Botswana Hindu Community was first established in the 1960's with the arrival of few families of the Indian origin from Zimbabwe and Zambia. After the independence of Botswana in 1966, the country required various professionals to accelerate the development of the economy and thus many Hindu professionals and business man from India and neighbouring countries came here and brought Hindu tradition
s and rituals as well. And a strong need for organisation emerged for group celebrations, which led to the formation of Botswana Hindu Society in July 1979. To build a temple and cultural Hall, Society applied for plot in April 1981 and the foundation for the first temple building in Botswana was laid on the 14 April 1982. As a result of his support and supervision of the secretary Mr. Kandiah and the Chairman Late MR.B R Mahendroo, the mail hall and a kitchen completed in early 1987. In the next phase, Lord Ganesha, Radha Krishan and Lord Muruga ( Karthigeya) were Installed in 1992 and Ram Darbar was installed in 1994 with the installation of Lord Shiva in a separate building and Tulsi Mandap in the Courtyard. Subsequently residential accommodation for a priest, a classroom, extension to the viedo club, a canopy extension to the quadrangle, Navgrahas, Lord Ganesha and Hanumanji temple were added and the courtyard was paved with interlocking bricks. To look after immovable assets of the society a trust was created and the property was transferred to the trust in 1986. Trustee Mandal include Mr. Manhar Mooney, as Chairman and Mr. O P Rawal and Mr. Kundan Patel as member. Crematorium was another project, which kept the society engaged for long. However, after hard efforts Government allocated a plot on a lease in September 1984. A proper crematorium was built in 1989. With the recent efforts from Gujarati Samaj and other member of the community, Crematorium has been upgraded in 2004/05 with paved, walled and improvements all around. Efforts are continuing to build gas chambers Chimney for fire at the Cremation platform. In the earlier year of 2004/05 many new things were bought to equip the kitchen to make it more comfortable for the devotees using the kitchen. also the paving with interlocking bricks in the temple is replaced with ceramic tiles to give better uplift to the temple. Currently lot of efforts in the direction of landscaping. In the early 2005/06, it has been realised that with the growth of Hindu Community in Gaborone and also realising the old structure of BHS building, plans are under way to separate temple area from cultural centre. This will definitely add value to the building in terms of space, logistics, convenience and sanctity of the temple. New plans, as approved by members, have been submitted and hopefully will materialise in a reasonable time frame. Constitution is the backbone of any religious society to allow it to operate within desired rules and regulations. With the passage of time, the constitution needs to be reviewed to incorporate the changes. BHS constitution revised and approved in 2008/09. BHS in its efforts to co-ordinate the activities of various religious groups always endeavoured to maintain unity. Various temple emerged in the few years viz. Balaji, Sai Centre, ISKCON, Swaminarayan have been operating providing religious need of the community at large. However, BHS as a mother body is always aiming to secure unity in pursuit to achieve peace and harmony within the Hindu Community.
