Hindus Celebrate Ram Bhajan

February 8, 2006

Source: WebIndia123.com

Wire Service: IANS

http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=243304&n_date=20060208&cat=World

On February 8, 2006 the Indo-Asian News Service reported, "There may be no crops to harvest in Johannesburg but that did not deter South Africa's Telugu community from hosting their annual Ram Bhajan thanksgiving function for the 10th consecutive year. The event was organised by the Transvaal Andhra Sabha, the representative body for Telugu-speaking people, in the sprawling mainly Indian area of Lenasia, south of here. Sam Naidoo, president of the Sabha, said the event was essentially a thanksgiving prayer on the lines of the one held in Andhra Pradesh at harvest time... The Andhra community is a minority here, with most of them settled around Durban, where the first Indians arrived in 1860 as indentured sugarcane labourers. 'Since we started it on a small scale a decade ago, it has become a much-awaited event in the Hindu community,' Naidoo added. The members of the Transvaal Andhra Sabha Bhajan Group, mostly young men, led the proceedings with non-stop religious recitals until midnight. A sumptuous dinner followed."