Hinduism in Malawi arrived when Indian colonists and mercantilists were brought by the colonial British administrators in the late 19th and early 20th-century in what was then known as British Central Africa and later

Nyasaland Nyasaland () was a British protectorate located in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasala ...

. They were a part of a global movement of workers to parts of

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

, to help build infrastructure projects, establish services, retail markets and for administrative support. The immigrants, some educated and skilled but mostly poor and struggling in famine prone areas of Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, helped construct the first railway line between Malawi and Mozambique. Hinduism has a very small minority presence in predominantly Christian Malawi. The government tracks Christian and Muslim demographics, but does not recognize other religions separately, considers Hindus as well as the traditional African religions as a part of the "Others" category. The "Others" were about 3.1% in 2006. According to the 1994 constitution of Malawi, many seats in its Senate are reserved for "major religious faiths of Malawi", and only

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

are recognized as "major faiths". Malawi thus constitutionally bars people with faiths such as Hinduism from political representation in its Senate, and allows only Christians and Muslims to hold the set aside seats of political power. After colonialism ended, Hindus (along with Jains and Sikhs) were discriminated against in East Africa, where various East African governments promoted

Africanization Africanization or Africanisation (lit., making something African) has been applied in various contexts, notably in geographic and personal naming and in the composition of the civil service via processes such as indigenization. Africanization ...

enacting laws and policies that required commercial and professional sectors of the economy to be owned by non-Europeans, non-Asians, and only indigenous Africans. Many Hindus previously residing in Malawi migrated to other countries during this period, particularly the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

starting with the 1960s. Gujarati, Sindhi and Bengali are the main languages of hindus in Malawi. Sub-traditions of Hinduism such as the

Brahma Kumaris The Brahma Kumaris are a spiritual movement that originated in Hyderabad, Sindh, during the 1930s.Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

.Brahma Kumaris in Malawi
Brahma Kumaris Official Site, Malawi

References

Further reading