State-Level Representation versus Community Cohesion: Competing Influences on Nepali Religious Associations in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Patterns of religious identification in Nepal have long been influenced by ethnic politics. Nepal was for many years a Hindu state, and until recently the vast majority of the population identified as Hindu, at least in official contexts. Since the 1990s, however, there have been increasing demands for equality of representation and opportunity among the numerous minority ethnic groups, many of which now claim a non-Hindu origin.¹ This movement directly challenges the state-promoted vision of national identity that apparently privileges the culture of the Hindu high castes and marginalises those groups that, historically, may have followed Buddhism and/or their own tribal religion. In this context, asserting a Buddhist identity can be a statement of belonging to a particular ethnic group, or of solidarity with other minority ethnic groups, in defiance of alleged Hindu domination and oppression, as much as a purely ‘religious’ statement. It may, or may not, reflect the nature of actual religious practice and belief (Hausner and Gellner, 2012).