti-cult leaders have repeated such charges over the last two decades, they have failed to provide any supporting evidence.

It is of note that thousands of people have at some point in time joined ISKCON and later, finding it not to their liking, have left it and re-entered the larger society none the worse for their experience. Others have found it a very happy life, have married and had children, and now see their young adult offspring becoming members. Several weeks ago I attended a convention of young adults born and raised in ISKCON. At that time I had the opportunity to meet with people who have left ISKCON altogether and assumed positions in college and the workplace, those who are marginal members of ISKCON, and those who are full members of the community.

Conclusion

ISKCON has been forced to spend its formative years in the full light of a sceptical media and within a critical, even hostile, environment. It has been thoroughly scrutinised, in part as a result of several lengthy judicial reviews, for more than two decades. No substantive charges levelled at it have stood the test of such examination. For example, in the case brought by former-member Robin George against ISKCON, it was charged that ex-members could never again reintegrate into 'normal' society or have a stable family life. However, the only people brought to testify to this point were former members who had already by the time they testified been able to find a place in society and develop a new set of acquaintances outside of the group. It turned out that the great majority of charges against ISKCON were simply a standard laundry list of items that have periodically been used against different new religions as public attention moves from one to the other.

Simply put, ISKCON has been present in the West for twenty-five years. If, in fact, it was a danger to society we would have long ago discovered that threat and dealt with it. Rather than a danger, ISKCON has shown itself capable of developing a religious community within which people alienated from society in the 1970s, have become substantial law-abiding citizens who have in turn developed a programme of service to the community through feeding the poor and other acts of charity. ISKCON does not threaten any country's constitutional freedom. Quite the opposite is true. In a series of cases it has been demonstrated that ISKCON's own constitutional freedom has been continually threatened by having to repeatedly defend itself on issues that had previously been considered by the courts and discarded.

I am not a follower of ISKCON. On a theological level I can find little with which I agree or with which I resonate. However, as a private citizen, I have no complaints and I would petition this court to act in their favour unless and until it has been demonstrated, by common standards of evidence, that they have acted against the state or have broken specific laws.

____________________________________________________________

Dr. Kim Knott, Leeds Univeristy
Evidence given in Bhaktivedanta Manor Planning Appeal

Introduction

I work as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Leeds. I have made my speciality the study of ethnic minority religions in Britain, principally Hinduism, looking in some detail at their roots, developments, practices, beliefs and needs.

After graduating in 1976 with a BA Hons in English and Religious Studies and, the following year with an MA in Religious Studies, I proceeded to study for a PhD, awarded in 1982. The title of my doctoral thesis was Hinduism in Leeds: A Study of Religious Practice in the Indian Hindu Community and in Hindu-Related Group".

Since then I have been employed by the University of Leeds, first in the Department of Sociology, and from 1983 in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. In addition to working on various research projects and running the Community Religions Project (CRP, see below), I have taught a variety of courses, including 'Hinduism', 'Religions of Asian Communities in Britain' and 'The Sociology of Religion'.

The Community Religions Project was set up in 1976 with the specific objective of investigating the various religions present in the West Yorkshire area. In 1983 we received funding from the University to extend the brief of the CRP to Britain as a whole, but with the emphasis at that time on the South Asian and Afro-Caribbean religious communities. Our aim in the three-year period from 1983-6 was to conduct a national survey of those religions throughout Britain, and I was employed to work on the South Asian groups. This scheme led me to explore what had been written on Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs in Britain, to collect it for student use, to catalogue it and to encourage the utilisation of it by research students. In 1986 further funding was secured for a four-year period from the Leverhulme Trust. In 1989, I was appointed Lecturer, and, in 1992, Senior Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies. Among other duties, I have continued to work in the Community Religions Project, and since 1989, have been directing its activities and acting as senior editor for its publications.

My recent work has included both research and teaching on the religions of Britain's South Asian communities. In 1994-5 I am on research leave working on women and religions in Britain.

I have published extensively on the subject of Hinduism in Britain. My publications include two books and numerous articles in edited collections and journals, research papers and reviews. In 1986, I published a book entitled My Sweet Lord: The Hare Krsna Movement (Aquarian Press, Wellingborough) as part of a series on new religions edited by Peter Clarke of the Centre for New Religions at King's College, London.

The arrival of the Hindu Community in Great Britain

Hindus began to arrive in Britain from India in the 1950s. The first to arrive were working men who secured jobs that enabled them to improve the conditions of their families back in India. It was not until the 1960s that they began to send for their wives and children. However, in the 1950s and early sixties the Hindu population was relatively small in comparison to the South Asian Muslims and Sikhs. It was not until the second half of the 1960s and, in particular, the early 1970s, that this population grew substantially in size. Whereas the early migrants had come direct from the Indian sub-continent, generally from the Punjab or Gujarat, the Hindus who began to arrive in this later period came from East Africa, at first from Tanzania and Kenya and in the early 1970s from Uganda.

Hindus, mostly with their origins in Gujarat in the west of India, had settled in East Africa from the Nineteenth Century onwards when they had arrived as labourers to work on the railroads and as minor administrators in the employ of British colonialists. In the 1960s the political character of many African countries was changing with independence and a growing emphasis was being placed on 'Africanisation'. East African Asians began to feel unwelcome and pressure was put on them to leave. (They were expelled from Uganda by President Amin in 1972-3.) Many of them had British passports owing to their status as citizens of Commonwealth countries and they decided to come to Britain (others went to Canada or India). As a result, the Hindu population in the UK increased considerably in this period (which ended after the Uganda expulsions in the mid-1970s). Census statistics show that, in a number of regions, as many as half the Indian ethnic population is comprised of people born in East Africa. Leicester, for example, is a city with a very large number of East African Asian Hindus. The Hindu population of North West London also increased dramatically in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a result of this series of events.

I now refer to map one, which shows the areas of concentration of Hindus throughout England at the present time. The different circles give an indication of the proportionate sizes of the various regional communities (although it is recognised that it is impossible to attain exact statistics until such time as a religious question is asked in the national population census).

There is a large concentration of Hindus, mainly Gujarati, now living in northwest London. The Hindu population there is estimated at approximately 55,000 (in Brent and Harrow) with further small populations in other commuter towns such as Barnet, Watford, Luton, Wellingborough and Northampton (c. 30,000 in total).

Since the early 1970s there has been no large immigration of Hindus into this country, nor has there been any significant shift in population amongst the Hindu community, although, in recent years, there has been a general movement away from the congested inner-city areas to the suburbs of towns and cities.

The Hindu tradition and Krsna Consciousness

I have read the statement by Martin Fleming in which he describes the history of Vaisnavism and the role of ISKCON, and I agree with his general description.

The Indian religious traditions date back over four thousand years. The writers of the early religious texts and Hindus today, refer to their religion as sanatana dharma. In the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, with the impact of the West, the beliefs and practices of sanatana dharma have become known as 'Hinduism'. This is an all-embracing concept used to encompass broad religious movements such as Vaisnavism and Shaivism, and different philosophical perspectives, some monistic and some dualistic.

In my book, My Sweet Lord: The Hare Krsna Movement, I describe how Krsna Consciousness (the Hare Krsna devotees' name for their religion) is the modern descendent of Caitanya Vaishnavism. Vaishnavism refers to the worship of Vishnu or Krsna, probably the most popular of Hindu deities. Caitanya was a leading social reformer and saint in the Sixteenth Century. He was, among others, responsible for the revival of the bhakti movement of loving devotion to God.

However, I think that it is unnecessary to understand the historical details in order to appreciate the relationship between Krsna Consciousness and the Hindu tradition. Empirical observations provide sufficient evidence: Hindu people in Britain, India and other parts of the world where Indian communities have established themselves, are committed to the Hare Krsna Movement not just as permanent devotees within the centres but as life members or as practising Hindus for whom Hare Krsna centres are their places of instruction and worship. My observations of other Hindu organisations and sampradaya, sectarian movements based on disciplic lineages, suggest that the temples of the Hare Krsna Movement are exceptional in that Hindus of many kinds are attracted to them because they are seen as part of the mainstream Vaishnava Hinduism. It is not unusual for Bengalis and Punjabis as well as Gujaratis, to attend Bhaktivedanta Manor for the purpose of darshan, seeing the deities, and worship. It is seen by them as a place where they can participate in the kind of religious practice to which they are accustomed in the presence of a deity well-known and much-beloved by them all.

I think it is also important to note that, in addition to presenting successfully the Hindu tradition to non-Hindus in the West, the Hare Krsna Movement has had an important effect within the Indian community in revitalising the faith of a number of Hindus, young and old alike. In a 1987 book entitled Hinduism in Great Britain (edited by Richard Burghart), Sean Carey establishes that, although the founder of the Hare Krsna Movement, Bhaktivedanta Swami, brought the Hindu philosophy of Krsna Consciousness to the West for non-Hindus (i.e. for people with no background in the Hindu tradition but with an attraction to some of its beliefs and practices), the movement which grew up around it has also become particularly attractive to people who were already practising Vaishnava Hindus. In addition to those devotees following a fully-committed, ascetic path in Krsna Consciousness, Carey mentions the growth in interest of the movement's Indian followers: 'ISKCON has some four thousand 'life-members' ... and the expansion rate is currently about five hundred new members a year. Only a few of these life-members are Westerners, with the bulk of support ... coming from those Gujarati and Punjabi Indians who had previously lived and worked in East Africa' (Carey, p.89).

Facilities for the practice of Hinduism in Britain

It is important to note that, for the majority of Hindus, the most significant place for regular religious instruction and worship is the home. However, many Hindus also like to visit a local temple either daily or weekly and, particularly, at times of festivals and special occasions.

There are thought to be between 80-100 temples in the UK. Maps two and three show the locations of major Hindu temples where members of the communities are able to practise their religion. There are a large number of smaller groups that meet in private homes or public halls that are not included. Only permanent places of worship with installed murti (images of deities consecrated in a pranapratistha ceremony) are shown. A recent directory of religions (edited by Paul Weller and based on data collected by the University of Derby's Religious Research and Resource Centre with the Interfaith Network for the UK) mentions a higher figure of about 130, but this includes some centres without installed murti.

It is clear from map three that, although there is a concentration of Hindus, mainly Gujaratis, in Northwest London, there is a severe lack of religious facilities for them.

The only major temple other than Bhaktivedanta Manor in this area is one belonging to the Swaminarayan Hindu Mission, a Gujarati sectarian movement, located in Neasden. The followers who attend this temple focus their religious practices upon reverence to Lord Swaminarayan rather than Krsna or any of the other popular Hindu deities. They have their own distinct scriptures and teachings. Therefore, those Gujarati Hindus in Northwest London who are not followers of Swaminarayan would not be likely to choose to visit this temple on a regular basis or for festivals.

The members of another sectarian tradition, the Vallabhacharya sampradaya or Pushtimarak, are building a new temple in Wembley (they already have one in Whipps Cross). These Gujarati Pushti margis, 'followers of the way of grace', worship Lord Sri Nathji, a form of Krsna. However, many of those Krsna devotees who are not members of this movement would not wish to worship at a Pushtimarak temple. The principal reason for this is that Pushti margis, while worshipping the Sri Nathji form of Krsna, do not worship Krsna's partner, Radha. They do not install murti of Radha in their temples. To many Krsna devotees, Radha is an important deity and is worshipped with equal reverence to Krsna himself. Radha is honoured first in the joint name of the couple, RadhaKrsna. A further reason for some Krsna devotees to eschew attendance at a Pushimarak temple is a fear of inadequate provisions for deity worship. The standard of deity worship within ISKCON is extremely high, requiring that the installed deities receive appropriate care, service and devotion in seven daily acts of worship. Different, lesser standards apply at most other Hindu temples in the UK, including those of the Pushtimarak.

The significance of Bhaktivedanta Manor to British Hindus

Over the years, Bhaktivedanta Manor has developed into a major centre for Hinduism in Britain. For those dedicated to the philosophy of Krsna Consciousness, the Manor is a Hindu college for education in the principles and practices of this form of Vaishnava Hinduism, and for learning the texts, the disciplined life and the worship of the deities. During the period 1984-5, when I was researching the book My Sweet Lord, I had the opportunity to observe how Bhaktivedanta Manor and the devotees living or visiting there functioned on a day-to-day basis. Bhaktivedanta Manor operates in a similar way to any other Hindu math, college or monastery for personal study and training. It has a similar daily schedule to maths in India, with the members rising early, meditating, studying and worshipping, and many of the same principles and practices are to be found (such as vegetarianism, meditating on prayer beads, a stress on celibacy, teetotalism, worship in a temple room and reading Hindu scriptures). Apart from the major temples of the Swaminarayan Hindu Mission, which operate in this kind of way only when visiting ascetics are in attendance, there are no other Hindu temples in the UK which provide these facilities and to such a high standard.

For the wider Hindu community, the Manor is important as a place of worship. The standard of deity worship there is of an extremely high order, and is recognised by the Hindu community as such. Having seen a large number of Hindu temples throughout the country, my own observations would support this view. I have not seen a temple in the UK that can offer an equal or higher standard of deity worship.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the Manor has significance not only for those who are adherents of the central tenets of Krsna Consciousness, but also for the wider Hindu public.

As well as those coming from Northwest London, it is important to note that Hindus pay visits from other parts of the country on what might be called pilgrimages (yatra). These Hindus may be serviced by local centres, but may still wish to visit the shrine at Bhaktivedanta Manor for special occasions. Pilgrimage is of tremendous importance to Hindus. There is a tradition of religious travel that dates back to the epic literature. It is mentioned in the Mahabharata as a very important activity for spiritual purification. Since then it has been one of the most widely accepted practices of Hinduism, particularly amongst the older generation (eager to see certain sites before they die; even to die at a place of religious importance). The practice is still popular today amongst the Hindus of Britain. Unless they can afford to return to India for this purpose, they go for pilgrimage around the various temples and centres in Britain's towns and cities. Bhaktivedanta Manor has become particularly significant for such purposes.

In places such as Leicester, Preston, Bristol and Leeds, Hindus may attend their local temples on a regular basis. However, on special occasions, particularly at the time of Hindu festivals, they like to go, as families, on pilgrimage to visit a shrine for darshan (the act of seeing and being seen by the deity). In the case of Bhaktivedanta Manor, the major festivals are Janamastami, the birthday of Lord Krsna, Ramnavmi, the anniversary of Lord Rama, and Diwali, the New Year. Just as they would in India, British Hindus will make pilgrimages to temple sites where particular deities are located. For the worship of Krsna, Bhaktivedanta Manor is foremost among such sites.

The Manor has particular appeal to pilgrims. It is renowned for the beauty of its shrine. Radha and Krsna, Sita, Rama, Lakshman and Hanuman are all to be seen there, dressed in exquisitely fashioned clothes that are changed daily. They are well-cared for and worshipped with great precision and devotion. This is all of great importance for Hindus. In addition, the setting of the Manor is appealing. Like many Indian pilgrimage sites, it is in beautiful surroundings and is peaceful.

The festivals and Janamastami

Religious festivals play an important role in the Hindu calendar. The key aspect to any festival is the worship of the deities, and the particular festival determines how the deities are to be worshipped. During Ramnavmi, for example, the story of the deity Rama, the Ramayana, is read aloud, and during Holi,devotees throw coconuts in a fire, celebrating the victory of goodness over evil.

By far the most important festival for Krsna devotees is Janamastami, the anniversary of the birth of Krsna. The day is celebrated by visitors taking darshan of Krsna, swinging the baby Krsna in a cradle and seeing the flute-playing Krsna, with Radha, in new clothes and bedecked in flowers and jewels for this special day.

The Manor's Krsna is, to many local Hindus, their istadeva, personal deity. At Janamastami it is their own Krsna they are coming to see. Having undergone a ceremony of consecration, pranapratistha, in which the image was infused with life-breath and made fit for the habitation of Lord Krsna, the Manor's Krsna now requires the committed care of brahmins and enjoys the loving devotion of his devotees. The manor is now irrevokably the site of this relationship. The murti of Krsna and Radha belong in a sacred sense to the site in which they were consecrated. (The way in which the geographical location of the deity is marked as sacred can be noted in the naming of some forms of Krsna: for example, the form of Krsna which resides at ISKCON's London temple is called 'Radha-London-ishvara', Krsna taking the name 'the lord or presiding deity of London').

The argument has been put to me that Janamastami could take place elsewhere, thus relieving Letchmore Heath of the problem of accommodating visitors on this occasion. In my judgement as a specialist on Hindu religious practice, the spiritual aspirations of the Krsna devotees could not be met if Janamastami were to be held at a site away from the Manor. It is the shrine that is sacred to the devotees. In addition, deities can only be moved from their locations in times of extreme danger to them. Temporary removal is not possible for consecrated deities, only for images of gods or goddesses.

The activities that take place on Janamastami revolve around the temple deity. The primary activities which bring visitors to the Manor are as follows: (a) darshan, seeing the temple deities, particularly Krsna, whose birthday is being celebrated; (b) singing songs, and receiving food blessed by the temple deity and charanamrta, the nectar of the deity, all in the presence of Krsna; (c) visiting the temple's cows and remembering Krsna's pranks as a cowherder; (d) circumambulating the shrine and walking through the grounds in the company of a small form of Krsna which is used in processions - a practice widely performed in India with murtis reserved specifically for such purposes as distinct from the temple deities themselves). In addition to these, visiting devotees enjoy the opportunity to practise spiritual activities in the privacy and security of a Hindu setting. They may chant the names of Krsna, watch dramas (Krsna-lila), buy devotional books and artefacts and engage in conversations about Krsna and devotional life without worrying about being laughed at, without being the source of amusement, racist abuse or curiosity.

One final point that needs to be made concerns the Hare Krsna devotees themselves. The present arrangements for Janamastami enable all those who attend to enjoy the occasion to the full. Were the festival to be relocated to another site, quite apart from the spiritual consequences (which I hope I have shown to be fundamental to the very purpose of the festival), the practical problems would be immense. Each Hare Krsna devotee performs many functions on the occasion of the festival. They may be cooking one moment, selling books the next and then performing in a drama. In addition to their role as servants of Krsna on the occasion of his birthday, they are devotees too, needing to take darshan of their beloved God themselves. It is hard to imagine how devotees could manage the logistics of holding the festival in another location, even if it were to make religious sense to do so.

Conclusion

It has been my intention to explain and provide evidence of three points that I understand to be relevant to this appeal. The first of these was the relationship between ISKCON and its Indian Hindu constituency, the history of its development and its geographical significance in the present case; the second concerned the religious and sectarian distinctions within the Hindu constituency and their relevance for the choice of Bhaktivedanta Manor as a site for worship and pilgrimage. Finally, I examined the theology and practice of Vaisnava Hinduism (as it relates particularly to Krsna) with regard to the worship of the deity and the conduct of festivals, most notably Janamastami. I hope I have been able to show, not only the importance of Bhaktivedanta Manor as a place of worship and spiritual nurture for British Hindus, but also the significance of the deity, the Manor's own Krsna, in drawing devotees to the site. Adding to this my knowledge of temples and pilgrimage in India, I think it important to point out that, even if Bhaktivedanta Manor were to close for public worship, it would remain a site of religious importance, even pilgrimage, for many Hindus precisely because it is identified as a habitation or abode of Krsna.

As a scholar of the religions of minority communities in Britain, I think it important that the Hindus be enabled to continue in their use of Bhaktivedanta Manor as a centre for worship, spiritual nurture, education and celebration. I recognise that this requires a legal change of use to match current practice. I hope that this can be granted on the basis of new provisions for access.

< Back · Top ^