Pruthvi's project outcomes

Pruthvi Shah continued capturing aspects of Sanghs history. She approached this by gathering stories from significant events through Sanghs history as told by elders in Sangh.

Read below for stories from
Abbas Kapasi

"Be tolerant of other societies and the whole world is one family"

Dilip Mistry

"Think out of the box...get creative and most importantly get the job done"

Shobhadevi Trivedi

‘Don’t stop till you have reached your goal’

Hasmukh Shah
“As individuals and as swayamsevaks we are ordinary, but when we come together we create something extraordinary”

Susheelaben Gohil 

"If there is a good leader, that leader can see the good qualities in others"

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Abbasji Kapasi a swayamsevak since a young age has been very passionate about one thing that drives him towards shakha: 'The whole world is a family'

I started shakha with friends who told me to come along to play football and the other games whilst at school. There are five of us who have come through shakha as friends, which was a huge influence when I was growing up. Later on during the 80s I involved myself in working together with other communities. I attended a lot of council meetings and instead of discussing what was on the agenda, we always ended up arguing about two issues: religion and colour. Everybody thought they were against each other. I do believe what Sangh says "the whole world is one family" and I was trying to tell that to everybody. We need to be thinking about each other, understand the tolerances of each others religions, the way people live and not have a "they are wrong and we are right" attitude. 

Dilip Mistry was born in Leicester and has been a swayamsevak since a young age. Finding different ways to develop as a Hindu he has challenged his creativity, especially with NHSF and living in Singapore.

The Hindu Marathon during 80s and 90s were a real moving experience for me because it was a unique opportunity where 1000s of Hindus from across the UK, young and old, different parts of our society came together for one particular goal. That really was the inspiration for us to start thinking about another cross section of our society, there were students at these Marathons. It was at one of the first Hindu Marathons that National Hindu Students Forum was actually formed.

…What I learnt from the experience was that you need a couple of key hard workers to really embrace and excite the local Hindu community and obviously Sangh is key to that.

Shobhadevi Trivedi (55yrs) is a Sevika from Leicestershire.

I didn’t realise until I had an email to say that I was chosen. I was nominated by my daughter, Natasha, to be a torchbearer in Leicester for the Olympic Torch Relay (2012) for all the charity work I do. For 13 years I have been working with children who have mental and physical challenges. I go to children’s homes, take them out once a month and help them to integrate with other communities. One of the most challenging accomplishments I feel proud of is that for 2 years I was on the helpline service for domestic violence. I was getting more excited as I watched the other torchbearers on T.V. and I felt so proud that I will be doing that when my time comes.

Hasmukh Shah is a Swayamsevak from Kenya, who moved to Bradford during his studies. He has had a prominent role in particular organisations like Friends of India and VHP. 

Thinking of how shakha started in Bradford, we became an extraordinary group of people that led and inspired other young people. We thought of holding an event called ‘Virat Hindu Sammelan’. The image that Shri Krishna Bhagwan had given to Arjun on the battlefield was ‘Virat’ meaning immense. That was why we chose the name ‘Virat Hindu Sammelan’. So in 1989, Milton Keynes, 250 Hindu organisations came under one umbrella.

As organising secretary, with Sri Kishorebhai Ruparelia, it took us two and half years in the making. 35 spiritual leaders, who all sat on the unity platform as if there was never a difference, declared it a huge success.”

Susheelaben Gohil was born and brought up in Bharat during India’s partition with Pakistan. She holds a huge history with her and explains how the introduction of Samiti and Mausiji by her husband has led her to accomplish great things.

I came to England in 8^th May, 1975 and the following Saturday I went to the community centre, where the girls were and it just felt like having one big family, like having my little sisters with me. The following Vijaya Dashmi (1975) we decided to give the name, not girls Shakha, but Hindu Sevika Samiti. It was quite interesting when the girls came; they loved the games and loved the shareerik. Obviously ‘Daksha’, ‘Aarama’, ‘Saudhan’ were very new words for them, but the girls were enthusiastic