Hindu Forum Belgium celebrated a first step to state recognition of Hinduism

On 22 November, the Hindu community of Belgium celebrated the first legal step to the recognition of Hinduism by the Belgian Government and Parliament with their decision last year to grant a subsidy to the Hindu Forum Belgium, the official interlocutor of the Belgian State.

This platform for all Vedic spiritual traditions will coordinate cooperation among various Hindu/Vedic communities and organisations in Belgium towards full recognition. 

“Recognition is more than just a legal formality or access to government benefits; it is a moral acknowledgment of the positive contributions that Hindu communities make to Belgian society,” said in his introduction to the event, Martin Gurvich, President of the Hindu Forum.

“It places them on an equal footing with other faith communities and non confessional philosophies and affirms their place in Belgium’s rich cultural and spiritual tapestry,” he also stressed.

Other speakers were Caroline Sägesser (CRISP), Prof. Winand Callewaert (KULeuven), Ambassador of India H.E. Saurabh Kumar, Hervé Cornille from the Belgian Parliament and Bikram Lalbahadoersing (Hindu Council of The Netherlands). The event was enchanced with music and dances.

Hinduism in Belgium in short

The Hindu Forum Belgium was launched in 2007 in Brussels. It comprises 12 Hindu organizations and is affiliated with the Hindu Forum Europe. It is estimated that about 20,000 people in Belgium practice a form of Hinduism.

The first Hindu immigrants arrived in Belgium in the late 1960s, mostly from the Western Indian State of Gujarat. More recently, they have come from Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan.

The Hindu Forum of Belgium represents the richness of Hindu/Vedic culture and provides a unified platform for all spiritual traditions rooted in the Vedic scriptures. It embraces the diversity of perspectives within Hinduism, from Vaishnavism (worship of Vishnu), Shaivism (worship of Shiva), Shaktism (worship of the Goddess), Smartism (worship of five major deities: Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti, Ganesha, and Surya), and other traditions.

Hinduism has close links with vegetarianism, non-violence towards living beings and also with yoga. In 2014, the United Nations proclaimed 21 June as the International Day of Yoga to raise awareness worldwide of the many benefits of practicing yoga.

Hinduism is an umbrella for a wide range of Indian religious and spiritual traditions, having no identifiable founder. It is often referred to as Sanātana Dharma (a Sanskrit phrase meaning “the eternal law”) by its adherents. It calls itself a revealed religion, based on the Vedas. It originated in the Indian subcontinent in ancient times. It is the world’s third-largest religion, with approximately 1.2 billion followers, or around 15% of the global population.

The financing of Hinduism

A first amount of 41,500 EUR was granted to hire two people in their secretariat (one full-time and one part-time) and to pay the charges of their premises in Brussels, for six months in 2023. Annually, this subsidy will be doubled: 83,000 EUR. This is only a first step towards a path that promises to be long to obtain full recognition.

Indeed, on 5 April 2022, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses of Anderlecht and Others v. Belgium (application no. 20165/20) noted that neither the criteria for recognition nor the procedure leading to recognition of a faith by the federal authority were laid down in an instrument satisfying the requirements of accessibility and foreseeability.

The European Court observed, firstly, that recognition of a faith was based on criteria that had been identified by the Belgian Minister of Justice only in reply to a parliamentary question dating back to last century. Moreover, as they were couched in particularly vague terms they could not, in the Court’s view, be said to provide a sufficient degree of legal certainty.

Secondly, the Court noted that the procedure for the recognition of faiths was likewise not laid down in any legislative or even regulatory instrument. This meant, in particular, that the examination of applications for recognition was not attended by any safeguards. No time-limits were laid down for the recognition procedure, and no decision had yet been taken on the applications for recognition lodged by the Belgian Buddhist Union and the Belgian Hindu Forum in 2006 and 2013 respectively.

State financing of religions in Belgium: 281.7 million EUR

In 2022, the public authorities financed Belgian religions at the level 281.7 million euros:

112 million from the Federal State (FPS Justice) and 170 million from the Regions and Communities (maintenance of places of worship and accommodation religious leaders).

These figures are from Jean-François Husson, Dr in political and social sciences (University of Liège). The amounts were distributed as follows:

210,118,000 EUR for Catholics (75%),

8,791,000 EUR for Protestants (2.5%)

1,366,000 EUR for Jews (0.5%)

4,225,000 EUR for Anglicans (1.5%)

38,783,000 EUR for secularism (15%)

10,281,000 EUR for Muslims (5%)

1,408,500 EUR for Orthodox (0.5%)

(in the historical order of state recognition)