Pre-print of: D.N. Gellner, S.L. Hausner, & B.G. Shrestha 2014. ‘Buddhist, Hindu, Kirati, or Something Else? Nepali Strategies of Religious Belonging in the UK and Belgium’ in E. Gallo (ed.) Migration and Religion in Europe: Comparative Perspectives on South Asian Experiences, pp. 131-53. Farnham & Burlington: Ashgate. Chapter 7 Buddhist, Hindu, Kirati, or Something Else? Nepali Strategies of Religious Belonging in the UK and Belgium David N. Gellner, Sondra L. Hausner, and Bal Gopal Shrestha Introduction National diasporas have a tendency to break up into multiple sub-diasporas, when there are sufficient numbers to support fragmentation and where there is sufficient cultural difference on which to base organisational separation. 1 Characterised as Nepal is by great ethnic and religious heterogeneity, it is hardly surprising that there are hundreds of different community, professional, and religious organisations that have emerged in the UK and in Belgium. This chapter compares the processes of community formation in the UK with those in Belgium, where there are many fewer Nepalis, but where there is an even higher per capita number of organisations. We suggest that a higher degree of religious mixing in Belgium may derive from a greater focus on political identity groups, reflecting both a likely political orientation prior to migration to Belgium, and also a necessary politicisation of the migration process, insofar as claiming asylum depends on the assertion of a political identity. It is a question often raised in the study of migration how far the backgrounds and the motivations of migrants play an important role -- alongside the social, political, and economic contexts to which they migrate and the conditions under which they migrate – in determining the 1 We thank Ester Gallo and Martin Gaenszle for helpful comments on earlier versions of this chapter. We thank the AHRC and ESRC for the funding which made possible the Religion and Society programme directed by Linda Woodhead (www.religionandsociety.org); this chapter is based on research carried out as part of a project (Vernacular Religion: Varieties of Religiosity in the Nepali Diaspora) that was sponsored by that programme. We thank also the members of the Centre for Nepal Studies UK (CNSUK) who assisted in the collection of data for the Vernacular Religion project: Krishna Adhikari, Chandra Laksamba, and Rajubabu Shrestha.