It is hard to ignore the impact that Hindu religious festivals have on their immediate environment particularly when one considers those festivals that take place in a diaspora context. Whilst Hindu festivals have, as Jackson and Nesbitt have suggested, been somewhat more muted affairs than we might find in the homeland (1993:75), the visual impact of Hindu festivals is often considerable.

Many such events employ religious symbolism and iconography, the firework displays at Divālī are lavish and there will invariably be the throwing of coloured powders at Holī[1]. The Aum[2] sign and the Svastika[3] are ubiquitous at any major festival together with saṁpradāya[4] specific symbols. Pictures of the various gurus and deities may also be displayed in prominent places and images of the vast pantheon of Hindu gods and goddesses will adorn homes, halls and maṇḍirs[5] alike. The publication of brochures to mark special festival events is common. These often include colourful collections of images, teachings and quotations from texts, classical Hindu and tradition specific, as well as numerous advertisements from local Hindu owned businesses.

The festival of Annakūt / Govardhan Pūjā, however, that stands out in the pan-Hindu ritual calendar for a number of reasons. As a major expression of bhakti[6] ideology, Annakūt / Govardhan Pūjā brings together possibly the largest gathering of Hindus in the ritual calendar, to make a spectacular offering of devotional food to the divine in his mūrti[7] form, outside India. The festival also provides an insight into the nature of the relationship between devotees and the sacred highlighting the beliefs and philosophies that determine the differing ways the sacred is approached and understood.

Furthermore, Annakūt / Govardhan Pūjā brings about a re-conceptualisation of Hindu sacred space and time outside India and the practice of pilgrimage between or to these sacred spaces on certain events. More than any other festival, Annakūt / Govardhan Pūjā brings these notions of the sacred and pilgrimage into sharp focus especially when we consider the event as celebrated by the B.A.P.S. Swaminarayan Sanstha[8] and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Swaminarayan Sanstha and ISKCON from here on, see below).

There has been surprisingly little academic attention paid to the nature of devotional activity and the practice of pilgrimage in relation to Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā in the context of the Diaspora. This festival draws tens of thousands of devotees to specific places of worship in the U.K. and is not only an important vehicle of cultural transmission within the Hindu community (Jackson and Nesbit 1993, 76) it also highlights specific religious and cultural identities, in the case of this research Swaminarayan Sanstha and ISKCON.

This article will address this scholarly lacuna and illustrate how the festival of Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā demonstrates dynamics of specific Hindu identity through devotional food offering and the practice of pilgrimage in a Diaspora context. It will also illustrate how the Swaminarayan Sanstha and ISKCON have transferred the sacred and re-presented it in the U.K. facilitating the ritual of pilgrimage and re-conceptualising a Hindu religious landscape in an alien milieu.

The Swaminarayan Sanstha and ISKCON in the U.K.; a brief overview.

Due to the nature of Hindu immigration in the U.K. Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā has become a particularly Gujarātī event.[9] Here Gujarātī food is eaten, Gujarātī is spoken and several distinct Gujarātī Hindu traditions promote it as a distinctly Gujarātī Hindu festival.A great deal has been written on the migration of Gujarātīs at the beginning of the end of the eigthteenth beginning of the nineteenth centuries (see Mattausch1993 & 1998; Mawani and Anjoom 2007) and it is beyond the scope of this article to give a full account.

In brief however, as Vertovec suggests (2000:15), Gujarātī migration to and settlement in the U.K. can be divided into two main periods and follows a distinct migratory trajectory. The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed Indians, migrating under indentured labour contracts and settling in East Africa. Gujarātī merchant families extended their commercial enterprises and began to have a major political, economic and social impact on their host countries (Vertovec 2000:15; Kotecha in Mattausch1993:128; Williams 2001:207).

For East African Gujarātī Hindus the second period of migration, this time to the U.K., began in the shadow of Idi Amin’s ‘Africanisation’ policy[10] in the late nineteen sixties when, ‘tens of thousands of Ugandan Asians… were expelled’ (Jackson & Nesbitt, 1993: 5). Gujarātī Hindus arrived en masse, their passports permitting entry for whole families and the processes of re-establishing themselves in an alien milieu began.

Recent decades have witnessed a strong affirmation of specific religious identities or saṁpradāyas in the U.K. Saṁpradāyan devotees focus on a specific deity, in some cases this deity is a local or regional divinity and the devotee is initiated into the saṁpradāya by a guru. In some cases the founding guru takes on divine status as with the Swāmīnārāyan Sanstha in others the guru is considered to be totally human acting as a conduit and between God and the devotee as in ISKCON.

From the founding guru a paraṁparā or lineage of spiritual successors flows and the succeeding gurus assume the role of authority figures and teachers for the devotees. When a devotee undergoes the dīkṣā or initiation into the saṁpradāya he or she will undertake to follow the codes of saṁpradāyan practice abiding by its prescriptions and proscriptions. Saṁpradāyas, are distinct religious movements in their own right; they have their own central texts and often their own hierarchical ecclesiastic body. These range from the head guru to the sādhus[11], sants[12] or ācāryas[13] to the lay community known as satsangis. Thesesaṁpradāyas have had a considerable affect upon how Hinduism is viewed and understood in the U.K. by both Hindus and non-Hindus.

The Swāmīnārāyan Sanstha is a significant example of a thriving saṁpradāya in the U.K. It is a modern form of Vaiṣṇavism[14] based on the life and teachings of Sahājanand Swāmīnārāyan (1781-1830), a Gujarātī religious reformer. The Swāmīnārāyan Sanstha whose current spiritual leader is Pramukh Swāmī Mahāraj, has millions of followers in India and throughout the Diaspora. It has compiled a comprehensive corpus of literature of which the Shikshāpatri is central.[15] and built numerous significant temples and shrines throughout the Hindu diaspora, not least of all the organisation’s main U.K. and European headquarters, located in Neasden and opened in 1995.

Like the Swāmīnārāyan Sanstha, ISKCON has played a considerable role in the lives of many Hindus in the U.K. Gujarati and non-Gujarati, for a number of years. This saṁpradāya is considered by its devotees to be a contemporary continuation of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava saṁpradāya established by Caitanya Mahāprabhu (1485-1533). Its founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swāmī Prabhupada, introduced deity worship to the west (Deadwyler in Waghorne and Cutler 1985, 70), and is seen as the most recent in the paraṁparā of spiritual masters extending back to Caitanya himself.

The opening of Bhaktivedanta Manor, Borehamwood near Watford, in 1973 made a notable impact on the U.K.’s religious landscape. Furthermore, in recent years the saṁpradāya has found itself becoming, according to informants, ‘adopted’ by the sizeable Gujarātī Hindu communities in the U.K., especially on festival days[16] and in emphasizing the teachings of the Śri Caitanya Caritāmṛta and Bhagavad Gītā ISKCON , ‘increasingly embrace[s] the Hindu Diaspora’(Dwyer & Cole 2007, 1).[17]

Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā and Pilgrimage -Sacred Geography Transferred

Sacred time and the ritual festival calendar are important aspects of life in all religious traditions. The general theme of sacred time receives attention in Eliade’s work (1957, 68-116) and Coleman and Elsner also make reference to it throughout their work on pilgrimage (1995). Eade and Sallnow (1991) and Turner (1973 & 1978) consider sacred time in relation to pilgrimage from a methodological perspective. Themes of sacred time and pilgrimage in India receive greater attention in general (Bharati 1963; Choudhury in Bowen 1998, 230-254; Eck 1981 & 1998, 55-59, 63-77; Michaels 2004, 310-313, Morinis 1984) and Sopher has specifically examined pilgrimage in Gujarāt (1968).

More recent attention to the Swāmīnārāyan tradition has been paid by Williams concerning sacred time in relation to the emergence of mega-festivals (2001, 138-47, 176-79). The Swāmīnārāyan tradition itself makes reference to the importance of pilgrimage and festivals as a necessary part of ritual and practice (Mukundcharandās & Jnāneshwardās 1995, 73-81, 97-111).

There has been, however, very little academic attention paid to Hindu festivals and pilgrimage in the Diasporic context. From a methodological perspective we find some interesting insights into Hindu pilgrimage in America (Eck 1998, 77-92; Campo 1998; Prorok 2003) with some further speculation concerning the religious landscape of the U.K. by Peach and Gale (2003). When it comes to festivals, Kelly gives a historical overview of Divālī and Holī in Fiji, whilst Johnson and Figgins provide us with a descriptive account of the civic nature of Divālī in N.Z.

Likewise, little specific mention is made in any of the major works concerning Hindus in the U.K. Brear (1986) gives an account of the Swāmīnārāyan Alexandra park mega-festival in 1985 but little else of any substance can be located elsewhere other than in Jackson & Nesbitt (1993,75-93) and Nye (1995,147-59). I have, however, found absolutely no reference to the festival of Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā in this context.

The festival of Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā, takes place the day after Divālī, often falling in late October early November. The specific dating of the festival, however, depends upon the auspicious positioning of the moon. For Hindus from all traditions in the U.K. Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā immerses devotees into what Coleman and Elsner describe as sacred time and sacred space. Such an occasion for pilgrimage and gathering must, therefore, take place at auspicious astrological conjunctions (1995, 138).

On the significant day, divined some time before,[18] tens of thousands of Gujarātī Hindus will travel to a number of significant places of worship in the U.K., Here they will make devotional food offerings to God but the form that God takes is dependent upon the tradition that the devotee follows. For ISKCON devotees the sole focus of devotion is Kṛṣṇa. For the Swāmīnārāyan Sanstha, whilst Kṛṣṇa is present and acknowledged, devotion is palpably directed to Sahājanand and the guru paraṁpāra. Both traditions, however draw from the same meta narrative; the story of Kṛṣṇa and Govardhan Mountain;

The first day of the Indian New Year was a day when citizens of Goluka in the time of Lord Kṛṣṇa, collected their harvest and offered their appreciation to Indra, the rain god. Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, did not approve of this. He felt that rather than take refuge in the gods, which would only reward them with worldly pleasures, it would be far more profitable to take refuge in God and be blessed with the eternal bliss of the supreme. The Lord convinced his father and elders of the village to stop worshipping Indra. By his wishes everyone offered sweets and vegetables to a mountain called Govardhan. The villagers felt that the Lord accepted their offering through the mountain.

When Indra came to know of this he flew into a terrible rage. He ruthlessly rained over Goluka, destroying many homes and cattle and people were left exposed to the bitter wrath of Indra, homeless and helpless. This drastic turn of fate they attributed to their not having worshipped Indra but they were unaware of the fact that the strength of the gods paled into insignificance when it came to comparing Indra to Kṛṣṇa. To convince them of this the lord lifted Mt. Govardhan with the tip of his little finger. The villagers having no other refuge then that of God immediately rushed beneath the mountain. Ever since then the custom of savoury offerings of food to the Lord began. It is now popularly known as Annakūt festival.[19]

According to Toomey in “Mountain of Food, Mountain of Love” (in Khare 1992, 117-147) the mythical events outlined above took place around and upon Mount Govardhan in Vṛṇḍāvana, Mathura, central north India. When speaking of Govardhan Pūjā in Vṛṇḍāvana, we have to contextualise it in terms of being located in a particularly sacred place. Vṛṇḍāvana is described as the pastureland of Kṛṣṇa’s youth, a place where countless stories have been written and re-written across and onto the religious sacred groves, ponds, and hills. Pilgrimage to Vṛṇḍāvana, ‘operates on a subtle theory of memory, one in which the landscape is transformed into a living text’ (Leach in Khare 1992, 121) and devotees come to revel in the memories that the landscape evokes.

The practice of making large offerings to the divine in the form of Kṛṣṇa has firm roots in Vaiṣṇava cosmology and ritual. Such myths and stories concerning Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā are derived from Vaiṣṇava texts concerning Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes or līlā for example, the tenth canto of the Srīmad Bhāgavatam Purāna can be seen providing the central account of the story that is partly illustrated above. The places that are mentioned in this account are consequently physically referenced on to a sacred map of Vṛṇḍāvana (Leach in Khare 1992, 121-2). Importantly, it is these narrative and historical references that undergo a process of transference to the U.K. during the festival. In this context, unique religious landscapes are thus re-conceptualised allowing Gujarātī Hindus to participate in a genuine pilgrimage during Annakūt/Govardhan.

Food is the central vehicle of devotion during the festival of Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā. Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā encourages Hindus in the U.K. to offer devotional food to God at a number of sacred locations. The choice of location depends upon the religious tradition of the individual and Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā collective offerings will vary in size according to the number of devotees involved. The festival is, however, an important and very auspicious event in the Hindu sacred calendar, viewed by many as an opportunity to participate in devotional activities at individual and community levels.

Preparations for the event are lengthy and in the cases of the larger locations, such as the Swāmīnārāyan maṇḍirs and Bhaktivedanta Manor, extremely well organised. At the Neasden maṇḍir up to 1,500 individually prepared thalis[20] of sattvic[21] vegetarian food will be placed (primarily) at the feet of the saṁpradāya’s founders and gurus in the haveli or great hall.

At Bhaktivedanta Manor, a large representation of the Govardhan hill, central to the meta-narrative of the event, is constructed from a sweet ghee mixture and offered to Kṛṣṇa whilst other offerings are laid at the feet of the Kṛṣṇa mūrtis in the pūjā [22] hall in order to tempt him down to savour the depth of their devotion.

The Swāmīnārāyan maṇḍir in Neasden expects an annual attendance of some 45-50,000 pilgrims on the day of Annakūt, over half of whom will be saṁpradāyan satsangis. This has in recent years made it the largest single Annakūt gathering of Hindus in the U.K. and possibly outside of India. As a consequence of the expected numbers of pilgrims, legions of volunteers work throughout the night of Divālī in order to ensure that the vast mountains of devotional offerings are arranged with appropriate care and attention.

The mountain of food (a variety sweets, dry and wet vegetarian dishes), is placed in at the feet of all of the deities in the maṇḍir. The pan–Hindu deities present in the maṇḍir are Rāma and Sīta[23], Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā[24], Śiva and Pārvatī[25], Gaṇeśa[26] and Hanuman[27], all of whom receive their own individual Annakūts. It is, however, in the main haveli hall that the great Annakūt is arranged.[28]

Each year (in my own experience of the festival from 2000-2006) the Swāmīnārāyan Annakūt phenomenon seems to have become more ostentatious and ornate. Whilst Kṛṣṇa and a small representation of Mt.Govardhan are present on the main shrine the focus of devotional activity is palpably the mūrtis of Sahājanand, Gunatitanand and the Swāmīnārāyan paraṁparā. Rows upon rows of offerings are placed with meticulous precision and care at the feet of the mūrtis.

On each occasion that I have attended, the mūrtis of the entire Swāmīnārāyan spiritual succession are elevated above everything and everyone. In the centre sits Sahājanand Swāmīnārāyan and his immediate successor and close companion Guṇatitanand Swāmī, on their left sits Bhagati Swāmī, Shastri Ji Maharāj and upon their right Yogi Ji Maharāj and finally Pramukh Swāmī Maharāj, the present spiritual leader of the saṁpradāya .

The Annakūt in the haveli is enormous and to witness it is the highlight of the day. The sense of anticipation and expectation from the preparation of the food to the hours of waiting and queuing, the darśan[29] in the maṇḍir and the final participation in the mass ārtīs[30] are summed up in the commemorative literature from the 1998 Annakūt, attended by Pramukh Swāmī Maharāj himself,

Two extraordinary Annakūts were prepared. For the past month scores of volunteers from the Ladies wing have planned for this even, preparing (the) hundreds of dishes to be offered, the volunteers served tirelessly. The first Annakūt was laid before the shrines in the maṇḍir. The second (the largest in the world) was laid in the haveli hall. At 11.15 Swamishri arrived in the maṇḍir and sat before the thākorjī [31]as the Sādhus sang a series of thals[32], asking the lord to dine first on this New Year’s Day. After the first ārtī Swāmīshri descended to the haveli were thal was sung and the arti performed. In total 850 food items were offered in 1500 dishes and bowls. Through the day 14 ārtīs were performed with over 50 ārtī dishes being used every time, the festival was given coverage by all major television networks (and) over the day more than forty two thousand people visited the maṇḍir for darśan.[33]

ISKCON, whilst smaller in scale can still expect to host up to 15,000 pilgrims, ISKCON, Puṣṭimārga[34] and Sanātana Dharma[35], at Bhaktivedanta Manor for the Govardhan Pūjā as well as for the Gau pūjā.[36] As one informant pointed out,

ISKCON is a non regional specific, multinational organisation that can cater for the spiritual needs of many Hindus of Indian and non Indian origin… (However) a great number of the devotees that attend Bhaktivedanta Manor will also go to have darśan at the Neasden temple and vice versa.[37]

At Bhaktivedanta Manor all of the food to be offered is prepared well in advance by the pūjāris[38] and this consists of mostly sweets and dry goods, any fresh food is prepared much nearer the time. It is recommended that devotees only bring food that requires no physical preparation, such as fruit, to ensure its ‘gūnic’ qualities.

The significance of the day for ISKCON devotees is the belief that all devotional offerings are made specifically to Kṛṣṇa. Devotees emphasise that this is Kṛṣṇa’s day and the entire meta-narrative and understanding of the events that took place in Vṛṇḍāvana, and that are re-conceptualised at Bhaktivedanta Manor, revolve around him alone. For many devotees this enhances the sense that the sacred landscape of Vṛṇḍāvana has been transferred to Bhaktivedanta Manor. When the food is offered to Kṛṣṇa, those present experience this transference of sacred geography. This transference provides a point of reference for those who have travelled, many considerable distances, to partake of the celebrations and the devotional activities of the day.

4.3 Pilgrimage and the Landscape Transformed

Until a century ago, perhaps longer, Hindu sacred space was mostly confined to South Asia and in particular the Indian sub continent. Since the emergence of a distinct Gujarātī Hindu Diaspora in the late nineteenth century, however, this situation has changed and in recent decades we have witnessed the establishment of the sacred in a number of locations around the globe. The creation of Hindu sacred space outside India has also bought about the phenomenon of Hindus undertaking pilgrimage to such locations. The nature of Hindu pilgrimage has, however, had to adapt to Diaspora conditions and the way that Hindu pilgrimage is understood has had to change with it.

Every informant that has contributed to this research has expressed the notion that, during the festival of Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā, they were undertaking pilgrimage or tīrth yatra. Simply defined a tīrth is a place of pilgrimage, a place that offers something special, a blessing or the favour of a deity (Klostermaier 1998, 186) To go on tīrth yatra is to undertake a journey with the specific intention of visiting a tīrth or number of tīrths for devotional reasons.

That these specific locations exist and thus provide the conditions necessary for tīrth yatra in this Diasporic context is confirmed when we consider the notion of the transference of sacred landscape from one location to the next. That devotees may only be travelling to one specific location nevertheless accords with the underlying ideology of tīrth yatra. Each of these locations is sacred and each bestows ‘something special’ on the devotee, especially during Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā.

However, we have to approach this idea with some care. Sacred Hindu locations in the U.K. have no ancient historical credentials and the soil upon which they are constructed has none of the spiritual charge of ‘Mother India’. We have, however, considered the factors that have allowed Hindus to establish the sacred in this context (See Chapter 2). What appears to be more important to the devotee is the individual or collective relationship that they have developed with Bhaktivedanta Manor for example.

The establishment of these places of worship takes on new and significant meaning; they symbolize not only religious identity but are testimony to the efforts of the devotees to settle and worship in an alien and often uncomfortable milieu. They become not only places of religious significance but of social and cultural significance and are landmarks in a recent chapter of the history of Gujarātī Hindus outside India.

The way that we view Hindu pilgrimage in a Diasporic context also changes when we consider the function of these locations. In this context maṇḍirs are geographically few and the distances between them considerable. Hence they serve the collective needs of devotees who might not normally encounter each other in the homeland. In Gujarāt family shrines and places of worship, even trees, caves and mountains, have immediate significance and become the focus of regular pilgrimage; this is not, for numerous obvious reasons, the case in this disaporic context. In the U.K. it is the maṇḍir in particular that appears to be a focus for wider community and congregational needs.

In some cases the place of worship may serve as the only local access to the divine during Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā. Again the context differs from that in India where family and village shrines proliferate and urban environments are replete with a diversity of places of worship and devotion.

For many devotees living in and around Neasden or Borehamwood visiting their maṇḍir will often only entail a short journey by car or public transport a physically difficult journey is not undertaken in order to experience a liminal stage. The term pilgrimage for normal maṇḍir worship hardly applies here. Neither would Swāmīnārāyan devotees recognise a daily or weekly visit to the Neasden maṇḍir as pilgrimage. Devotees do, however, acknowledge that occasional or festival visits to associated maṇḍirs are a form of pilgrimage. Devotees from Canada or North America visiting the Neasden maṇḍir for the first time, during an event like Annakūt, or making it part of their visit to the U.K. would be considered, and consider themselves, pilgrims in this context.[39]

The term ‘pilgrimage’, as in the literal movement to a place of sacred significance (Bowker 1997, 752), also applies when we consider that a number of devotees travel some distance to visit maṇḍirs other than those they would normally visit on a regular basis; especially during this event. As one female informant pointed out, the Swāmīnārāyan Sanstha and ISKCON at Bhaktivedanta Manor work closely to ensure that the facilities are in place that they can visit each other’s celebrations on the day.[40] Undertaking to travel to these maṇḍirs, whether on a regular basis or just during festival periods, is meritorious and encourages social cohesion as well as enhancing religious identity; as Coleman points out, ‘everyday social concerns clearly do impinge upon and even constitute pilgrimage’ (Coleman 2002, 356).

Of course, the nature of pilgrimage during the festival takes on an entirely different physical complexion in this context. The journeys tend to be much less arduous in comparison to India. Public and private transport is easily accessible to most devotees in the U.K.and the general transport infrastructure of these countries makes travelling easier. The majority of the sacred locations spoken about here are also in urban areas, apart from Bhaktivedanta Manor. [41]

There are elements of previous paradigms concerning pilgrimage in this context. We encounter a direct parallel with Turner’s normative communitas, in that Gujarātī Hindus in the Diaspora, ‘need to mobilize and organize resources to keep membership of a group alive and thriving and the necessity for social control among those members in the pursuance of these and other collective goals’ (Turner 1973, 194). In this case the goals are the maintenance and promotion of religious identity and the desire to represent distinct religious identities through the activity of pilgrimage.

The use of the term ‘pilgrimage’ as an analytical concept in this context is, therefore, appropriate but must be applied cautiously. During Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā devotees undertake a quest for the sacred involving the pursuit of an ideal and the undertaking of a special journey, short as it may be, with a specific goal (Morinis in Coleman 2002, 362). I, therefore, employ Dubisch’s suggestion (in Coleman 2002, 362) that devotees in this context have, ‘ an association with certain events and/or sacred figures with a particular field of space and maintain the notion that the material world can manifest the invisible spiritual world at such places’ during Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā (see Chapter 5). [42]

For Swāmīnārāyan Sanstha and ISKCON devotees the continuity of pilgrimage in this Diasporic context is central to religious identity and the fulfilment of their ritual obligations. Pilgrimage in the U.K. acts as a vehicle to re-connect the devotee with his/her tradition’s past and the events that took place within that past. These acts of pilgrimage allow the individual and the collective to re-conceptualise and in some cases re-enact that past by visiting certain locations during Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā.

Furthermore, locations of Hindu worship in the U.K. increase in spiritual magnetism during this festival. Devotees at Bhaktivedanta Manor and the Swāmīnārāyan Neasden maṇḍir speak of Hindus from a diversity of traditions in the North West London region coming to festival events. They also speak of devotees arriving from many other areas of the country and often from Europe and India itself.[43]

In the last decade or so the situation has become more complex during this event. This can be seen when we consider the effect that the opening of major Swāmīnārāyan maṇḍirs has had upon the Gujarātī Hindu pilgrimage in the U.K. and N.Z. Prior to the building of the Neasden maṇḍir, Bhaktivedanta Manor was considered to be the main focus of Gujarātī Hindu pilgrimage during the festival, especially for devotees living in the North West London region. The opening of the Neasden maṇḍir in 1995 has now made a very visible and substantial contribution to destinations open to the Gujarātī Hindu community.

The result of this is that Gujarātī Hindus have clearly defined their religious and pilgrimage intentions during the festival. Swāmīnārāyan devotees will almost exclusively attend Annakūt at the Neasden maṇḍir, along with numerous Sanātana Dharma devotees. Devotees of ISKCON, Puṣṭimārga and considerable numbers of Sanātana Dharma will attend Govardhan Pūjā at Bhaktivedanta Manor. Whilst there is some pilgrimage exchange between saṁpradāyas since the opening of the Neasden maṇḍir this has become less obvious. Sanātana Dharma devotees will, however, often travel between the two as well as visiting their own particular maṇḍir.

Since the opening of the Neasden maṇḍir in 1995, pilgrimage during the festival has undergone a process of transformation. The process of undertaking pilgrimage became a more coherent one, better organised and one significantly more representative of Gujarātī Hinduism as opposed to Indian Hinduism. This process of collective organisation for the event was largely continued in 1996 when ISKCON won its legal battle (see Nye 1996) in order to expand access facilities to Bhaktivedanta Manor. The opening of a private access road through the grounds of the manor provided greater opportunity for devotees from various traditions to fulfil their pilgrimage dharma or religious obligation with greater ease.[44]

Whilst Bhaktivedanta Manor remains an important destination for Gujarātī Hindus, in this context the opening of the Swāmīnārāyan maṇḍir in Neasden has increased the level of the public representation of Gujarātī Hinduism in the U.K. Devotees attending the Neasden maṇḍir during Annakūt are entering a landscape that has been transferred from Gujarāt to Neasden. It is a landscape complete with traditional Gujarātī maṇḍir dedicated to the Gujarātī spiritual founders of a Gujarātī saṁpradāya. Gujarātī religious personalities are present, Gujarātī traditions are practiced, offerings of Gujarātī food are made and consumed, and devotees sing Gujarātī religious songs and find themselves in the company of tens of thousands of other Gujarātī devotees.

Not only this, but the Swāmīnārāyan Sanstha has undertaken to transfer and re-locate a sacred landscape that would be recognised and understood by Gujarātī Hindus from all traditions. The spiritual significance attached to this maṇḍir by the saṁpradāya has made it a viable alternative to India as pilgrimage destination during this festival for those who cannot go there themselves. In the words of Pramukh Swāmī Maharāj himself,

Today is the new-year here in London, the Annakūt darśan is beautiful and people flock here in large numbers. You are all extremely fortunate. The 68[45] holy places of pilgrimage are all here as God resides here. One does not even have to go to India, as here in one place of holiness of all 68 places of pilgrimage is experienced…we are all presently seated in the divine Akshardham. If we understand the Jnan[46] of Atma Paramatma we will experience peace.[47]

Similar sentiments were expressed at the 2001 and 2004 Neasden Annakūts by the head sādhus. Devotees were told, ‘people wish to make pilgrimage to India, but if they cannot then they can make it here, the biggest pilgrimage centre outside of India!’

The theme of the 68 places of pilgrimage is also highlighted during daily ārtī pūjā and features in the accompanying bhajans[48] sung at every Swāmīnārāyan maṇḍir.[49] This notion of the 68 places of pilgrimage is a permanent fixture of the maṇḍir. Nor are the 68 places only recognised and accessible during the Annakūt or just on the occasion that Pramukh Swāmī is present. One of the head sādhus at the maṇḍir explained, ‘the mūrtis of God have been consecrated here in the maṇḍir, we therefore consider God is here in the maṇḍir, so the 68 places of pilgrimage lie at his feet, this of course is a permanent aspect of the maṇḍir and of any other maṇḍir.’ Therefore, all Swāmīnārāyan maṇḍirs are considered to be places worthy of pilgrimage during this event and at any other time and not just for Swāmīnārāyan devotees. The sanstha does, however, recognise that for non-Swāmīnārāyan devotees, the degree of spiritual importance that they place on their visit to Swāmīnārāyan maṇḍirs is entirely down to their own spiritual inclination.

In light of this, the Neasden maṇḍir has become a significant site of pilgrimage for Gujarātī Hindus and a re-conceptualisation of the 68 places of Hindu pilgrimage in the U.K. This spiritual attraction of the maṇḍir is heightened for Gujarātī Hindus from all traditions during the festival of Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā.

Senior spokespersons of the saṁpradāya are concerned to point out, however, that all devotees are encouraged to visit India for pilgrimage purposes and that the maṇḍir in no way diminishes the significance of any pilgrimage sites in India, neither does it attempt to replace them. Should circumstances prevent devotees from travelling to India, however, then the Neasden maṇḍir could be considered by all Hindus and should be considered by Swāmīnārāyan Hindus appropriate for the fulfilment of this spiritual pursuit.[50]

Many ISKCON and Sanātana Dharma devotees have spoken about their recognition of elements of Gujarāt being present during the festival. What appears to be more important, however, is the recognition of the Vṛṇḍāvana landscape in the U.K. during Govardhan Pūjā, especially at Bhaktivedanta Manor. For devotees,

Bhaktivedanta is a sacred place. It is an embassy, if you like, to the spiritual world, there is a different energy here, bought about by the collective spirituality of the place. Vṛṇḍāvana is here in the hearts of the pilgrims who come here and this is developed through the relationship that each devotee has with the mūrtis. [51]

There are obvious differences in the physical geography between these significant locations in the U.K. and those in Vṛṇḍāvana. For U.K. ISKCON devotees, however, Govardhan Pūjā is the time when they seek to reawaken the experience of devotion to God through the offering of food and participation in pilgrimage. For Hindus in this study there is no problem in recognising the spiritual significance of certain locations and ritual places can be visited or re-experienced on a mental as well as physical plane.[52] This was further explained by a resident ISKCON devotee at Bhaktivedanta Manor,

Wherever Kṛṣṇa is worshipped then that place becomes a holy place. In the U.K. there is no place historically, that Kṛṣṇa resided, whereas in India and especially Vṛṇḍāvana, Kṛṣṇa was everywhere. Kṛṣṇa is however, everywhere because of mūrti worship, his presence is accepted to be here and pilgrimage…. is core to that accepted and believed presence.

*

The festival of Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā is important on a number of levels. It has, in recent years, become a major expression of religious identity through the offering of devotional food in the Gujarātī Hindu Diaspora. The event has also become central in the process of re-confirming the sacred nature of Hindu places of worship in the U.K. and N.Z. The event has brought about not only a ritual historicisation (Prorok 2003, 295) of sacred Hindu space, but has transformed the ritual landscape into one that actively promotes the activity of pilgrimage.

The change in landscape brought about by the festival is also experienced on a more subtle level. Devotees speak frequently of the temple environs and even the landscape beyond becoming transformed into Vṛṇḍāvana or the Gujarāt on the festival day. The sense that one is experiencing the pasture lands of Kṛṣṇa pastimes in North West London may be difficult to conceive of on a physical level. For many, however, the festival landscape becomes internalised and devotees have spoken of a sense of re-visiting certain sacred locations at certain times and re-experiencing the presence of Swāmīnārāyan or Kṛṣṇa.

These locations, and the accompanying phenomenon of pilgrimage to them, represent a great deal more than the creation of religious institutions in order to maintain cultural and spiritual links with the homeland. The development of sacred space, the recognition of a sacred landscape and the ritual historicisation of the locations within that landscape during Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā, illustrates how Gujarātī Hindus in the U.K. have bought about the creation of a unique pilgrimage culture complete with sacred destinations, events and language in a Diaspora context.

It is widely acknowledged that immigrants will, in the course of immigration and settlement, transplant their religious institutions, such as pilgrimage, in their new homeland (Campo 1998; Peach and Gale 2003; Prorok 2003; Yang and Ebaugh 2001). These institutions adapt to the cultural, social, geographical and political conditions. They also provide Gujarātī Hindus with the opportunity to participate in the ritual of pilgrimage whilst a considerable distance from the spiritual and organisational centres of their religious and cultural system. Coleman sees this location of pilgrimage sites in peripheral areas as logical and common especially in Eastern traditions (2002, 35). Vertovec goes further and suggests that such processes and activities create an heightened awareness with regards to culture as well as new kinds of self awareness with regards to religious practice and belief (2000,151).

Pilgrimage during Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā also allows Gujarātī Hindus from various traditions to publicly re-present their distinctive religious identities. Smart (In Vertovec 2000, 152) suggests that this underlines the need of Hindu traditions in the U.K. to express themselves in the face of secularity and Christianity, giving on one level a universal account of itself and articulating its teachings under some general principle, in this case bhakti. These traditions go further, however; the unified, general principle is a public representation, the deeper reality is that Hindu traditions are actively maintaining distinct identities based on differing approaches to the divine

as witnessed by the differing foci of devotional activity and pilgrimage destination.

This raises a particular problem for those academics (Lannoy 1971; Ishwaran 1980, Williams 2001; Vertovec 2000) who have suggested that Hinduism in this country has undergone a process of homogenization and that the paramountcy of bhakti has lead to ecumenical Hinduism at the expense of specific traditional identities. This is obviously an issue that needs to be expanded upon at length (see Wood 2008, 2009) as it also raises questions of authority. Suffice to say, however, that we as students of Hinduism cannot be satisfied with accepting the purely representative picture of Hinduism promoted by this suggestion of a dominant ecumenical from of Hinduism. Furthermore, the festival of Annakūt/Govardhan Pūjā highlights the need to examine carefully any claims of religious homogeneity in the Gujarātī Hindu diaspora.

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