We are proud and extremely happy to share the news of a significant milestone in Canadian history; the declaration of November as the Hindu Heritage Month! From 1st November 2022 every year November will be recognized as Hindu Heritage Month in Canada. Canada is celebrating its first Hindu Heritage Month this year.
We are grateful to the MP Chandra Arya for initiating this motion and giving Hindus and other communities of Canada an occasion to recognize, acknowledge and celebrate the presence of vibrant, peace loving, and progressive Hindus all over Canada.
Here is the citation for the same from Government of Canada website:
“This November 1 marks Canada’s first official Hindu Heritage Month, a moment to acknowledge and celebrate the many outstanding contributions that Canadians of Hindu heritage continue to make to building a strong and prosperous country.
Canada is the proud home to nearly 830,000 Canadians of Hindu heritage, and no matter where you are in this country, the positive impact of the community can be seen in all aspects of our society. From politics to art, business to medicine, and everything in between, Canadians of Hindu heritage are at the forefront of our continued growth and development.
As Canadians take this month to celebrate the richness of Hindu culture and the many accomplishments of the community, let us also reaffirm our enduring commitment to building a country that is more equitable, fairer, and just for everyone.
To communities near and far, happy Hindu Heritage Month!”
This declaration doesn’t come as a means to please a particular community or to give handouts to them but it comes as a long overdue appreciation of the people who have been making commendable contributions across this vast nation, our True North- Canada!
The Hindus though originally having roots in India have lived across many countries for many decades.
Whether they are a majority or a minority in any country they have been living by basic principles of Hindutva , the principle and belief of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam- whole world is my family and the principle and belief in the notion of Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina, Sarve Santu Niramaya- May all the people be happy, May all the people be Healthy! Hence Hindu community has always been peaceful, progressive, generous and strongly attributing to the sentiment of universal brotherhood.
This reminds us of the most iconic speech given by Swami Vivekanand in the World Religious Conference in Chicago 1893, where he addressed the audience as “My dear Brothers and Sisters of America”. In that speech he said that he was proud to be a Hindu.
Why should a Hindu be proud to be a Hindu? We should be proud of being a Hindu for all the achievements and innumerable significant contributions of our ancient sages like Aryabhatta , Bharkaracharya, Brahmagupta, Kanad, Susruta, Charak, Patanjali etc in the world of algebra, trigonometry, pure sciences like physics chemistry, and medical science- Ayurveda.
We should be proud of being a Hindu because we gave the world the concept of Zero, brain developing games like Chess, Snakes and Ladders, we gave the world the treasures of Yoga and Meditation.
We are proud not only of our ancient contributions but also of our modern successful CEOs of Hindu origin whether that be Sundar Pichai of Google, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, or Laxman Narsimhan of Starbucks, etc.
More than anything else we are proud to be Hindus because in the history of 5000 years of our Sanatan Dharma or Hindutva we have never attacked, conquered or colonized any kingdom or other country in the world. We live by the principles of universal acceptance, tolerance, universal brotherhood and this makes us First Class world citizens.
We have been acknowledging and respecting people following all other religions. I remember a speech given by His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama in Rogers Centre in Toronto in 2008, where he said it is only in India where you find true principles of humanity like democracy and secularism where people of all religions live and thrive peacefully. He was grateful to India in his speech for accepting him as her longest living guest of decades.
We as the Indian Diaspora must be proud to share the news of this milestone of November being recognized as the Hindu Heritage Month in Canada and we all should update our status in social media, share and celebrate this achievement in person with our family, friends and communities.
Happy Hindu Heritage Month to you all!!
A significant milestone in Canadian history; the declaration of November as the Hindu Heritage Month! On behalf of the Hindu community members ATI Vancouver thanks the government of Canada!https://t.co/MsX3JbBiVi
— ATI Vancouver (@ATIVancouver) November 10, 2022
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.#HinduHeritageMonth #HinduHeritageMonthCanada pic.twitter.com/01PCo4LvVk
