THE HINDU community in Swindon opened its doors on Sunday for a cultural showcase to honour Saraswati, the god of wisdom and knowledge.

The event saw communities from across the town gather at the Punjabi Community Centre for a programme of music, dance and food against a backdrop of fabulous traditional clothing and decoration.

The Saraswati Puja, or festival, is now in its fourth year and it continues to grow each time.

President of the Swindon Puja Committee, Swapan Roy, said: “We are pleased to have invited everyone from all over Swindon.

“It’s the fourth year we have done this event and everyone has done a very good job.

“This morning at our religious ceremony we had 250 people and tonight we hope to have more than 500 guests in the hall.

“All the acts you see are from Swindon, it’s a chance for local talents to come and perform and show people about our culture.”

The evening’s cultural programme got underway with a demonstration of traditional drumming followed by dances performed by young women from the Hindu community.

A number of guests addressed the crowd, praising the Puja Committee for taking the opportunity to use their own religious festival to bring together a mix of community groups.

Derique Montaut, Labour Councillor for Liden, Eldene and Park South, said: “Saraswati is an important date in the Swindon multicultural calendar, it’s a must for us to attend this festival.

“The Puja celebration brings people of all ethnicities, religions and cultures together.

“Swindon is rightly proud of its multicultural heritage, we have worked hard to reach this position over many years.”

Pradeep Bhardwaj, founder of the Swindon Hindu Temple Trust, said: “I want to congratulate the committee for their work in putting together this event.

“Saraswati Puja is a religious festival but actually there is so much more to it than that, it galvanises the community and brings us all together.

“It demonstrates the virtues of community based enterprise for the entire community.

“This is really an auspicious occasion.”

Swindon is home to over 10,000 Hindus, around five percent of the town’s population.

They are made up of people from Nepalese, Goan and Bangladeshi backgrounds among others.

In recent years a campaign has been started to raise the funds to build a Hindu temple in Swindon, with the Hindu Temple Trust taking a leading role.

It is hoped that events such as the Saraswati Puja can help promote the positive role that the Hindu community plays in the town and that other groups will unite behind their hopes for a place of worship of their own.

Speaking after the festival, Puja Committee Media Secretary Sujun Saha said: “Tonight, more than 500 people have turned up at the Punjabi Community Centre to enjoy our multi-cultural festival and traditional food. It was a really outstanding, colourful event.

“This festival has created a platform for everybody from different religions and brings other communities under one umbrella.

“We feel proud that our community has been hosting this multicultural programme every year for the last four years and that it has made Swindon blend into multi-culturalism.”