Some members of the community have been travelling more than an hour and a half

A “whole generation” of Hindus are growing up without a temple and missing out on “auspicious events” due to a lack of facilities in Cambridgeshire. The previous temple on Mill Road closed in 2019 due to extensive water damage. Many people in the Hindu community across the county have to travel over an hour and a half to their nearest temple to be able to worship.

The Cambridge Hindu Temple and Community Centre (CHT) team has submitted its bid to take over the faith and community land in Northstowe to create a place of worship and community centre, not only for Hindus but for the whole town. The bids that were received are now going through a consultation period to help South Cambridgeshire District Council make a decision on which group will get the land.

Members from the CHT team have stressed the importance of having access to a temple with those who are unable to make it to a temple having to “miss out” on important festivals and events. Shweta Mathur, a member of the CHT, said: “My children are the third generation here who have grown up without having a temple. We have to make it a whole day out to visit a temple rather than it being a part of their day-to-day life while growing up.

“I had an issue with my hip a few years ago and couldn’t travel very far. During that time, I really wanted that spiritual strength and I wanted to visit a temple but it was beyond my reach. People who can’t travel far should have this access where they can get some spiritual healing. I missed it personally.”

The Hindu community feels that not having an accessible temple is “holding [them] back” from being about to celebrate their faith. Neal Patel, a member of the CHT, said: “We have so many festivals but it has come to a point where we have nowhere to celebrate because of the limitations we have. We have been declined places to hold festivals because one of the rooms within the vicinity had already been booked and they weren’t allowing us to use the other. So these things are holding us back and we can’t celebrate our own festivals.”

The project will also benefit the wider community with only 21 percent of the land being dedicated to the temple. The other 79 percent would be a dedicated space for the community and will allow anyone to book out the rooms for activities and offer educational classes and yoga sessions.

The community centre will also feature interfaith spaces available for any religion and provide social support for those new to Northstowe and people who have been there for years. The CHT is also working closely with other organisations and charities such as CamCare to secure access to workshops the residents want.

Aparna Nigam-Saxena, the founder and chair of Hindu Samaj Northstowe, said: “Our proposal meets a clear local need by creating a unique space for worship, wellbeing, culture and learning in Northstowe. It fills gaps current facilities cannot meet and brings regional significance through a diverse faith and cultural consortium, offering inclusive services, shared community benefit, and a lasting place of belonging for all.”

When the CHT announced it would be putting forward a bid, it was met with a lot of “enthusiasm” from both the Hindu community and residents in the area. Mrs Mathur said: “This is a story about how we miss our temple and how passionate we are about it because we don’t have anywhere to go to pray with dignity. To pray, it has to be in a very pious environment but we keep having to move and hire halls so we are limited with the time and how we can pray.”

The amount of support the CHT has received can also been seen through the many donations made towards the project. For phase one of the project, the group had a target to raise £244,000 but has already secured £317,937 in donations and pledges.

Abhishek Srivastava, a member of CHT, said: “250 people from the community have given us financial support. People are willing to dedicate their time, emotions, and money, because the temple is a dire need. We can’t do our basic rituals.

“The Hindu community is really contributing to the growth of Northstowe so the community really feels like it deserves something. We also have a lot of support from other faiths. We put out a survey to ask what other activities people would like and we got lots of responses. There’s been a good response here and people are excited about it. Not only in our community but others as well.”

The CHT team has put together a website for its proposal where people can find in depth information about the how the community centre might look and updates on the project. The consultation period for the bids has now opened with residents being asked to provide feedback on the submitted projects before Monday, April 27.