We risk becoming a lost generation, say young Northstowe Hindus

Young Hindus say they risk becoming a “lost generation” and disconnected from their culture and traditions because they have nowhere to worship.

Hindu families living in Northstowe, Cambridgeshire, say they will now have to drive to temples in London and Birmingham to worship after the closure of the Bharat Hindu Samaj Temple in Peterborough.

Some of the families say they moved to Northstowe specifically in the hope the Hindu Samaj Northstowe group would win a bid to build and run the town’s first faith hub, but it lost out to the Northstowe Church Network.

“Compared to my friends who go to church every week, I go to temple maybe twice a year,” 16-year-old Eyva, who lives in Northstowe, says.

“My friends like to come and see festivals and how we celebrate, but I can never take them to a temple.

“I can never show them how our traditions are done properly, because there are no facilities to support that,” she adds.

“You’ve already lost this generation,” Eyva says, adding that “you’ve lost the next generation as well” if a temple is not built soon.

The Hindu Samaj Northstowe group’s bid scored 65 out of 100 against South Cambridgeshire District Council’s criteria, while the Northstowe Church Network scored 81.

The council said the Hindu Samaj Northstowe bid “presented clear evidence of both regional and local need for a temple”, but that it could have done more to “address local needs outside the faith community” and that there was “insufficient practical detail”.