Hinduism in Austria
Hinduism in Austria is in contrast to other religious communities officially organized little. Since 1998 is considered one of the various groups, the Hindu Religious Community in Austria ( hroe ), as " registered confessional community" ( according to the Religious Communities Act of 1998), but in contrast to " state-recognized religious communities " not the full recognition of the rights associated with possesses. According to the 2001 census, there were 3,629 professing Hindus. In contrast, senior people in the different groups estimate the number at several thousand, but not all official members of the confessional community are by far.
History
In 1980, the Bengali Bimal Kundu, the first religious group of predominantly originating from the Indian subcontinent Hindus, which still exists today. Kundu, a chemist, and performs as a priest by also worship called puja and other religious rites. Under his leadership In 1990, the club Hindu Mandir Society ( HMA), emerged from the 1999 through the initiative of then President Mukundrai Joshi the Hindu Religious Community in Austria ( hroe ) as registered confessional community. To possess Hindu groups in Austria for the first time legal entity.
Places of worship
In 2010, in Vienna there are three founded by laymen Mandir, Hindu temple. It is provisionally appointed rooms, an adapted basement room in the eighth district of Vienna, a former shop in the sixteenth and a room in the Afro-Asian Institute in the ninth district. The group in the sixteenth district represents a specific denomination within the different Hindu faiths, but, like the other two open for all Hindus. Believers visit at will one or the other temples, which form focal points less by certain religious directions, but rather by the respective common languages of the Indian subcontinent. Another Mandir can be found since the early 90s in Salzburg in the Schießstattgasse.
In every temple, a visit is possible only on certain days or Hindu holidays, there is no through hole. The Hindu community in the Afro-Asian Institute under the leadership of Bimal Kundu is involved in two decades active in intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
Who can call themselves Hindu general, it is not clear binding for all in need of a general chief. In Austria -born persons are not officially only in Hindu families recognized as Hindus, as it is the Indian Law ( matrimonial and family law) the case. Thus we read in the Constitution ( § 3.1 ) of the Hindu religious community: " Hindu is any physical person who is Hindu by her family tradition come from or because of Diksha ( ceremony, initiation) was added to a sampradaya, or has become through persuasion Hindu ".
Group of people
Besides originating from the Indian subcontinent Hindus also numerous other groups with predominantly western members are represented in Austria for several decades, so-called new religious movements which describe themselves as Hindus.