Total population | |
---|---|
1.1 billion [1] (2020) 80% of population | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Uttar Pradesh | 192,000,000 |
Bihar | 107,000,000 |
Maharashtra | 101,000,000 |
Madhya Pradesh | 78,000,000 |
Rajasthan | 71,500,000 |
West Bengal | 70,500,000 |
Tamil Nadu | 68,000,000 |
Scriptures | |
Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, Mahabharata (incl. Bhagavad Gita ), Ramayana , and others | |
Languages | |
Sanskrit (sacred) Indian languages (according to the region) |
Hinduism is the largest religion in India. [2] [3] According to the 2011 Census of India, 966.3 million people identify as Hindu, [4] representing 79.8% of the country's population. India contains 94% of the global Hindu population. [5] [6] The vast majority of Indian Hindus belong to Shaivite and Vaishnavite denominations. [7] India is one of the three countries in the world (Nepal and Mauritius being the other two) where Hinduism is the dominant religion.
The Vedic culture developed in India in 1500 BCE and 500 BCE. [8] After this period, the Vedic religion merged with local traditions and the renouncer traditions, resulting in the emergence of Hinduism, [9] which has had a profound impact on India's history, culture and philosophy. The name India itself is derived from Sanskrit Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the Indus River. [10]
India saw the rule of both Hindu and Muslim rulers from c. 1200 CE to 1750 CE. [11] The fall of Vijayanagara Empire to Muslim sultans had marked the end of Hindu dominance in the Deccan. Hinduism once again rose to political prestige, under the Maratha Empire. [12] [13]
The 1947 Partition of India gave rise to bloody rioting and indiscriminate inter-communal killing of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs across the Indian subcontinent, specially in Punjab region. An estimated 7.3 million Hindus and Sikhs moved to India and 7.2 million Muslims moved to Pakistan permanently, leading to demographic change of both the nations to a certain extent. As a result of this, India's Hindu population have increased exponentially from 74.8% in 1941 to 84.1% in 1951 Census respectively. [14] [15]
"I find no parallel in history for a body of converts and their descendants claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock."
Hinduism dropped from 72% in British Raj of 1891 [17] to 69% in 1921. [18] In 1941 British census, Hindus comprised 69.5% of Undivided India. [19] It further declined to just 66% in Undivided India since Muslims would make up 32% of Undivided India's population in 2024, if not patritioned respectively. [20]
The Hindu population has increased more than three times from 303,675,084 in 1951 to 966,257,353 in 2011, but the Hindu percentage share of total population has declined from 84.1% in 1951 to 79.8% in 2011. [21] [22] When India achieved independence in 1947, Hindus formed roughly 85% of the total population and pre-Partition British India had about 73% of Hindus. [23]
Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
1951 | 303,675,084 | — |
1961 | 366,541,417 | +20.7% |
1971 | 453,492,481 | +23.7% |
1981 | 562,379,847 | +24.0% |
1991 | 690,091,965 | +22.7% |
2001 | 827,722,142 | +19.9% |
2011 | 966,257,353 | +16.7% |
Source: census of India |
According to a report by the Pew Research Center (PRC), the Hindu population in India is projected to reach almost 1.3 billion by 2050, within a total population nearing 1.7 billion. Despite this growth, the community proportion within the nation's population is anticipated to decrease by 2.8 percent, declining from 79.5 percent in 2010 to 76.7 percent in 2050, owing to low fertility rate, high mortality rate and emigration respectively. [24]
The latest round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), conducted from 2019-2021, has shown a notable change in fertility trends in India. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR), which measures the average number of children per woman, has dropped below the replacement level of 2.1 respectively. Specifically, among Hindus, the TFR stands at 1.9, indicating that on average, each Hindu woman is having fewer than two children in her reproductive lifespan. This trend suggests a significant shift towards smaller family sizes within the Hindu community, reflecting broader demographic changes in the country. [25]
A report published in a major Pakistani newspaper indicates that over 5,000 Pakistani Hindus migrate to India annually as refugees. [26] Dr. Abul Barkat, a highly esteemed academic figure affiliated with Dhaka University, has provided insights indicating that an estimated 230,000 Bangladeshi Hindus undertake migration to India annually, with the primary motive of seeking asylum and ensuring personal safety. This migration pattern underscores a notable trend contributing to a substantial influx of refugees from Bangladesh to India. [27]
Region | Hindus | Total | % Hindus |
---|---|---|---|
India | 966,257,353 | 1,210,854,977 | 79.80% |
Himachal Pradesh | 6,532,765 | 6,864,602 | 95.17% |
Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 322,857 | 343,709 | 93.93% |
Odisha | 39,300,341 | 41,974,218 | 93.63% |
Chhattisgarh | 23,819,789 | 25,545,198 | 93.25% |
Madhya Pradesh | 66,007,121 | 72,626,809 | 90.89% |
Daman and Diu | 220,150 | 243,247 | 90.50% |
Gujarat | 53,533,988 | 60,439,692 | 88.57% |
Rajasthan | 60,657,103 | 68,548,437 | 88.49% |
Andhra Pradesh | 74,824,149 | 84,580,777 | 90.89% |
Tamil Nadu | 63,188,168 | 72,147,030 | 87.58% |
Haryana | 22,171,128 | 25,351,462 | 87.46% |
Puducherry | 1,089,409 | 1,247,953 | 87.30% |
Karnataka | 51,317,472 | 61,095,297 | 84.00% |
Tripura | 3,063,903 | 3,673,917 | 83.40% |
Uttarakhand | 8,368,636 | 10,086,292 | 82.97% |
Bihar | 86,078,686 | 104,099,452 | 82.69% |
Delhi | 13,712,100 | 16,787,941 | 81.68% |
Chandigarh | 852,574 | 1,055,450 | 80.78% |
Maharashtra | 89,703,056 | 112,374,333 | 79.83% |
Uttar Pradesh | 159,312,654 | 199,812,341 | 79.73% |
West Bengal | 64,385,546 | 91,276,115 | 70.54% |
Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 264,296 | 380,581 | 69.45% |
Jharkhand | 22,376,051 | 32,988,134 | 67.83% |
Goa | 963,877 | 1,458,545 | 66.08% |
Assam | 19,180,759 | 31,205,576 | 61.47% |
Sikkim | 352,662 | 610,577 | 57.76% |
Kerala | 18,282,492 | 33,406,061 | 54.73% |
Manipur | 1,181,876 | 2,855,794 | 41.39% |
Punjab | 10,678,138 | 27,743,338 | 38.49% |
Arunachal Pradesh | 401,876 | 1,383,727 | 29.04% |
Jammu and Kashmir | 3,566,674 | 12,541,302 | 28.44% |
Meghalaya | 342,078 | 2,966,889 | 11.53% |
Nagaland | 173,054 | 1,978,502 | 8.75% |
Lakshadweep | 1,788 | 64,473 | 2.77% |
Mizoram | 30,136 | 1,097,206 | 2.75% |
Although the Constitution of India has declared the nation as a secular state with no state religion, it has been argued several times that the Indian state privileges Hinduism as state sponsored religion constitutionally, legislatively and culturally. [28] [29]
The original copy of the Indian constitution has an illustration of Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana in Part III on Fundamental Rights and Rama has been considered as the true guardian of people's rights. [30]
Article 343 (1) of the Indian Constitution also states that, "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script". [31]
Also, Article 48 of Indian constitution prohibits the slaughter of cows or calves (a sacred animal in Hinduism) and it is a criminal offense in most of the states of India. [32] [33]
Most Right Wing Hindu organisations like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Hindu Mahasabha, Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad etc. have demanded that India should be declared a Hindu nation by constitution to safeguard the rights and life of Hindus in this largest democracy. [34] [35] [36] As of 28 July 2020, there were pleas going on Supreme Court of India to remove the words secular and socialist from the Preamble to the Constitution of India. [37] As far as citizens are concerned, only 7 out of 20 Indian Hindus are in favor of making India a Hindu Nation. [38] Nearly two-thirds of Indian Hindus, constituting 64% of the population, believe that it is very important to be Hindu to be considered truly Indian or a citizen of India respectively. [39]
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 is a law passed in India in December 2019. Under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, it provides a fast-track to Indian citizenship for undocumented immigrants from neighbouring countries, namely Hindus and five other specific communities: Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, and Jains, who arrived in India before December 31, 2014. The law has reduced the residency requirement for undocumented immigrants from select religious minorities, including Hindus, from 11 years to 5 years for acquiring Indian citizenship through naturalization. This provision aims to expedite the citizenship process for these specific persecuted minority groups of neighbouring nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. [40]
Hindus are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent.
The Partition of India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent and the creation of two independent dominions in South Asia: India and Pakistan. The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan—which at the time comprised two regions lying on either side of India—is now the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The partition was outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947. The change of political borders notably included the division of two provinces of British India, Bengal and Punjab. The majority Muslim districts in these provinces were awarded to Pakistan and the majority non-Muslim to India. The other assets that were divided included the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Royal Indian Air Force, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury. Provisions for self-governing independent Pakistan and India legally came into existence at midnight on 14 and 15 August 1947 respectively.
Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, or approximately 172.2 million people, identifying as adherents of Islam in a 2011 census. India also has the third-largest number of Muslims in the world. The majority of India's Muslims are Sunni, with Shia making up around 15% of the Muslim population.
Hinduism is the second largest religious affiliation in People's Republic of Bangladesh, as according to the 2022 Census of Bangladesh, approximately 13.1 million people responded that they were Hindus, constituting 7.95% out of the total population of 165.15 million people. In terms of population, Bangladesh is the third-largest Hindu populated country of the world, just after the neighboring republics of India and Nepal in the subcontinent. Hinduism is the second-largest religion in 61 out of 64 districts of Bangladesh, but there is no Hindu majority district in Bangladesh.
Hinduism is the second largest religious affiliation in Pakistan after Islam. While Hinduism was one of the dominant faiths in the region a few centuries back, today Hindus account for only 2.14% of Pakistan's population or about 4.4 million people according to the 2017 Pakistani census. The Umerkot district has the highest percentage of Hindu residents in the country at 52.2%, while Tharparkar district has the most Hindus in absolute numbers at 714,698.
India since its independence in 1947 has been a secular state. The secular values were enshrined in the constitution of India. India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru is credited with the formation of the secular republic in the modern history of the country.
The official religion of Pakistan is Islam, as enshrined by Article 2 of the Constitution, and is practised by approximately 96.47% of the country's population. The remaining 3.53% practice Hinduism, Christianity, Ahmadiyya Islam, Sikhism and other religions.
Religion in Nepal encompasses a wide diversity of groups and beliefs. Nepal is a secular nation and secularism in Nepal under the Interim constitution is defined as "Religious and cultural freedom along with the protection of religion and culture handed down from time immemorial." That is, "The state government is bound for protecting and fostering Hindu religion while maintaining "Religious" and "Cultural" freedom throughout the nation as fundamental rights.
Anti-Hindu sentiment, sometimes also referred to as Hinduphobia, is a negative perception, sentiment or actions against the practitioners or religion of Hinduism. It exists in many contexts in many countries, often due to historical conflict. There is also scholarly debate on what constitutes Hinduphobia in the Western World.
Punjabi Hindus are adherents of Hinduism who identify ethnically, linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis and are natives of the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. Punjabi Hindus are the second-largest religious group of the Punjabi community, after the Punjabi Muslims. While Punjabi Hindus mostly inhabit the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, and Chandigarh today, many have ancestry across the greater Punjab region, which was partitioned between India and Pakistan in 1947.
Since its independence in 1947, India has accepted various groups of refugees from neighbouring countries, including partition refugees from former British Indian territories that now constitute Pakistan and Bangladesh, Tibetan refugees that arrived in 1959, Chakma refugees from present day Bangladesh in early 1960s, other Bangladeshi refugees in 1965 and 1971, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from the 1980s and most recently Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. In 1992, India was seen to be hosting 400,000 refugees from eight countries. According to records with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, as on January 1,2021, there were 58,843 Sri Lankan refugees staying in 108 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and 54 in Odisha and 72,312 Tibetan refugees have been living in India.
Indian Sikhs number approximately 21 million people and account for 1.7% of India's population as of 2011, forming the country's fourth-largest religious group. The majority of the nation's Sikhs live in the northern state of Punjab, which is the only Sikh-majority administrative division in the world.
Religion in India is characterised by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices. Throughout India's history, religion has been an important part of the country's culture and the Indian subcontinent is the birthplace of four of the world's major religions, namely, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, which are collectively known as native Indian religions or Dharmic religions and represent approx. 83% of the total population of India.
The United Nations categorizes Bangladesh as a moderate democratic Muslim country. Sunni Islam is the largest and most dominant religion practiced in the country. In the Constitution of Bangladesh, Islam is referred to twice in the introduction and Part I of the constitution. The document begins with the Islamic phrase Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem which in English is translated as "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful" and article (2A) declares that:"Islam is the state religion of the republic".
In 2010, South Asia had the world's largest population of Hindus, about 510 million Muslims, over 27 million Sikhs, 35 million Christians and over 25 million Buddhists. Hindus make up about 68 percent or about 900 million and Muslims at 31 percent or 510 million of the overall South Asia population, while Buddhists, Jains, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, and Christians constitute most of the rest. The Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and Christians are concentrated in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, while the Muslims are concentrated in Afghanistan (99%), Bangladesh (91%), Pakistan (96%) and Maldives (100%).
Punjab is home to 2.3% of India's population; with a density of 551 persons per km2. According to the provisional results of the 2011 national census, Punjab has a population of 27,743,338, making it the 16th most populated state in India. Of which male and female are 14,639,465 and 13,103,873 respectively. 32% of Punjab's population consists of Dalits. In the state, the rate of population growth is 13.9% (2011), lower than national average. Out of total population, 37.5% people live in urban regions. The total figure of population living in urban areas is 10,399,146 of which 5,545,989 are males and while remaining 4,853,157 are females. The urban population in the last 10 years has increased by 37.5%. According to the 2011 Census of India, Punjab, India has a population of around 27.7 million.
Bengali Hindus are an ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand, and Assam's Barak Valley region. In Bangladesh, they form the largest minority. They are adherents of Hinduism and are native to the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Comprising about one-third of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ethnic group among Hindus after Hindustani Hindus. Bengali Hindus speak Bengali, which belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family and adhere to Shaktism or Vaishnavism of their native religion Hinduism with some regional deities. There are significant numbers of Bengali-speaking Hindus in different Indian states. According to the census in 1881, 12.81 per cent of Bengali Hindus belonged to the three upper castes while the rest belonged to the Shudra and Dalit castes.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing an accelerated pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who arrived in India by 2014. The eligible minorities were stated as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians. The law does not grant such eligibility to Muslims from these countries. The act was the first time that religion had been overtly used as a criterion for citizenship under Indian law, and it attracted global criticism.
Hinduism is the largest religion in South Asia with about 1.2 billion Hindus, forming just under two-thirds of South Asia's population. South Asia has the largest population of Hindus in the world, with about 99% of all global Hindus being from South Asia. Hinduism is the dominant religion in India and Nepal and is the second-largest religion in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan.
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