INSIGHT UK is an organisation of British Hindu and British Indian (BHI) communities in the United Kingdom.[1] It has also been called an advocacy group on behalf of these communities.[2][3]
Organisation
On its website, the organisation describes itself as a "social movement" for raising awareness and campaigning for causes that concern the British Hindu and Indian (BHI) communities in Britain.[4]
It first came to light in 2021 after conducting a survey on the state of Hinduism in the religious education syllabus in British schools. The study found 98 percent of respondents claimed that the study of Hinduism in religious education was low-quality and deficient.[5][6]
Selected activities
During the 2022 Leicester unrest, the organisation issued tweets and narratives on its website describing the events unfolding in Leicester.[7][8]
Rutgers University's Network Contagion Research Institute, which studied the cyber-swarming during the unrest, treated INSIGHT UK's twitter handle as a "Hindu Twittersphere user",[9]
while another report by Centre for Democracy, Pluralism and Human Rights, cited some of its tweets in its evidence.[7] After the unrest, the organisation led 180 Hindu groups in writing to the British prime minister urging authorities to stop hate crimes against the Hindu community.[10]
In 2023, INSIGHT UK campaigned against the use of an Indian goddess on the label of a French beer, calling it highly insensitive and disrespectful.[11] In September, it published a minute-long video of a Ganesh Chaturthi event in Leicester, where it accused the police of using excessive force.[12][13]
In October–November, it was listed among the Indian diaspora organisations that protested in support of Israel against the Hamas terror attack.[14][15]
In 2024, the organisation carried out a nationwide survey regarding the British media with over 2,000 respondents. It reported that 59 percent of the respondents claimed having experienced prejudice as a result of the British media reporting; 79 percent said that the media reports resulted in negative perception of British Indians.[16]
In February, INSIGHT UK wrote an open letter to BBC, Ofcom and the House of Lords, criticising BBC's coverage of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir consecration.[17]
Reception
An article in the International Socialism magazine criticised INSIGHT UK's report on Hinduism in school education as supported by the Hindu nationalist Sangh Parivar as supporting a revisionist view downplaying caste discrimination in Hinduism and only surveying its own supporters through its website and social media.[18]Scroll.in stated that the organisation's reporting on the 2022 Leicester unrest for OpIndia fanned the flames, and found that it had persuded some Hindus to boycott the SOAS inquiry in the violence, ultimately characterising the organisation as part of an increase in Hindutva influence in British politics despite the diversity of opinion among British Hindus.[19]
The Muslim news website 5 Pillars UK accused the organisation of using "far-right tropes", and targeting Muslims and other minorities in India.[20]
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‘Disrespectful, hurtful’: Activists demand recall of foreign beer with image of Hindu goddess on label, The Indian Express, 13 January 2023. ProQuest2765064574
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Cop 'manhandles' elderly Hindu priest in Leicester, video goes viral, IANS, 20 September 2023. ProQuest2866344610
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Chadwin, Joseph (2023), "The lived religious beliefs and experiences of English Hindu teenagers at home and at school", British Journal of Religious Education, 45 (3): 251–262, doi:10.1080/01416200.2023.2184326
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‘Disrespectful, hurtful’: Activists demand recall of foreign beer with image of Hindu goddess on label, The Indian Express, 13 January 2023. ProQuest2765064574
^
Cop 'manhandles' elderly Hindu priest in Leicester, video goes viral, IANS, 20 September 2023. ProQuest2866344610