Last month, Hindu Voice UK received the following rather surprising complaint via e-mail. Our response is displayed below.

To Hindu Voice UK,

I note that the latest email communication omits the latest, and I would say, the single most important issue in the UK today - racial integration and segregation. In all of the news stories, irrespective of medium, the only religion ever discussed is Islam.

Never has any account been taken of the generally peaceful way Hindus have gone about their lives in the UK, bettering them for themselves and their families, whilst keeping the indigenous population on-side, purely by mutual respect. I do not know how many Hindus (including Jains and Sikhs) are in the UK, though from every angle, they simply get on with it.

This way of 'integrating' ashould be applauded and used as an example of the way forward in Britiain. I do not say this from an elitist view, more from anything a defensive view. If as it appears the radical elements from the Islamic faith have it their way, not only will normal Muslims be caught up in some terrible events on our streets, but by association of skin colour, so will Hindus. We will all be branded and tarred with the same brush and this cannot be seen to happen.

Are you going to address these issues anytime soon, or are your news bulletins more interested in a closeted view of Hinduism, keeping it away from the normal everyday issues faced by your readers in Britain today?

I look forward to hearing from you in the near future

Regards,

Rupe Patel

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Dear Rupe,

Thanks for your email and your views. I hope you will appreciate that in order to keep this email short and because of time constraints I am only going to address your points briefly.

Firstly, we actually set up Hindu Voice UK because we feel that the Hindu perspective on a whole range of issues is simply not being put across adequately at the moment. Our magazine attempts to fill some of this space by publishing pieces about contemporary issues written mostly by UK (or Western) based Hindus.

Next, you seem to imply that we are interested in a "closeted view of Hinduism". The context of your implication seems to be based on your view that every story we cover is somehow Islam-centric. Please correct me if I'm wrong in summing up your views like that. In the meantime, here's a selection of stories available from our archives from January until April:

January:

- Attacks on Hindus in the UK on the increase

- Are Hindus well integrated? (in the context of the "Tebbit Test")

- Celebration of Diwali in Central London

Febuary:

- Tattoos and identity

March:

- Hindus in the Carribean

- The Hindu perspective on the increase in faith-schools in the UK

April:

- The "Asian" label

- (Young) Hindus getting involved in Parliament

Now I could carry on with the rest of issues and probably pick out other stories from the four issues I have chosen but my own view is that we have covered a range of stories about life in the UK and specifically centred around how they affect the Hindu community and also the wider community. And in that I have to completely disagree with your generalisation of our views. In particular, I fail to see how they are "Islam-centric" or even Christian-focused or whatever in any way.

Thirdly, we have also spent a lot of resources setting up a discussion area where any of our readers can give their views on articles or even suggest other topics and give their point of view (as long as they abide by code of conduct). And if you go through the discussion boards you will find (hopefully without me having to point it out) instances where exactly the topics you raised are discussed. In fact I would go further and say that we have raised and discussed a great many issues affecting Hindus in the UK - especially the younger generation of Hindus born and brought up in the UK.

However, you are totally entitled to your opinion and as I believe in looking at positives rather than negatives in any situation I would like to invite you to write an article or a series of articles and submit them to us on any topic where you think we have gaps in our coverage. We are not perfect and will welcome anything which will enrich and foster the age old Hindu tradition of questioning, debating and discussing.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Rajesh
Editor