Dear Editor,
I write in response to Janette Bulkan’s second letter dated October 27, 2026, regarding this whole business around this idea of “this pujari”. I want to endorse her singular position that I should have cited the source of my declaration that the quantum of practicing Hindus is approximately 220,000 persons. I therefore now seek to provide the reason for me using this figure and the source of my dataset.
In the 2012 census it was established on page 38 that “the Hindus constitute the single largest religious group with a membership of about 24.8 percent”. In the Guyana Chronicle of July 12, 2026, the Chief Statistician Mr. Errol LaCruz made a declaration that the agency which he heads, has estimated the size of the Guyanese population at 1,025,334 persons as at the end of 2025. (source – https://guyanachronicle.com/2026/07/12/guyanas-population-surpasses-one-million/#1).
By simple computation 24.8 percent of 1,025,334 aggregates to 254,283 persons. If one is to study the 2002 to 2012 Census Data, they will realize that the number of persons claiming they are practicing Hindus declined by some 12% during that decade. I estimated that the decline continued.
One media report from March 2025 cited a range of 200,000 to 250,000 Hindus in Guyana, attributing the information to Pew Research Centre in the United States but I would prefer to rely on the date from the Guyana Bureau of Statistics.
I thank Ms. Bulkan for asking for the source of the 220,000 figures.
Yours faithfully,
Sasenarine Singh
Discussion