BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Kampala

Kampala’s BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is affiliated with the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), one of the largest and most globally active branches of the Swaminarayan tradition, which has built temples across the Indian diaspora from London and Toronto to Nairobi and Abu Dhabi. Its presence in Kampala reflects the rebuilding of Uganda’s Hindu community in the decades following the 1972 expulsion of Ugandan Asians under Idi Amin, a period after which many Indian-origin families gradually returned to the country through the 1980s and 1990s as the government reversed Amin-era policies and began restoring seized properties.

As with other BAPS mandirs worldwide, worship at the Kampala temple centers on murtis of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, and the temple functions as a hub for Kampala’s Gujarati and broader Hindu community’s religious and cultural life, particularly around Diwali and the Annakut new-year celebration that mark the BAPS ritual calendar.