Report shows how the Hindu share of India’s population fell by 7.8% between 1950 to 2015
A recent working paper by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) has revealed that the share of the Hindu population decreased by 7.82 percent between 1950 and 2015 in India, while that of Muslims increased by 43.15 percent, suggesting that there is a conducive environment in the country to foster diversity.
“The share of the majority Hindu population decreased by 7.82 percent between 1950 and 2015 (from 84.68 percent to 78.06 percent). The share of the Muslim population in 1950 was 9.84 percent and increased to 14.09 percent in 2015 — a 43.15 percent increase in their share,” said the paper prepared by a team led by Shamika Ravi, member, of EAC-PM.
The paper titled ‘Share of Religious Minorities: A Cross-Country Analysis (1950-2015)‘ further said the share of Jains in the population of India decreased from 0.45 percent in 1950 to 0.36 percent in 2015. The share of the Christian population rose from 2.24 percent to 2.36 percent — an increase of 5.38 percent between 1950 and 2015.
While the share of the Sikh population increased from 1.24 percent in 1950 to 1.85 percent in 2015 – a 6.58 percent rise in their share, the share of the Parsi population in India witnessed a stark 85 percent decline, reducing from 0.03 percent share in 1950 to 0.004 percent in 2015.
The data indicates that “there is a conducive environment to foster diversity in the society,” the paper said, adding that it is not possible to promote better life outcomes for the disadvantaged sections of society without providing a nurturing environment and societal support through a bottom-up approach.
The paper noted that a decrease in the share of the majority population and a consequent increase in the share of minorities suggests that the net result of all policy actions, political decisions, and societal processes is to provide a conducive environment for increasing diversity in society.
The report pointed out that in keeping with the global trends of declining majority, India too has witnessed a reduction in the share of the majority religious denomination by 7.82 percent.
“This is particularly remarkable given the wider context within the South Asian neighborhood where the share of the majority religious denomination has increased and minority populations have shrunk alarmingly across countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Afghanistan,” the paper said.
The paper said it is not surprising, therefore, minority populations from across the neighborhood come to India during times of duress.
It pointed out that all the Muslim-majority countries witnessed an increase in the share of the majority religious denomination except the Maldives, where the share of the majority group (Shafi’i Sunnis) declined by 1.47 percent.
In Bangladesh, there was an 18 percent increase in the share of the majority religious group which is the largest such increase in the Indian subcontinent. Pakistan witnessed an increase of 3.75 percent in the share of the majority religious denomination (Hanafi Muslim) and a 10 percent increase in the share of the total Muslim population despite the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.
According to the report, among non-Muslim majority countries, Myanmar, India, and Nepal saw a decline in the share of the majority religious denomination.
The paper noted that the year 1950 is important as a baseline year for two major reasons.
This was around the time that the international human rights framework under the aegis of the newly created United Nations began to take shape with minority rights and state responsibility for the protection of minorities being mainstreamed in international law, the paper said.
The paper is a detailed cross-country descriptive analysis of the status of minorities around the world measured in terms of their changing share in a country’s population over 65 years between 1950 and 2015.
For the 167 countries analyzed, the average value for the share of the majority religious denomination in the baseline year of 1950 is 75 percent, while the mean of the distribution capturing the change in majority religious denomination between 1950 and 2015 is 21.9.
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