Bengaluru: A 40-year-old Hindu temple in UK’s Peterborough is fighting to keep its home. The High Court is hearing its case against a council decision to sell the site to the United Kingdom Islamic Mission.
The Bharat Hindu Samaj (BHS) temple has run from the New England Complex since 1986. The temple was founded by families expelled from Uganda by dictator Idi Amin in 1972.
It serves around 14,000 Hindus and is the only Hindu temple within a 35-mile radius, according to The Telegraph.
“This temple means everything to me,” Damyanti Bathia, 74 told The Telegraph. “For prayer, for meeting each other – it’s very important. I’ve been coming here since it opened. My children come, and my grandchildren come.”
Peterborough City Council decided in 2025 to sell the building as part of a plan to repay its roughly £500 million debt. Temple trustees told the media that they believed a price of £1.3 million had already been agreed for them to buy the site. Instead, the council put the building on the open market and picked the Khadijah Mosque, part of the United Kingdom Islamic Mission, as its buyer.
The decision was referred back to the cabinet after public outcry, but upheld in February. The Hindu community responded by securing a court injunction and raising £119,818 through a GoFundMe campaign, The Telegraph reported.
BHS’s legal team argues the council’s process was unlawful. They say the council breached the Equality Act 2010, given the “dramatic impact” the temple’s closure would have on the Hindu community, per The Telegraph. Council barrister Catherine Rowlands told the court the sale followed “a transparent, fair and lawful bidding process”. The temple’s barrister, Toby Fisher, countered that there were “significant flaws in the reasoning” of council officers.
The mosque group says it has outgrown its own site of nearly 40 years and wants to build a “unity centre” with prayer spaces, classrooms and sports facilities. Both sides say the dispute should not be framed as one faith against another, The Telegraph reported.
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Community tensions
Beneath the legal fight, tensions have simmered within the community. A WhatsApp message circulated among Hindus ahead of the hearing, seen by The Telegraph, accused the council of discrimination and said the community had stayed “too silent” about it.
“It makes our blood boil to know that there is clear discrimination against Hindus, but we as a community are too silent about it. I’m sure if this were happening to a mosque, there would have been a national uprising. We just silently accept it. There is no diversity, and people who speak up are silenced and forced to apologise,” the message read.
Council leader Shabina Qayyum said in a statement to The Telegraph that she recognised the sale had caused “great anxiety and upset” for the Hindu community, and gave assurances they would not be left without a home. She said officers had been exploring alternative premises with BHS. Temple trustees say no viable alternative has been offered so far.
“With the council taking this step, it feels like we’re being expelled again, and it brings back the memories of the past,” said a Hindu community member to The Telegraph.