Gita

[Anna A. Slaczka]

I see that Victor and I answered almost at the same time. The numbers I gave are indeed from the 80s and there certainly is a need for a new census.

Anna Slaczka.


--- On Thu, 1/15/09, victor van Bijlert <victorvanbijlert at KPNPLANET.NL> wrote:

> From: victor van Bijlert <victorvanbijlert at KPNPLANET.NL>
> Subject: Re: Gita
> To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009, 7:30 PM
> It is correct that the largest non-Christian religion is
> Islam with an
> estimated 800,000 to a million adherents. The Hindus
> certainly outnumber the
> Jews. The large majority of Hindus in the Netherlands are
> migrants from
> Surinam, a former Dutch colony on the Northern coast of
> Brazil. These Hindus
> (in Dutch referred to as Hindostanis) actually came to
> Surinam as bonded
> contract-labourers from the United Provinces mainly,
> between roughly 1870 to
> 1919. Among these labourers about 80 percent was Hindu, and
> the rest were
> Muslims, with a few Sikhs in between. In the seventies of
> the twentieth
> century many of these Surinamese Hindustanis migrated to
> the Netherlands.
> Hence we find many people in the Netherlands of Indian
> origin, not from
> Bali. But as we did not have any censuses taken in the
> Netherlands since the
> early eighties, exact numbers cannot be given.
> 
> Victor
> 
> 
> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] Namens
> Allen W Thrasher
> Verzonden: donderdag 15 januari 2009 19:15
> Aan: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> Onderwerp: Re: Gita
> 
> Victor, 
> 
> You said,
> 
> " And this in spite of the fact
> that Hinduism is the second largest non-Christian religion
> in the
> Netherlands with approximately between 120,000 to 200,000
> adherents."
> 
> 
> I presume the largest is Islam.  Does this mean there are
> more Hindus than
> Jews?
> 
> Also, is it known how many are Hindus of Balinese or other
> Indonesian origin
> and how many from the subcontinent?
> 
> Allen
> 
> 
> Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.
> Senior Reference Librarian
> Team Coordinator
> South Asia Team, Asian Division
> Library of Congress, Jefferson Building 150
> 101 Independence Ave., S.E.
> Washington, DC 20540-4810
> tel. 202-707-3732; fax 202-707-1724; athr at loc.gov
> The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of
> the Library of
> Congress.