This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Padn (talk | contribs) at 08:13, 1 February 2007 (←Created page with '==Hinduism in Belize== The country has an area of 8,867 square miles and its population is approximately 280,000. There is a growing Mestizo population (48.7 perce...'). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 08:13, 1 February 2007 by Padn (talk | contribs) (←Created page with '==Hinduism in Belize== The country has an area of 8,867 square miles and its population is approximately 280,000. There is a growing Mestizo population (48.7 perce...')(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Hinduism in Belize
The country has an area of 8,867 square miles and its population is approximately 280,000. There is a growing Mestizo population (48.7 percent), a diminishing Creole component (24.9 percent), a stable Mayan element (10.6 percent), and a Garifuna component (6.1 percent); the balance of the population (9.7 percent) includes Europeans, East Indians, Chinese, Arabs, and North Americans. More citizens are Roman Catholic (49.6 percent) than any other faith. East Indians constitute a mere three percent of the Belizean population.
The sizeable community of East Indians is traditionally Hindu their ancestors went to Belize in the 1880s to work on the sugar plantations as indentured servants.
East Indians came to the Caribbean from India, in the 18th century as Indentured labors. They worked in Belize as sugar cane farmers.
In 1857, three thousand East Indians migrated from Jamaica to Belize, 382 of whom were originally born in India. However, they came here as free East Indians, due to the expiration of their contracts in Jamaica.
Some of these East Indians were also Muslims.
Links
Hindus celebrate Diwali in Belize]