Speaking in the House of Commons recently, Kritika Katla, Aylesbury, described what it is like to grow up Hindu in Britain. She started with a school dinner.
At five years old, she was served beef at school. For a Hindu child, for whom the cow is sacred, this was a small, bewildering humiliation. She was too young to explain why it mattered, and the adults around her did not seem to understand.
Eight years later, at 13, classmates saw a Swastik on her Chromebook and asked whether she was a Nazi. Few of them knew that the Swastik has been a sacred symbol in Hinduism for more than 4,000 years, long before it was appropriated in 20th-century Europe. A symbol of auspiciousness and well-being was, in a UK classroom, read as a symbol of hatred.
Her speech was delivered with support from Ditch the Label and Speakers Trust. It offered a personal account of a problem that rarely makes headlines: the quiet, cumulative misrepresentation of Hinduism that Hindu children absorb in school, in the media and among their peers.
Anti-Hindu hate and a classroom gap
Katla cited figures suggesting that 51% of Hindu parents say their children have experienced Hinduphobia (anti-Hindu hate), and that 98% believe Hinduism is poorly taught in schools, according to a report by INSIGHT UK on the state of Hinduism in UK schools, 2021. Whatever one makes of the precise numbers, the direction is clear. Many British Hindu families feel their faith is neither understood nor fairly taught.
Her appeal was constructive rather than angry. She called for more accurate curricula, more respectful media reporting, and lessons that include Hindu literature and philosophy. In her view, a child who sees their heritage represented accurately is less likely to be bullied for it, and their classmates are less likely to bully.
Kritika’s 3-minute speech can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt5GCpq3nbs
What the latest INSIGHT UK survey on anti-Hindu hate in the UK found
Her testimony is now backed by data. INSIGHT UK is about to launch its report on anti-Hindu hate, based on its 2025 Anti-Hindu Hate Survey, which asked how Hindus in the UK perceive, experience and report religious hate incidents.
Conducted between March and July 2025, the survey drew 2,688 valid responses.
The findings highlight acute concern within the community: 100% of respondents to the INSIGHT UK survey reported either witnessing or directly experiencing hate incidents. These ranged from physical violence and online harassment to temple vandalism and the persistent misrepresentation of Hinduism in media and education. INSIGHT UK concludes that anti-Hindu hate is rising and is becoming a systemic issue in the UK. As with any self-selecting community survey, the findings should be read as a picture of lived experience in the community rather than a measure of national prevalence. That does not make them less worthy of attention.
A "justice gap"
Perhaps the most troubling finding concerns what happens after an incident. The report describes a "justice gap": the distance between the protections that exist on paper and a victim's ability to use them.
Awareness: 48.5% of respondents did not know their legal right to report hate incidents, or how to do so.
Reporting: Of the 51.5% who were aware of reporting channels, only 6% reported incidents to official bodies. INSIGHT UK argues that official statistics therefore understate the scale of anti-Hindu hostility.
Experience: Among the small minority who did report to the police, schools or employers, 84% described the experience as "bad" or "very bad". They cited a lack of conclusive action and fear of retaliation.
Because few report and many feel let down when they do, the problem remains largely invisible in official statistics.
What needs to change
The report also points to a terminology problem. The Hindu community has no definition or classification for targeted bigotry, and INSIGHT UK says anti-Hindu hatred is therefore often overlooked or minimised.
Its recommendations include:
Engaging Hindu communities at the local and national level in policy discussions
Educational and awareness campaigns on Hinduism, with mandatory training on anti-Hindu hate and anti-bias education in schools and universities
Policies and resolutions to counter anti-Hindu hate and recognise the contributions of the Hindu diaspora
Legislation that explicitly includes Hindu organisations in defining anti-discrimination law
Funding for research, monitoring and prevention, comparable to that available to other religious groups
Stronger moderation policies to detect and remove anti-Hindu content online
Its central proposal is a Hindu-led intermediary body, formally recognised by the Home Office. The body would raise awareness of how to identify and report religious hate crime, offer culturally sensitive victim support and safe reporting channels, and publish reliable annual data. It would also build trust between the community and institutions such as the police, while easing the burden on police services.
Listening to the children
Katla's speech and INSIGHT UK's data say the same thing in different registers. The child who was served beef at five and the adult who does not know where to report a hate incident have both met institutions that did not understand them.
The UK prides itself on being a multi-faith society. Hindus are, as the report notes, the third largest religious group in the country. The test of that society is whether its institutions can recognise hate when it is directed at a community, and whether a Hindu child can sit in a classroom, in front of a Chromebook with a sacred symbol on it, without fear of being misunderstood.
Politicians, schools and the media now have both the testimony and the evidence. What matters next is what they do with them.
For more on issues concerning the British Hindu & Indian communities, visit INSIGHT UK at https://insightuk.org
