Hinduism in Portugal

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Hindus in Portugal
Total population
19,471 (2021)Increase; 0.22% of total population
Regions with significant populations
All Over Portugal
Religions
Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Indians in Portugal and Hindus
Hindu Rath Yatra festival in Lisbon Portugal

Hinduism is a minority religion in Portugal. The 2021 census recorded 19,471 Hindus among residents aged 15 and over, or roughly 0.2% of that population, making Hinduism one of the larger non-Christian religions in a country where about 80% of the population identifies as Roman Catholic.[1][2]

The Hindu community's presence is closely tied to Portugal's colonial relationship with India (Estado da Índia).[3] Most Portuguese Hindus descend from Gujaratis who settled in colonial Mozambique and migrated to Portugal after Mozambican independence in 1975, together with smaller groups originating in Goa, Daman and Diu.[3][4] Since the 1990s, and increasingly from the 2010s, the Hindu population has also been shaped by newer South Asian migration, including Nepali migrant labour to Portugal.[5]

Historical Background

Portuguese India

Portugal's contact with Hindu communities in India began with the creation of the early modern, Estado da Índia. Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498, and after Afonso de Albuquerque's conquest of Goa in 1510 the city became the main Portuguese base in Asia.[6][7] Portuguese India later included Goa, Daman and Diu, territories that remained under Portuguese rule until their annexation by India in 1961.[8]

Portuguese rule was closely tied to Catholic missionary policy. Colonial authorities sought to restrict public Hindu worship and encourage conversion to Catholicism. The involved the destruction or closure of temples, as well as restrictions on Hindu practices and celebration of Hindu festivals.[9] [10] Hindu communities resisted colonial restrictions on religious practice by moving murtis and temple institutions beyond Portuguese controlled territory.[9]

Hindu groups in Portugal

  • Gujaratis moved to Mozambique under colonial rule, and after the independence of that country in 1974, some of them moved to Portugal (particularly to Lisbon). Since the 1980s, Gujaratis have migrated to Portugal directly from their homeland in Gujarat and the island of Diu.
  • Goans first emigrated to Portugal in 1961, following the action of the Indian armed forces and subsequent liberation of Goa, Damão & Diu to India. They also built up a community in Mozambique before its independence, and then moved to Portugal. A liberal immigration policy and citizenship given to families of former Portuguese subjects in Goa has allowed their numbers to rise in Portugal.
  • Daman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli Hindus have been present in Portugal since slightly before the annexation of those territories in 1954 and 1961. Punjabis, who were subjects of British rather than Portuguese colonialism, have recently begun emigration to Portugal.

Hindu organisation in Portugal

  • The "Hindu Community of Portugal" (Portuguese: Comunidade Hindu de Portugal), a Hindu organisation, was founded in 1982 . There is also a Hindu temple, called Templo Hindu Radha Krishna, which belongs to Comunidade Hindu de Portugal, and is located at the Mahatma Gandhi alameda in Lisbon.
  • Shiv Mandir Association. (Portuguese: Templo de Shiva - Associação de Solidariedade Social).
  • BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Lisbon (Portuguese: Missão Swaminarayan Hindu).
  • ISKCON - Lisboa, Associação Internacional para a Consciência de Krishna.

References

  1. INE. "Indicador". Archived from the original on 2026-02-09. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  2. "Portugal". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  3. Lourenço, Inês (2013). "From Goans to Gujaratis: A study of the Indian Community in Portugal". CADMUS - EUI Research Repository.
  4. Lourenço, Inês; Cachado, Rita (2018-01-02). "The Role of Diu in the Hindu-Gujarati Diaspora in Portugal". South Asian Studies. 34 (1): 47–56. doi:10.1080/02666030.2018.1440060. hdl:10071/16669. ISSN 0266-6030.
  5. "50,000 Nepalese have come to Portugal". www.theportugalnews.com. Retrieved 2026-06-26.
  6. Biedermann, Zoltán (2020). "The Portuguese Estado da Índia (Empire in Asia)". In Ludden, David (ed.). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.329. ISBN 978-0-19-785173-9.
  7. Pearson, M. N. (1987). The Portuguese in India. The New Cambridge history of India. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-0-521-25713-8.
  8. Nurani, Shreya Hari (2024-07-03). "Decolonization in Goa: Past, Process, and Present". Community Change. 6 (1). doi:10.21061/cc.v6i1.a.65. ISSN 2576-6775.
  9. Axelrod, Paul; Fuerch, Michelle A. (1996). "Flight of the Deities: Hindu Resistance in Portuguese Goa". Modern Asian Studies. 30 (2): 387–421. ISSN 0026-749X.
  10. "Goa Inquisition | Catholicism, India, Portugal, Conversion, & Colonialism | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2026-06-30.

Sources

  • Pereira Bastos, Susana (2001) De Moçambique a Portugal. Reinterpretações identitárias do Hinduismo em viagem, Lisboa, Fundação Oriente, 373 pags.
  • Trovão, Susana; Rosales, Marta (ed.) (2010) Das Índias. Gentes, movimentos e pertenças transnacionais, Lisboa, Edições Colibri, 207 pags.
  • Lourenço, Inês (2009) Os Corpos da Devi. Religião e Género em Diáspora, Dissertação de doutoramento em Antropologia, ISCTE-IUL.
  • Roxo, Pedro (2010) "Sonoridades Sul Asiáticas da Área de Lisboa: Nepaleses, Hindu-Gujarati e Sikhs [South Asian Sounds from the Lisbon Area: Nepalese, Hindu-Gujarati and Sikh]" in AAVV, Oriente/Ocidente. Miscigenações. Livro de Actas e Memória do Evento. Lisboa: Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa.
  • Roxo, Pedro (2010) "Hindu-Gujarati em Portugal, Música e Práticas Coreográficas entre os [Hindu-Gujarati in Portugal, Music and Choreographic Practices among the]" in Salwa Castelo-Branco (coord.) Enciclopédia da Música em Portugal no Século XX. Vol. 2, p. 612-617. Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores.
  • Cachado, Rita Ávila (2014), "Localizando os hindus portugueses: a transnacionalidade nas cidades", Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, CIES-IUL/Editora Mundos Sociais, nº76, pp. 109–124, [doi: 10.7458/SPP2014763330; ISSN 0873-6529; DisponíveL em: http://revistas.rcaap.pt/spp/article/view/3330]
  • Cachado, Rita D'Ávila (2013), "O registo escondido num bairro em processo de realojamento: o caso dos hindus da Quinta da Vitória", Etnografica, vol. 17 (3), pp. 477–499; Disponível em: http://etnografica.revues.org/3201