Being political Hindus in the West #9: Political might of Hindus in the UK
08 Jan 2023 18:00:00
In the last article, we discussed the demographic might of Hindus in the USA. In this article, we will discuss the same about the UK. The UK, because of the obvious colonial past as well as the expulsion from Uganda in the 70s and from Kenya in the 80s, has a large Indian-origin population, inevitably the majority of that is Hindu population. But as we did in the previous article, let us specifically take a look at the parliamentary elections and the influence that the Hindu community holds in some of the key constituencies.
The Carnegie endowment for international peace submitted a paper on the topic in November 2021, almost a couple of years after the general election of 2019 in the UK, which sheds some light on this issue. To say things have changed after that would be an understatement. Since November 2021, the Tories (the Conservative party) have changed their PM twice and now a Hindu person sits on UK PM’s chair for the first time ever. That is a huge change when it comes to the voting preference of the Hindu community. A Hindu PM naturally evokes feelings of affection and affiliation from the Hindu community. Even in the Carnegie paper, Hindus preferred Sunak over Johnson even before he became the PM. What is more, he was behind Labor party leader Keir Starmer by just 4 points. The paper shows (Table 3) that Even the Indian community as a whole, not even specifically Hindus, prefer tories over labor. The Indian community is the only minority community that prefers Tories over the labor party.
Now let us understand the meaning of swing voters. In the US presidential elections, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania, etc. have been some of the key swing states. Swing states are the states which can elect either party on election night. On the other hand states like Texas, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Wyoming will vote for the Republican party no matter what and states like California, New York, New Jersey, and Vermont will vote for Democrats no matter what. So the swing states decide the election results as democrats have always won 16-17 states and Republicans 20-21 states for the last 30 years. It is the remaining 10-12 states which decide the election.
Now let us look at the actual demographics. There are a number of parliamentary constituencies in England with high proportions of residents of Indian origin. These include Brent North and Harrow East in London, and Leicester East and West in the Midlands. According to the 2011 Census, there are approximately 138,000 Hindus living in the Midlands region of England, which includes the counties of Staffordshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, and Rutland. This represents around 2.5% of the total population of the Midlands. There are approximately 59 parliamentary constituencies in the Midlands region of England. So approximately there are 59 Parliamentary constituencies where Hindu voters can decide a winner, especially in the midlands or traditionally known as the Red wall until the 2019 general election, which can be a deciding factor if Hindus decide to switch fully towards one party or another.
In the previous article, we discussed how Hindus are also a prosperous community in the US. In the UK, the situation is even better. The Indian community and to be specific, the Hindu community is one of the most prosperous communities in the West. The average education, income, and wealth of the Hindu community are higher than that of the white population of the West, specifically in the UK. The above link shows that the Hindu community is second only to the Jewish community in the UK when it comes to education, income, and wealth. At the same time, unlike the US, in the UK campaign expenses of the candidates are actually limited. So MP candidates need the money more than US congress candidates. So if the Hindus unite and vote as a block and donate as a block while keeping the Hindu interests in mind, Hindus can be a political force to reckon with in the UK. But again the question remains to be asked, Will the Hindus unite?