Hinduism is the largest religion in India. According to the 2021 Census of India, 1.18 billion people identify as Hindu, representing 80.3% of the country’s population. India contains 94% of the global Hindu population, the world’s largest Hindu population. Islam is followed by 14.2% of the population, with the remaining 6% adhering to other religions (such as Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, various indigenous ethnically-bound faiths, atheism) or having no religion. The vast majority of Hindus in India belong to Shaivite and Vaishnavite denominations. India is one of the three countries in the world (Nepal and Mauritius being the other two) where Hinduism is the dominant religion.
History of Hinduism
The Vedic culture developed in India in 1500 BCE and 500 BCE. After this period, the Vedic religion merged with local traditions and the renouncer traditions, resulting in the emergence of Hinduism, 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. Another popular alternative name of India is Hindustān, meaning the “land of Hindus“.
India saw the rule of both Hindu and Muslim rulers from c. 1200 CE to 1750 CE. The fall of Vijayanagar 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.
Partition of India
I find no parallel in history for a body of converts and their descendants claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock.
— Mahatma Gandhi, opposing the division of India on the basis of religion in 1944.
The Partition of British India was based on religion. The negotiations failed several times, with differing demands about boundaries, as shown in this map of 1946.
Hindu nationalism was promoted by Hindus such as:
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar – for the formation of Akhand Bharat
- Purushottam Das Tandon – promoted Hindi as the Official language of India
- Syama Prasad Mukherjee – founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a Hindu nationalist political party
- K. B. Hedgewar – founder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation
- M.S. Golwalkar – founder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Hindu nationalist organisation
The 1947 Partition of India gave rise to bloody rioting and indiscriminate inter-communal killing of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. Around 7.5 million Muslims were moved and left for West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh) and 7.2 million Hindus and Sikhs moved to India. This was a major factor in fuelling animosity between Hindus and Sikhs, and Muslims. What followed over the years was the laying of secular principles in the Indian Constitution. The last 60 years have been peaceful in most parts of the country apart from the notable exceptions of communal riots in 1992 Bombay riots, following the demolition of the Babri mosque by extremists, and the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Andhra Pradesh and northeast India are two of the regions where conversion is prevalent. In response to the activities of Christian missionaries in India, hardline Hindu groups such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have aggressively started reconversion of converted Christians as well as Muslims to Hinduism. The Hindus still form the majority community in most states and territories of the country. Most of the north and northwest India, especially Gujarat, remains the stronghold of Hinduism. There is reason to believe that Hinduism is growing through the incorporation of tribal belief-systems in specific areas of the northeast. However, in the Kashmir Valley, the Hindu population has decreased as a result of the terrorism which forced 550,000 members of Kashmiri Pandit community to leave the valley by Islamist insurgents. In Punjab, the Sikhs form the majority population.
Demographics
| Year | Percent | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1947 | 85.0% | – |
| 1951 | 84.1% | -0.9% |
| 1961 | 83.45% | -0.65% |
| 1971 | 82.73% | -0.72% |
| 1981 | 82.30% | -0.43% |
| 1991 | 81.53% | -0.77% |
| 2001 | 80.46% | -1.07% |
| 2011 | 79.80% | -0.66% |
| 2021 | 80.3% | +0.5% |
The Hindu percentage decreased steadily from 84.1 per cent in 1951 to 79.8 per cent in 2011. While 2021, shows that the hindu percentage have gone up from 79.8% to 80.3%. When India achieved independence in 1947, Hindus formed 85 per cent of the total population, though pre-Partition British India had 73 per cent of Hindus and 24 per cent of Muslims.
| 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% |
| 2021 | 1,118,907,458 | +15.8% |
| Source: census of India | ||
Among the community, it is estimated that Forward castes comprise 26 per cent, Other Backward Classes comprise 43 per cent, Scheduled Castes (Dalits) comprises 22 per cent and Scheduled Tribes (Adivasis) comprise 9 per cent.
Hindu minority State/Union Territory in India
Of the 28 states in India, Hindus form majority in 22 states except for Punjab (Sikh majority), Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram (Christian majority). In Manipur, Hinduism is a plurality religion, where Hinduism is practised by 41.39 per cent and Christianity is followed by 41.29 per cent. Out of the nine Union territory, Hindus form majority in six; Ladakh has a Muslim plurality, where Islam is practised by 45 per cent and Buddhism is followed by 40 per cent, while Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep have a Muslim majority.
Out of the eight states of northeast India, Tripura, Sikkim, and Assam are Hindu majority while four have Hindus as a minority, and one as a plurality.
Hindu population by States and Territories
Percentage of Hindus in each district. Data derived from 2011 census.
| 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 | 88.46% |
| 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 | 445,876 | 1,383,727 | 30.04% |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 3,566,674 | 12,541,302 | 28.43% |
| 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% |
Manipur
A decrease in the 1991–2001 period is observed in Manipur, from 57 per cent to 52 per cent population share, where there has been a resurgence of the indigenous Sanamahireligion. The Hindu Population share in Manipur decreased also in 2001–2011 from 52 per cent to 41.4 per cent. The religious conversion of Hindus to Christianity and migration of Christians from Nagaland are considered as the reason for this decrease in Hindu population.
West Bengal
Two districts in West Bengal, Malda and North Dinajpur, had a Hindu majority in 2001 census which, by the time of the 2011 census, had become a Hindu minority or plurality. The percentage of Hindu population in the state has decreased from 78.45 per cent in 1951 to 70.54 per cent in 2011. Another district, Murshidabad, is a Muslim majority district where the Muslim population steadily increased from 55.24 per cent in 1951 to 66.27 per cent in 2011.
Uttar Pradesh
The proportion of Hindus in the Saharanpur district was 59.49 per cent in 2001. This had declined to 56.74 per cent by 2011 – a drop of 2.74 percentage points. At the same time the Muslim population increased from 39.11 per cent in 2001 to 41.95 per cent in 2011. The Deoband tehsil in the Saharanpur district saw a decline in the proportion of the Hindu population from 70.19 per cent in 2001 to 59.8 per cent in 2011, a drop of 10.39 percentage points. The proportion of the Muslim population in Deoband increased by 10.68 percentage points in the same period.
Kairana tehsil witnessed a 4.16 percentage points decline in the proportion of Hindus in its population, dropping from 49.54 per cent in 2001 to 45.38 per cent by 2011.
In Amroha tehsil the Hindu population decreased from 2001 to 2011 by 2.38 percentage points; in Sardhana by 3.58 percentage points; in Baghpat by 7.49 percentage points; and in Baraut by 2.21 percentage points.
Assam
A study on population composition of Assam reveals that the Hindu population in Assam has declined from 70.78 percent in 1951 to 61.47 percent in 2011. Whereas in 1891, the Muslim population in Assam was only about 5 per cent, by the 2001 census it had risen to above 30 per cent and by 2011 to above 34 per cent of the total Assam population. According to the 2001 census, there were six Muslim-majority districts in Assam, increasing to nine by the time of the 2011 census.
Kerala
Kerala—like Assam, West Bengal, and many of the states in the northeast—has seen a drastic change in its religious demography in the census periods from 1901. The share of Indian Religionists in Kerala, who are almost all Hindus, has declined from nearly 70 percent in 1901 to 55 percent in 2011, marking a loss of 15 percentage points in eleven decades. In 2015, 42.87 % of births were recorded as Hindus, 41.45 % Muslim, and 15.42% Christian. In 2016, total annual births to Muslim parents surpassed that of Hindus for the first time.
Projections
According to the Pew research center, by 2050 India will have largest population of Hindus in the world. The world Hindu population will closely reach 1.4 billion around that time, of which 1.3 billion Hindus (93 per cent of the world’s Hindus) will continue to live in India and will constitute 77 per cent of the country’s population, down from 80 per cent in 2010.
Hindu Rashtra
The All India Hindu Convention demanded that India should be declared a “Hindu state” officially. Other pro-Hindu and patriotic organisations throughout India and abroad are striving to establish Hindu Rashtra. Saint Mahant Paramhans Das of Tapasvi Chhavni Ayodhya wrote a letter to India’s President Ram Nath Kovind listing his seven demands, one of which is to declare India a Hindu state. Copies of the letter were forwarded in October 2020 to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and district magistrate of Ayodhya. The Indian constitution states that the declaration of a Hindu rashtra would require a 15-judge Supreme Court bench to overrule the basic structure limitation on the Parliament’s power to amend the constitution. However, the “Project Hindu Rashtra bill” has been stopped before the 2024 election for various reasons. Earlier in 2018, Uttar Pradesh’s BJP MLA Surendra Singh also gave a hint that, by 2024, India will be officially declared as Hindu Nation.