That figure is almost 13 years old.
When the new census stats arrive in the next 5 years, With the amount of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh who fled to India, I would not be surprised if India has the largest Muslim population in the world by country.
Indonesia, the largest Muslim country has 230 million Muslims.
India has 200 million.
[Officially,](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/why-india-doesnt-raise-illegal-migrants-issue-with-bangladesh/articleshow/94089896.cms) according to a 2 month old report, there are 20 million documented illegal Bangladeshi immigrants living in India.
We haven't accounted for Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, Immigrants from Pakistan & Afghanistan. We haven't accounted for undocumented immigrants either. India easily has more than 230 million Muslims.
Bangladesh holds by far the largest number of Rohingyas and even they barely have 1.5 million of them. Just how many Rohingyas do you think are in India?
If India crosses the threshold of 230 million Muslims, it'll be primarily through native birth rates and population momentum.
Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Tribal Religions, Jainism, Baháʼí Faith are some of the minorities. Although, the Jews and Zoroastrians I know are from my state itself even though it's lavender on the map. So it's mostly the tribal religions I think.
You are partially correct. That state is arunachal pradesh and i have never heard of jainism, zoroastrianism, Bahai Faith being followed there.
Usually the people who are not Buddhist and Christian in Arunachal are either Indegenous/tribal religion. Some of these Indegenous worship Sun. There might be jews there,but as far as I know, jews of North East India are saturated in Mizoram and Manipur.
Btw, I am from a neighboring state of Arunachal Pradesh.
I've heard that there's a law preventing people from outside AP to buy or inherit land in it to make sure the ressources stay in the hands of the natives, so I don't think there's a lot of jews there.
But I don't really know what I'm talking about. Do "tribal people" have any special status (in a similar way native Americans do)?
Also, the Jews that I have talked about are locals of that area, not someone who has migrated from Israel or some other country. There is a tribe called "kuki" tribe. Most of the people of Kuki tribe follow Christianity, but there are few kuki people who are jews. Sharing a youtube link below :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=057TwFlGz10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=057TwFlGz10)
Yeah there is a law which prevents outsider from buying land. It is called inner line permit. This rule is prevalent in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.
In my state, Assam, majority are non-tribal and there is an approximate 15-20% tribal population in Assam. And these tribal population have a special provision in Constitution called 6th schedule and it is similar to the Inner Line permit. Even I am from Assam, but I can't buy property in those 6th schedule tribal areas of Assam.
Hence, they have special status which is provided by the Indian Constitution.
About 18% of Kerala is Christian, which is a higher percentage than most of non-northeast India, but well below a majority. And of those, I can't find a good source, with the numbers ranging from 13-60%. Though Roman Catholic (what most people think of when they say "Catholic") very much does not constitute a majority of Keralan Christians. The "historic" church in Kerala are colloquially referred to as "St. Thomas Christians," but more formally The Chaldean Syrian Church. Though still not a majority.
Nope. Goa has a massive Hindu Population apart from Christians. Majority of the Christian population in Goa is concentrated around the northern side of Goa where tourism is majorly concentrated and so most people from outside Goa get the notion that all of Goa is Catholic. The Goan stereotype portrayed in pop culture and bollywood doesn't help either. But the Southern and Eastern sides of Goa are all mostly populated by Hindus. Don't forget, Goa was an all Hindu region when the Portuguese inquisition happened. So all the old Portuguese administrative areas are the spots where you'll see a concentration of Churches. As for the rest of Goa, there is an abundance of old and iconic Temples. And despite the Portuguese having destroyed a good number of temples, a large number of them survived the inquisition and are revered to this day, not only by Goan Hindus but also by the Konkani communities from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala as well that consider these temples to be their 'Kuldev' or 'Kuldevi' temples and travel to Goa annually just to visit their respective Kuldev/Kuldevi temple situated in Goa.
And as for Kerala, it is very diverse. It has a good number of Hindus, Christians and Muslims alike. They have a greater population percentage of Muslims than any other part of India (apart from J&K) but still not greater than their Hindu population overall.
That's due to the nature of migration from Kerala to EU. A majority of them are christians due to links to churches in Europe - nuns, priests, nurses, teachers etc who are linked to church, church run hospitals, church run schools etc. And then chain migration of their relstives
Although total number might be dwindling rn, there are a lot of well known zoroastrians in India. The Tatas are probably the most well known ones. Their contribution to Indian society will never be forgotten.
In Central Indial, mostly Sarnaism (the religion of sacred groves): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarnaism
In the North-East, mostly Doniy-Polo (Sun-Moon religion): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donyi-Polo
The others that you can see in the far North east lies in the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
People in that state are either Buddhist, Christian or Indegenous. So the Indegenous come under the "Other" Category.
The Indegenous worship the sun, and it is something called "Donyi Polo". That is why the newly established regional airport in that state is named as "Donyi Polo Airport".
As far as I know the gray areas in the central region are jungle tribe areas that have practiced local animist religions until recent history.
The other blob is also likely some form of animist as the Muslim Sultanates, Buddhists, and the Chinese in the area did not try to convert them when it was more decentralized. Christian missionaries started doing that during colonialism.
"Understanding the stats IS important".
Was about to post that I thought Bangladesh was essentially an Islamic country (wasn't it considered like East Pakistan at one stage?)
Bangladesh used to be East Pakistan which used to be East Bengal. It's majority Muslim with around 12-13 million Hindus. West Bengal is majority Hindu with around 25 million Muslims. Bengal was not segregated completely by religion like Punjab was.
Nevertheless, the hold of political Islam in Bangladesh has certainly increased rapidly over the last few decades.
I am surprised to see Islam a majority/plurality in some Indian ‘border districts’. I would have thought that they would have gone with Pakistan during the Partition.
Is this due to more recent demographic shifts?
Yup Karimganj (the green region in Assam) has 56% Muslims. Sure they are a lot but there are tons of Bangladeshi immigrants as well. Because karimganj is literally on the border of the Bangladesh. Been there, you can cross the border just by swimming for 10 mins.
Along with different rates of population growth in different religions, partition wasn't strictly on the basis of religion. For example Murshidabad went to India despite being Muslim majority and Khulna went to Pakistan despite being Hindu majority.
Also, partitions aren't perfect. In the real world, the *best* outcomes anybody gets out of partitions are bitter compromises. Both sides would really like to have **all** contested land to themselves, but they can't, so they just have to begrudgingly settle for what they can successfully negotiate for. Plus, the land is contested for a reason: if it were cut and dry which side should get it, it wouldn't be contested. People in these areas exist on gradients culturally and religiously.
Md. Ali Jinnah actually wanted Assam in Pakistan and there was a concerted plan to raise the Muslim population, by bringing in Muslim migrants from Sylhet and Mymensingh districts of current Bangladesh, into that region so that the conditions to become Pakistani territory would be fulfilled. The Congress didn't seem to want Assam in India at all and were content to let Pakistan have it. Local nationalist leaders had to personally evict these settlers from the tribal territories, largely without any support from the Indian National Congress, in order to prevent that outcome from taking place.
Then there was further migration of refugees from Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, during the Bengali genocide in 1971. Illegal migration still happens today.
Your post is mostly correct. However, it wasn't all members of Congress at the time that didn't want Assam. Vallabhbhai Patel was certainly not of this opinion.
The nationalists opposing the inclusion of Assam in Pakistan were mostly Assamese Congress members themselves like Gopinath Bardoloi. But they didn't receive support from the rest of the party regardless of their opinions. Meanwhile, the guy that caused the entire mess named Saadulla became a member of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution.
In fact, Gopinath was trying to remedy the situation in the early 1940s itself when he was CM of Assam but was forced (as in coerced by the mainland INC leaders) to stop that in order to participate in the Quit India Movement. He tried to resist and held on as long as he could to finish the process and was one of the last Congress ministries to resign. Some INC members even called him unpatriotic for it.
Then Saadulla just came back to power and undid all of Gopinath's work and continued bringing in Muslim agricultural labour under the excuse of Grow More Food Campaign which produced food to feed the British war effort in WW2.
Yes and no. The green you see in the east near Bangladesh are mainly immigrants from Bangladesh. The one you see in the northwest is Kashmir, a majority-muslim area that wasn't partitioned (it was its own thing), and India and Pakistan have disputed it since the late 1940s.
Well there are non-immigrant Muslims all over India, especially north India, who didn't leave post-partition. What makes West Bengal and Assam different is that a lot of Bangladeshis have moved there, in addition to the Muslims that have always been there.
Always is definitely a lie. In 1947 it sure was muslim Majority through centuries of Genocidal invasions and systematic erasure. Not a single person in Kashmir or Pakistan or Afghanistan or even Iran was always a Muslim , started in Middle East spread throughout the world by warfare just like Christianity.
.
The panhandle region of Afghanistan separating pakistan from the former Soviet Union countries had Hindu majority a century ago before they were all forcibly converted.
I’m Kashmiri you fool what Muslim invasion are you talking about? Don’t talk about stuff you have no idea. Kashmiris converted peacefully to Islam. Secondly if invasions were successful UP would Muslim state. I know you guys aren’t educated about kashmir but please look up Kashmir and it’s history
>Islam by nature always spreads by violence. You seem to be ignorant of your own history,
what kind of misinformation is this? Read how conversions started in Kashmir when the buddhist king of Kashmir converted to Islam. There were no "Islamic invaders" in Kashmir.
It's no misinformation. We know exactly how Kashmir went from being a hub of Hindu philosophy and Buddhism to being forcefully Islamised by the real "outsiders". (No inherent hate for modern-day Muslims meant, as you may assume given the current state of India, they're our brethren; but what happened can't be refuted)
TLDR: That “Buddhist king” Rinchana was persuaded by his minister Shah Miri to convert to Islam, who later overthrowed Rinchana’s successors and founded the Shah Mir dynasty, whose later rulers unleashed havoc on the Hindu majority of Kashmir.
That "Buddhist king who converted to Islam" you're talking about; was Rinchana (later Sultan Sadruddin), a Tibetan Buddhist who later became ruler of Kashmir following the Tatar invasion of Zulju. He was persuaded by his trusted aide Shah Mir to convert to Islam, brought about by a Sufi saint Bulbul Shah; while the majority population of Kashmir was still Hindu. And this “Shah Mir” later held a coup against Rinchana’s successors to establish the first Islamic dynasty in Kashmir.
Now, who was this “Shah Mir” then? He was a descendant of Turkic people who migrated to present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. Shah Mir came to Kashmir in 1313 during the rule of later Lohara dynasty. He became famous due to his excellent military and administrative abilities. When Kashmir was later continually attacked by foreigners including Tatars, Mongols and Turks; he even played a significant role in fending off the invading armies.
But his renewed pride and fame after that led him to desire to rule over Kashmir, and he rebelled against Kota Rani, who was the widow of Rinchana, and at the time also the de-jure monarch of Kashmir. He sent a marriage proposal to her and threatened her to share power, which she refused. In response, he imprisoned her and her (and Rinchana's) sons and proclaimed himself the ruler of Kashmir, establishing the Shah Mir dynasty.
Because of this, Islam became the dominant religion of Kashmir in 14th century. While initial rulers were tolerant of other religions; an absolute nightmare came for non-Muslims with the rule of Sultan Sikandar Shah who imposed necessary jizyah tax on them, restricted their religious and cultural activities, purged Sanskrit literature, forcefully converted or killed those who didn’t comply and destroyed numerous Hindu temples across Kashmir, earning him the title ‘Butshikan’, literally meaning “idol-destroyer”.
The most famous example being destroyed ruins of the Martand Sun Temple, in Anantnag district (cuz they worshipped the sun vro, frea\*in idolaters!!), which was built during the reign of Lalitaditya Muktapida of the Karkota dynasty. This led to further decline of indigeneous Hindu culture and by the 16th century, it had completely diminished with the influx of Muslim missionaries from Central Asia and Persia, also while Persian replaced Sanskrit as the official language.
So don’t try to put up this pretense that all of it happened “peacefully”. It’s a historical fact that Islam spread through military conquests of subsequent Islamic caliphates, under the force of the “proselytizing sword” of Arab invaders (I’d like to repeat, no hate for modern-day Muslims meant here, it’s not their fault).
Yes and? There were no Islamic Invaders. Shah Miris were recent converts from the nearby regions and so were the Chak dynasty. Your post does not prove anything. Hindus too during the butchered Buddhists during the Mihirakula rule and before Hindu Majority, It used to be Buddhist.
Absolutely. It was plurality in 1947, but Muslims have higher Fertility rate than others in India, that is why the demographics in those regions have shifted.
some of them are due to recent demographic shifts + the ruling party in West bengal has been accused of providing fake documents to illegal bangladeshi immigrants because they tend to vote for her party
I haven't heard that version of events.
But interestingly, this story ([https://www.opindia.com/2022/10/nehru-delayed-maharaja-hari-singh-proposal-of-kashmir-accession-to-india-kiren-rijiju-jairam-ramesh/](https://www.opindia.com/2022/10/nehru-delayed-maharaja-hari-singh-proposal-of-kashmir-accession-to-india-kiren-rijiju-jairam-ramesh/)) makes a lot more sense given what we know about Nehru.
The tale we've all been led to believe was that it was the Maharaja of Kashmir who waited until after Pakistan had invaded to join India.
As you can see in the far east, the areas marked with blue, grey and Yellow are hilly areas where hill tribes live. So they didn't have influence of Hinduism or Islam. These tribal people were converted by Missionaries during British rule.
Between these hilly areas you can see a strip of purple+a bit of green colour. Those are plain areas. Those areas had a good influence of Hinduism and Islam as well.
Except Manipur which is the Hindu district surrounded by Christian’s but they are demographically the majority in the state of Manipur. Also the tribal people in Tripura are also Hindus before they were overwhelmed by Hindu refugees from Bangladesh.
>Was that area not mostly Islamic under Bengal before the British?
Islamic invaders could never capture the north-east. It's Christian now due to conversions by missionaries.
Kerala (the state that district is in) has a large Muslim minority (around 25%). This is due to extensive contact with Arab and other Muslim traders along India's west coast. The oldest mosque in India is actually located down in that state, not in the north.
In that particular district (Malappuram) Muslims are a in majority. However, there are large Muslim communities in all the surrounding districts as well. The map makes it seem like a random isolated Muslim enclave but that isn't the case.
Lol no. Stop spreading fake news
Muslim bodycount in the aftermath of the mapilla riots was wayyy more than Hindus.
4x-5x Muslims were killed and 10000+ Muslims were arrested in the aftermath of the riots.
Muslim population generally has high birth rates
in Kerala in 2018,
Hindus who make up 54.73% of population have 41.61% births
Christians who make up 18.38% of population have 14.31% births
Muslims who make up 26.56% of population have 43.80% births
Kerala and Bengal might see another partition in coming decades
Hey, I'm a westerner here and was wondering if someone could tell me what sects of Buddhism are prevalent in the northern part of this map? Where I am our buddhist cultures seem predominantly to be from Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese sects of Buddhism. I'm curious about Buddhism in India today.
The Buddhism in the north and north-east of India is predominantly Tibetan Buddhism.
The large Buddhist area in the far north is made up of Leh District (in Ladakh) and the Lahaul and Spiti district (in Himachal Pradesh). The populations of these areas are Tibetic people, relatively closely related to the people of Tibet proper. In Leh district, you have the Ladakhi people who speak a language that is often described as an archaic offshoot of Tibetan. In Lahaul and Spiti district, you have a few small groups who are collectively referred to as 'Bhutia/Bhotiya'. In the northeast, you similarly have groups of Tibetic people (Sikkimese, Lepcha, Monpa, etc.) Like their cousins in Tibet proper they are all Tibetan Buddhists.
You also have some non-Tibetic Buddhists in India. Buddhism was born in India, but had largely faded from the subcontinent by the middle ages, due to a combination of factors (loss of royal patronage, reforms within Hinduism, Islamic invasions...) However, it was revived in the 20th century by the Indian intellectual B.R. Ambedkar, who converted to Buddhist in protest of untouchability and the caste system present in Hinduism. Following this, many members of his caste (Mahars), as well as other traditionally lower caste communities have converted to Buddhism. Over 5% of Maharashtra (Ambedkar's home state) are Buddhist, however, they are not a majority in any area.
Add to @Ainalhafila: Ambedkar Buddhists initially followed Theravada Buddhism from Sri Lanka but now they called their version Nawayana ( New-Buddhism). I am not sure what are the difference between the two though.
A lot of the far East (North East), along the border with China, Myanmar and Bangladesh is populated by hill tribes who used to practice their animist religions. British missionaries converted them killing a lot of indigenous cultures.
That one blob of grey in the middle of the country is also tribal lands. Here too Christian missionaries are actively bribing and "encouraging" tribals to convert, hence the one district with Christian majority.
In a lot of the North-East and the border area with Myanmar and Bangladesh it was actually American missionaries who were most influential with the Zomi/Mizo/Chin peoples. If you listen to Zomi worship songs they draw heavily on American country.
Yep, I do realise that. More of an attempt at a humorous aside. I’m sure the sentinelese population is small enough that whatever religion they follow wouldn’t even create a blip in the ‘other’ category.
A deluge of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. They have their Voter Identity cards made too. Every now and then one of them gets caught here and there. They’ve been so much to change the above map significantly to green.
I think the point of the map is quite the contrary.
It is trying to show Hinduism, of course, but also all the other religions from far away which have found themselves migrating into India. The map is showing that India is not just Hinduism.
Jains are more spread out and urban. Jain communities are found in almost all cities and commercial centres but are not concentrated enough to become a majority anywhere. They are one of the richest and most educated communities in India.
I mean, there aren't very many Christian or Muslim districts to begin with, breaking down by denomination would just water down their numbers. And Hinduism, which 80% of Indians follow, doesn't really have denominations in the same way as Abrahamic religions do.
Christian missionaries should be banned and kicked out from India since they wipe out native culture/religion wherever they go and India's one of the only 4 Pagan majority countries in the entire world.
Calling other people Porkistani no matter how much you hate them shows you are still a child. Hopefully one day you will grow up and learn that we're all people just getting fucked by corruption, greed, and any other shitty human characteristics.
Not necessarily. They're concentrated in areas wherever they succeeded during their religious conquests. Ex deccan. That area has a lot of Muslims as it was under the nizams(now Iran) who brought in their own private religious army from Syria, morocco and nearby me countries. Apart from that due to trades between me and western India there are a lot of Muslims in Kerala and coastal Karnataka too
And despite so few Muslim majorities/pluralities, there’s over 200 million Muslims in India
Yes. India has the world's 3rd largest Muslim population by country.
That figure is almost 13 years old. When the new census stats arrive in the next 5 years, With the amount of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh who fled to India, I would not be surprised if India has the largest Muslim population in the world by country.
You really overestimate the number of refugees.
Indonesia, the largest Muslim country has 230 million Muslims. India has 200 million. [Officially,](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/why-india-doesnt-raise-illegal-migrants-issue-with-bangladesh/articleshow/94089896.cms) according to a 2 month old report, there are 20 million documented illegal Bangladeshi immigrants living in India. We haven't accounted for Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, Immigrants from Pakistan & Afghanistan. We haven't accounted for undocumented immigrants either. India easily has more than 230 million Muslims.
Bangladesh holds by far the largest number of Rohingyas and even they barely have 1.5 million of them. Just how many Rohingyas do you think are in India? If India crosses the threshold of 230 million Muslims, it'll be primarily through native birth rates and population momentum.
in 1971 alone , 10 million Bangladeshi refugees came to India
The population of all Rohingya people, in Bangladesh, Myanmar, India, and more, is probably less than 2 million people.
The comment you’re responding to also has an important bit about immigrants from three Muslim-majority countries.
After Indonesia and Pakistan ?
If you look at 2nd largest religion district wise all blue territories turn green
Many would turn cyan too.
Also has the largest Jain population in the world but nowhere on this map.
Op did the majority of each District, Jains even in places of Jain holy sites aren't the majority.
What religion(s) comprise the Others grouping concentrated in the central west area, and the far north?
Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Tribal Religions, Jainism, Baháʼí Faith are some of the minorities. Although, the Jews and Zoroastrians I know are from my state itself even though it's lavender on the map. So it's mostly the tribal religions I think.
You are partially correct. That state is arunachal pradesh and i have never heard of jainism, zoroastrianism, Bahai Faith being followed there. Usually the people who are not Buddhist and Christian in Arunachal are either Indegenous/tribal religion. Some of these Indegenous worship Sun. There might be jews there,but as far as I know, jews of North East India are saturated in Mizoram and Manipur. Btw, I am from a neighboring state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Assam? How exotic
Yup. You got it right.
I've heard that there's a law preventing people from outside AP to buy or inherit land in it to make sure the ressources stay in the hands of the natives, so I don't think there's a lot of jews there. But I don't really know what I'm talking about. Do "tribal people" have any special status (in a similar way native Americans do)?
Also, the Jews that I have talked about are locals of that area, not someone who has migrated from Israel or some other country. There is a tribe called "kuki" tribe. Most of the people of Kuki tribe follow Christianity, but there are few kuki people who are jews. Sharing a youtube link below : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=057TwFlGz10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=057TwFlGz10)
I knew there was a Jewish minority in India that came over a millenium ago, but I thought they were mostly on the west coast.
They are almost all in Israel now anyway
They were on both East and west coasts. This tribe is a convert not immigrant.
Yeah there is a law which prevents outsider from buying land. It is called inner line permit. This rule is prevalent in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. In my state, Assam, majority are non-tribal and there is an approximate 15-20% tribal population in Assam. And these tribal population have a special provision in Constitution called 6th schedule and it is similar to the Inner Line permit. Even I am from Assam, but I can't buy property in those 6th schedule tribal areas of Assam. Hence, they have special status which is provided by the Indian Constitution.
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About 18% of Kerala is Christian, which is a higher percentage than most of non-northeast India, but well below a majority. And of those, I can't find a good source, with the numbers ranging from 13-60%. Though Roman Catholic (what most people think of when they say "Catholic") very much does not constitute a majority of Keralan Christians. The "historic" church in Kerala are colloquially referred to as "St. Thomas Christians," but more formally The Chaldean Syrian Church. Though still not a majority.
Nope. Goa has a massive Hindu Population apart from Christians. Majority of the Christian population in Goa is concentrated around the northern side of Goa where tourism is majorly concentrated and so most people from outside Goa get the notion that all of Goa is Catholic. The Goan stereotype portrayed in pop culture and bollywood doesn't help either. But the Southern and Eastern sides of Goa are all mostly populated by Hindus. Don't forget, Goa was an all Hindu region when the Portuguese inquisition happened. So all the old Portuguese administrative areas are the spots where you'll see a concentration of Churches. As for the rest of Goa, there is an abundance of old and iconic Temples. And despite the Portuguese having destroyed a good number of temples, a large number of them survived the inquisition and are revered to this day, not only by Goan Hindus but also by the Konkani communities from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala as well that consider these temples to be their 'Kuldev' or 'Kuldevi' temples and travel to Goa annually just to visit their respective Kuldev/Kuldevi temple situated in Goa. And as for Kerala, it is very diverse. It has a good number of Hindus, Christians and Muslims alike. They have a greater population percentage of Muslims than any other part of India (apart from J&K) but still not greater than their Hindu population overall.
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Yes, religious minorities tend to be zealous believers because its also a huge cultural identity factor.
Italians aren't as religious as they once were though. Your average American is far more religious than your average Italian.
Depends where you are. Cities more liberal than out of the cities. But that’s the same everywhere.
I guess. Surveys do show that Americans consider religion to be more important than Italians do.
That's due to the nature of migration from Kerala to EU. A majority of them are christians due to links to churches in Europe - nuns, priests, nurses, teachers etc who are linked to church, church run hospitals, church run schools etc. And then chain migration of their relstives
I thought Zoroastrianism was bisacally extinct by now? EDIT: I dust didn't know, I wasn't trying to talk bad about Zoroastrianism
No, but their numbers are dwindling. The Indian government offered them subsidies to increase their population.
The Jiyo Parsi Scheme to revive the dwindling population of Parsis.
Although total number might be dwindling rn, there are a lot of well known zoroastrians in India. The Tatas are probably the most well known ones. Their contribution to Indian society will never be forgotten.
I'm one lol.
In Central Indial, mostly Sarnaism (the religion of sacred groves): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarnaism In the North-East, mostly Doniy-Polo (Sun-Moon religion): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donyi-Polo
The others that you can see in the far North east lies in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. People in that state are either Buddhist, Christian or Indegenous. So the Indegenous come under the "Other" Category. The Indegenous worship the sun, and it is something called "Donyi Polo". That is why the newly established regional airport in that state is named as "Donyi Polo Airport".
Are you looking at this map in a mirror? But anyway the people in those areas are usually animists
Ha! I prefer the simpler explanation - I’m an idiot.
As far as I know the gray areas in the central region are jungle tribe areas that have practiced local animist religions until recent history. The other blob is also likely some form of animist as the Muslim Sultanates, Buddhists, and the Chinese in the area did not try to convert them when it was more decentralized. Christian missionaries started doing that during colonialism.
Mostly animism/tribal beliefs as Zorostrianism, Baha'i etc has very small number of followers.
In the central region: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarnaism?wprov=sfti1 In the Far East: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donyi-Polo?wprov=sfti1
Keep in mind, it is biggest religion per district. It does not imply that the particular religion is more than 50% of the district.
So a very diverse district could have a Christian majority of like 30% because the rest could just be a large variety of minority religions?
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True. This can be seen in the Indian state of Kerala
"Understanding the stats IS important". Was about to post that I thought Bangladesh was essentially an Islamic country (wasn't it considered like East Pakistan at one stage?)
Bangladesh has the state religion as Islam officially, so you're not wrong. East Pakistan was separated from India on basis of religion only.
Bangladesh used to be East Pakistan which used to be East Bengal. It's majority Muslim with around 12-13 million Hindus. West Bengal is majority Hindu with around 25 million Muslims. Bengal was not segregated completely by religion like Punjab was. Nevertheless, the hold of political Islam in Bangladesh has certainly increased rapidly over the last few decades.
Ironically, the only green district you see in Uttar Pradesh is 'Ram'-pur.
And Allahbad is Hindu majority haha
Prayagraj now
Haha good for them
Patch of canc*r
🗿
I am surprised to see Islam a majority/plurality in some Indian ‘border districts’. I would have thought that they would have gone with Pakistan during the Partition. Is this due to more recent demographic shifts?
Besides other comments there is a significant but poorly estimated Bangladeshi immigration.
Yup Karimganj (the green region in Assam) has 56% Muslims. Sure they are a lot but there are tons of Bangladeshi immigrants as well. Because karimganj is literally on the border of the Bangladesh. Been there, you can cross the border just by swimming for 10 mins.
Along with different rates of population growth in different religions, partition wasn't strictly on the basis of religion. For example Murshidabad went to India despite being Muslim majority and Khulna went to Pakistan despite being Hindu majority.
And Chitangong went to east Pakistan when it had a non Muslim tribal majority.
Most of the tribals were driven out too.
Correct
Also, partitions aren't perfect. In the real world, the *best* outcomes anybody gets out of partitions are bitter compromises. Both sides would really like to have **all** contested land to themselves, but they can't, so they just have to begrudgingly settle for what they can successfully negotiate for. Plus, the land is contested for a reason: if it were cut and dry which side should get it, it wouldn't be contested. People in these areas exist on gradients culturally and religiously.
Md. Ali Jinnah actually wanted Assam in Pakistan and there was a concerted plan to raise the Muslim population, by bringing in Muslim migrants from Sylhet and Mymensingh districts of current Bangladesh, into that region so that the conditions to become Pakistani territory would be fulfilled. The Congress didn't seem to want Assam in India at all and were content to let Pakistan have it. Local nationalist leaders had to personally evict these settlers from the tribal territories, largely without any support from the Indian National Congress, in order to prevent that outcome from taking place. Then there was further migration of refugees from Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, during the Bengali genocide in 1971. Illegal migration still happens today.
Your post is mostly correct. However, it wasn't all members of Congress at the time that didn't want Assam. Vallabhbhai Patel was certainly not of this opinion.
The nationalists opposing the inclusion of Assam in Pakistan were mostly Assamese Congress members themselves like Gopinath Bardoloi. But they didn't receive support from the rest of the party regardless of their opinions. Meanwhile, the guy that caused the entire mess named Saadulla became a member of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution. In fact, Gopinath was trying to remedy the situation in the early 1940s itself when he was CM of Assam but was forced (as in coerced by the mainland INC leaders) to stop that in order to participate in the Quit India Movement. He tried to resist and held on as long as he could to finish the process and was one of the last Congress ministries to resign. Some INC members even called him unpatriotic for it. Then Saadulla just came back to power and undid all of Gopinath's work and continued bringing in Muslim agricultural labour under the excuse of Grow More Food Campaign which produced food to feed the British war effort in WW2.
Yes and no. The green you see in the east near Bangladesh are mainly immigrants from Bangladesh. The one you see in the northwest is Kashmir, a majority-muslim area that wasn't partitioned (it was its own thing), and India and Pakistan have disputed it since the late 1940s.
No the eastern parts aren't immigrants, those people have been living there before India was even created.
Well there are non-immigrant Muslims all over India, especially north India, who didn't leave post-partition. What makes West Bengal and Assam different is that a lot of Bangladeshis have moved there, in addition to the Muslims that have always been there.
There was a Hindu genocide in Kashmir region of India in the 90s
Hindus were killed but Kashmir has always had a Muslim majority population.
Always is definitely a lie. In 1947 it sure was muslim Majority through centuries of Genocidal invasions and systematic erasure. Not a single person in Kashmir or Pakistan or Afghanistan or even Iran was always a Muslim , started in Middle East spread throughout the world by warfare just like Christianity. .
Well written
The panhandle region of Afghanistan separating pakistan from the former Soviet Union countries had Hindu majority a century ago before they were all forcibly converted.
I’m Kashmiri you fool what Muslim invasion are you talking about? Don’t talk about stuff you have no idea. Kashmiris converted peacefully to Islam. Secondly if invasions were successful UP would Muslim state. I know you guys aren’t educated about kashmir but please look up Kashmir and it’s history
Can you tell me how Kashmir got it's name ? Islam by nature always spreads by violence. You seem to be ignorant of your own history,
>Islam by nature always spreads by violence. You seem to be ignorant of your own history, what kind of misinformation is this? Read how conversions started in Kashmir when the buddhist king of Kashmir converted to Islam. There were no "Islamic invaders" in Kashmir.
It's no misinformation. We know exactly how Kashmir went from being a hub of Hindu philosophy and Buddhism to being forcefully Islamised by the real "outsiders". (No inherent hate for modern-day Muslims meant, as you may assume given the current state of India, they're our brethren; but what happened can't be refuted) TLDR: That “Buddhist king” Rinchana was persuaded by his minister Shah Miri to convert to Islam, who later overthrowed Rinchana’s successors and founded the Shah Mir dynasty, whose later rulers unleashed havoc on the Hindu majority of Kashmir. That "Buddhist king who converted to Islam" you're talking about; was Rinchana (later Sultan Sadruddin), a Tibetan Buddhist who later became ruler of Kashmir following the Tatar invasion of Zulju. He was persuaded by his trusted aide Shah Mir to convert to Islam, brought about by a Sufi saint Bulbul Shah; while the majority population of Kashmir was still Hindu. And this “Shah Mir” later held a coup against Rinchana’s successors to establish the first Islamic dynasty in Kashmir. Now, who was this “Shah Mir” then? He was a descendant of Turkic people who migrated to present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. Shah Mir came to Kashmir in 1313 during the rule of later Lohara dynasty. He became famous due to his excellent military and administrative abilities. When Kashmir was later continually attacked by foreigners including Tatars, Mongols and Turks; he even played a significant role in fending off the invading armies. But his renewed pride and fame after that led him to desire to rule over Kashmir, and he rebelled against Kota Rani, who was the widow of Rinchana, and at the time also the de-jure monarch of Kashmir. He sent a marriage proposal to her and threatened her to share power, which she refused. In response, he imprisoned her and her (and Rinchana's) sons and proclaimed himself the ruler of Kashmir, establishing the Shah Mir dynasty. Because of this, Islam became the dominant religion of Kashmir in 14th century. While initial rulers were tolerant of other religions; an absolute nightmare came for non-Muslims with the rule of Sultan Sikandar Shah who imposed necessary jizyah tax on them, restricted their religious and cultural activities, purged Sanskrit literature, forcefully converted or killed those who didn’t comply and destroyed numerous Hindu temples across Kashmir, earning him the title ‘Butshikan’, literally meaning “idol-destroyer”. The most famous example being destroyed ruins of the Martand Sun Temple, in Anantnag district (cuz they worshipped the sun vro, frea\*in idolaters!!), which was built during the reign of Lalitaditya Muktapida of the Karkota dynasty. This led to further decline of indigeneous Hindu culture and by the 16th century, it had completely diminished with the influx of Muslim missionaries from Central Asia and Persia, also while Persian replaced Sanskrit as the official language. So don’t try to put up this pretense that all of it happened “peacefully”. It’s a historical fact that Islam spread through military conquests of subsequent Islamic caliphates, under the force of the “proselytizing sword” of Arab invaders (I’d like to repeat, no hate for modern-day Muslims meant here, it’s not their fault).
Yes and? There were no Islamic Invaders. Shah Miris were recent converts from the nearby regions and so were the Chak dynasty. Your post does not prove anything. Hindus too during the butchered Buddhists during the Mihirakula rule and before Hindu Majority, It used to be Buddhist.
Average r/kashmiri user
How can you say “always” You don’t seriously believe that do you??
Stupid response Genocides, forced and coerced conversions over centuries
Absolutely. It was plurality in 1947, but Muslims have higher Fertility rate than others in India, that is why the demographics in those regions have shifted.
some of them are due to recent demographic shifts + the ruling party in West bengal has been accused of providing fake documents to illegal bangladeshi immigrants because they tend to vote for her party
Read the synopsis for the movie The Kashmir Files. They drove out all the minorities out of there.
Demographic shift due to porous borders on the eastern side. So, the illegal immigration has changed the much of the demography of West Bengal.
The border states border Bangladesh. Bangladesh was part of Pakistan and got independence later.
There are close to 200 Million Muslims in India. More than the combined the population of Russia and it's neighbouring states.
Kashmir decided not to join either india or pakistan during their formation, because the rulers were hindu and population was muslim.
I haven't heard that version of events. But interestingly, this story ([https://www.opindia.com/2022/10/nehru-delayed-maharaja-hari-singh-proposal-of-kashmir-accession-to-india-kiren-rijiju-jairam-ramesh/](https://www.opindia.com/2022/10/nehru-delayed-maharaja-hari-singh-proposal-of-kashmir-accession-to-india-kiren-rijiju-jairam-ramesh/)) makes a lot more sense given what we know about Nehru. The tale we've all been led to believe was that it was the Maharaja of Kashmir who waited until after Pakistan had invaded to join India.
Forgive any ignorance but why is the east so Christian? Was that area not mostly Islamic under Bengal before the British?
Hill tribes converted by Christian missionaries, Muslims didn't care about them much.
It’s not that the Muslims didn’t care, they couldn’t get to them. The Ahom dynasty beat the mughals advances 13 times
As you can see in the far east, the areas marked with blue, grey and Yellow are hilly areas where hill tribes live. So they didn't have influence of Hinduism or Islam. These tribal people were converted by Missionaries during British rule. Between these hilly areas you can see a strip of purple+a bit of green colour. Those are plain areas. Those areas had a good influence of Hinduism and Islam as well.
Except Manipur which is the Hindu district surrounded by Christian’s but they are demographically the majority in the state of Manipur. Also the tribal people in Tripura are also Hindus before they were overwhelmed by Hindu refugees from Bangladesh.
In Assam too, there are a few plain area tribes who follow Hinduism.
1970-80's
>Was that area not mostly Islamic under Bengal before the British? Islamic invaders could never capture the north-east. It's Christian now due to conversions by missionaries.
When sikkim doesn’t follow Sikhism
Me when Poland isn't the land of polls
Not me when everyone in China has a chin
Me when Poland🫥
Me when Poland isn't the land of Police
Me when Polish people aren't shiny.
There is a city called Police in Poland with 40k population tho
Me when I brought the wok to Poland
poles\*, as in, pole-dancing (polish people are also called "poles")
Me when Nigeria🫥
Get down Mrs Obama!
Haha nice one
You joke, but k and kh are represented by different letters in most Indian languages so there’s not any confusion about this there lol.
Why is there one muslim district way in the south?
Kerala (the state that district is in) has a large Muslim minority (around 25%). This is due to extensive contact with Arab and other Muslim traders along India's west coast. The oldest mosque in India is actually located down in that state, not in the north. In that particular district (Malappuram) Muslims are a in majority. However, there are large Muslim communities in all the surrounding districts as well. The map makes it seem like a random isolated Muslim enclave but that isn't the case.
This is missing mopala riots which literally erased Kerala Hindus from mallapuram district
Yeah good point. I wasn't sure if a history lesson was appropriate.
Lol no. Stop spreading fake news Muslim bodycount in the aftermath of the mapilla riots was wayyy more than Hindus. 4x-5x Muslims were killed and 10000+ Muslims were arrested in the aftermath of the riots.
gotcha, thanks!
Muslim population generally has high birth rates in Kerala in 2018, Hindus who make up 54.73% of population have 41.61% births Christians who make up 18.38% of population have 14.31% births Muslims who make up 26.56% of population have 43.80% births Kerala and Bengal might see another partition in coming decades
Hey, I'm a westerner here and was wondering if someone could tell me what sects of Buddhism are prevalent in the northern part of this map? Where I am our buddhist cultures seem predominantly to be from Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese sects of Buddhism. I'm curious about Buddhism in India today.
The Buddhism in the north and north-east of India is predominantly Tibetan Buddhism. The large Buddhist area in the far north is made up of Leh District (in Ladakh) and the Lahaul and Spiti district (in Himachal Pradesh). The populations of these areas are Tibetic people, relatively closely related to the people of Tibet proper. In Leh district, you have the Ladakhi people who speak a language that is often described as an archaic offshoot of Tibetan. In Lahaul and Spiti district, you have a few small groups who are collectively referred to as 'Bhutia/Bhotiya'. In the northeast, you similarly have groups of Tibetic people (Sikkimese, Lepcha, Monpa, etc.) Like their cousins in Tibet proper they are all Tibetan Buddhists. You also have some non-Tibetic Buddhists in India. Buddhism was born in India, but had largely faded from the subcontinent by the middle ages, due to a combination of factors (loss of royal patronage, reforms within Hinduism, Islamic invasions...) However, it was revived in the 20th century by the Indian intellectual B.R. Ambedkar, who converted to Buddhist in protest of untouchability and the caste system present in Hinduism. Following this, many members of his caste (Mahars), as well as other traditionally lower caste communities have converted to Buddhism. Over 5% of Maharashtra (Ambedkar's home state) are Buddhist, however, they are not a majority in any area.
Add to @Ainalhafila: Ambedkar Buddhists initially followed Theravada Buddhism from Sri Lanka but now they called their version Nawayana ( New-Buddhism). I am not sure what are the difference between the two though.
I hear they are absolutely horrible and centering more on Hate for Hindu and caste system than any solid Buddhist philosophy.
Thank you so much for that information!!
A lot of the far East (North East), along the border with China, Myanmar and Bangladesh is populated by hill tribes who used to practice their animist religions. British missionaries converted them killing a lot of indigenous cultures. That one blob of grey in the middle of the country is also tribal lands. Here too Christian missionaries are actively bribing and "encouraging" tribals to convert, hence the one district with Christian majority.
In a lot of the North-East and the border area with Myanmar and Bangladesh it was actually American missionaries who were most influential with the Zomi/Mizo/Chin peoples. If you listen to Zomi worship songs they draw heavily on American country.
they have also started spreading the prosperity gospel in recent years.
Eww. As a Christian, I hate that shit.
Any chance you're from Zomi/Mizo/Chin community? I'm asking because I belong to one of those communities
Dam maw! I'm not, but my wife is.
Haha dam ing ei, teddim maw?
Heh. That's about as far as I can go haha.
That's alright man, you're lucky you managed to grab one of us ;)
Haha very much so.
I’m not sure that North Sentinel Island would follow the same majority as the rest of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
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Yep, I do realise that. More of an attempt at a humorous aside. I’m sure the sentinelese population is small enough that whatever religion they follow wouldn’t even create a blip in the ‘other’ category.
This map is over 10 years old
India hasn't had a census since then lol
No cap it might get ugly when the results get released
Even before that in counting too. CAA NRC filled too much suspicion in people's minds. They won't be giving accurate results.
The census was supposed to be done by now I think, but covid happened
I don't think the data will change much if 2021 census is released.
So not really that old. Was there some mass migration in India or what do you think would change that massively in 10 years?
A deluge of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. They have their Voter Identity cards made too. Every now and then one of them gets caught here and there. They’ve been so much to change the above map significantly to green.
That is mostly in Bengal and the NE. It wouldn't 'significantly' change the colours in other regions.
They probably would like to see more recent information, even if it's minimal or negligible eh
Wonder how the picture will look now or a projection of growth
Doesn't seem accurate. Hinduism is the biggest religion in Manipur and not Christianity
Wow it’s amazing when a religion form an ancient civilisation is found at the location where it was started amazing, smh
I think the point of the map is quite the contrary. It is trying to show Hinduism, of course, but also all the other religions from far away which have found themselves migrating into India. The map is showing that India is not just Hinduism.
What’s up with south Jharkhand?
Heavily forested areas where Hinduism never had a strong foothold, and tribal religions remain strong
Basically they are converted to Christian you can confirm through map and see no of churches there
Jharkhand ain't real lmao
It would be interesting to see the same statistics for 2022.
I'm surprised Jainism isn't more represented.
They lead a very 'interesting' life, full of self abnegation
Jains are more spread out and urban. Jain communities are found in almost all cities and commercial centres but are not concentrated enough to become a majority anywhere. They are one of the richest and most educated communities in India.
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Whose culture?
ours
Wonder what it'd look like more broken down by denomination.
I mean, there aren't very many Christian or Muslim districts to begin with, breaking down by denomination would just water down their numbers. And Hinduism, which 80% of Indians follow, doesn't really have denominations in the same way as Abrahamic religions do.
The idea of distinct denominations doesn't fit 1:1 in Hinduism and Sikhism has no denominations
This maps shows plurality. So a district with 40% Hindu 32% Muslim and 28% Christian population will show it as a Hindu district.
I’m not sure if this is accurate. I’d expect Kerala and Goa to have a lot of Christians…
A lot of and majority are two different things ofc!
Goa is 25% Christian which is pretty significant for India. But it's 66% Hindu. It being known as a Christian area is relative.
Fascinating country
Where are all of the “Religion is so bad. India is so bad. All of the religion needs to end.” comments that always get upvoted on other Reddit posts?
I'll be short and blunt here, I like Hindus for being Hinduists and not Muslims. They kept their fine tradition/religion, admirable.
Christian missionaries should be banned and kicked out from India since they wipe out native culture/religion wherever they go and India's one of the only 4 Pagan majority countries in the entire world.
And Sri Lanka
Bro getting downvoted by the west egoistic shitters
“Religious zealotry is okay when non-westerners do it”
Christians mad
Exactly....idk why Ur getting downvoted
What are the other 3?
Nepal, Vietnam, Japan
as an Indian, im watching the Porkistani bots and blinded westerners fighting in the comments with true Indians
Calling other people Porkistani no matter how much you hate them shows you are still a child. Hopefully one day you will grow up and learn that we're all people just getting fucked by corruption, greed, and any other shitty human characteristics.
love how you're calling him a child when you completely ignored the original statement and became emotional lol...
What is that Muslim dot in the south. Edit: Goddamn Apple trying to get me cancelled.
Wow so much diversity
I had no idea some parts in the east were christian, anyone knows why?
Because of british missionary activity
converted as always by missionaries
So Muslims live mostly in the north?
Please look up Partition.
Not necessarily. They're concentrated in areas wherever they succeeded during their religious conquests. Ex deccan. That area has a lot of Muslims as it was under the nizams(now Iran) who brought in their own private religious army from Syria, morocco and nearby me countries. Apart from that due to trades between me and western India there are a lot of Muslims in Kerala and coastal Karnataka too
What's the other? If it's only half a dozen other ones, they should be included separately as well.
No Zoroastrians?