India Religion

Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis are the major religious communities of India. Jains and Parsis are numerically insignificant but they are important in other ways. According to the 1991 Religious Census there are 672.6 m Hindus, 95.2 m Muslims, . 18.9 m Christians, 16.3 m Sikhs, 6.3 m Buddhists and 3.4 m Jains in India.

The population of all the 6 major religions (Hinduism, lslam.Christisnity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism of India has increased but Jains have increased only marginally - by 4.42%. Gujarat, Karnataka, Madnya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh together account for almost 90% of the Jains. The population of Jains declined in nine States and one Union Territory (excluding Assam and Jammu and Kashmir).

The decadal population (between 1981- 1991)increase was 156.8 m.Out of this 124.8 m are Hindus, 23.4 m Muslims, 2.6 m Christians, 1.7 m Buddhists, 1.3 m Sikhs and 0.2 m Jains. Again, the rates of increase of each of these communities are Hindus (22.78%), Muslims (32.76%), Christians (16.89%), Buddhists (35.98%) Sikhs (25.48%) and Jains (4.42%). Of the 665.3 million people in India in 1981(Assam not included), Hindus accounted for the largest community with 549.8 m illion members.

Other communities were divided as follows: Muslims: 75.5 m., Christians: 16.1 m, Sikhs: 13.1 m, Buddhists: 4.7 m, Jains: 3.2 m. Other Religions: 2,766,285, Religions not stated: 60,217. The data of the 1981 census offers some other statistics also of interest to religious sociologists. The Appendix of the Household Population gives 183 subdivisions that are grouped together in the general statistics as "other religions and persuasions."

Of these, 71,630areZoroastriansand 5618, Jews.

There are 25,416 "Adivasis" by religion and there are 1,367 "tribals" (in Nagaland), 119 "animists", and 25,985 whose religion is simply "Non-Christian" (in Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland), together with 796 "pagans" in the same three States, and 1,215 "Meathans" in Manipur.

Some other tribals have given their specific tribal identity as their religions: as for example, the census has the record of 484 Oraons, 32,252 Santals, 1,481 Garos, 6,975 Gonds, 4,133 Hos, 148,437 Khasis, 1,160 Mundas, 1,296 Nagas. Nirankaris, numbering 3382, of apparently Hindu following, have entered themselves under geographical or caste terms like Agarwal, Bengali, Gujarati, Maharashtrian, Marathi, Marwari, Malayalee, Tamilian and Teluguite.

Perhaps of more interest is that a total of 29,086 persons corresponding to 5,117 households consider themselves as "atheists" (pre dominantly in rural areas of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and Bihar). There are 816 humanists ("manab dharma"), half of them in Maharashtra.

Census of 1981 gives some other interest ing data too.

The total fertility rate in India (excluding Assam) is 3.9 in rural areas, 2.8 in urban areas, and 3.6 for total area.

it may be noted that fertility is higher among Muslims, followed by Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Christians.