Hindus Pleased with Portrayal on the BBC

December 5, 2005

Source: Vivekananda Centre UK

On December 5, 2005 the Vivekananda Centre UK issued at statement that reported, "We are happy with the way the BBC is beginning to portray Hinduism. For example, in its introduction to Hinduism on its Religion-Online website until last week it introduced Hinduism in this negative manner: 'It is not a single unified religion and has no founder, single teacher, nor prophets. Hindus believe in a universal soul or God called Brahman.' We requested the BBC to alter this introduction and they heeded our advice. The introduction now reads, 'Hinduism originated over 3,000 years ago. Hinduism claims to have many founders, teachers and prophets who claim first hand experience of God. When Hindus promote the idea of spirituality as a principle rather than a personality they call it Brahman.' This evening the first of a series of three documentaries based on Prof. Winston's book 'Story of God' was shown on BBC 1 TV. We had bee n asked to contribute some thoughts on Hinduism. As the documentary was following Prof. Winston's own understanding of Hinduism, only those parts that fitted with the format of the film were used... but despite this we managed to present... key aspects of Hinduism that are normally not visible in such documentaries."