India’s Hindu population fell by 7.8 percent between 1950 and 2015, Muslims by 43.15 percent: EAC-PM paper

NEW DELHI: The share of Hindu population in India has decreased by 7.82 percent between 1950 and 2015, while that of Muslims has increased by 43.15 percent, indicating that there is an enabling environment in the country to promote diversity, according to a recent Economic Council working paper. Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).

The article titled ‘Share of Religious Minorities: A Cross-Country Analysis (1950-2015)’ further states that the share of Jains in India’s population has fallen from 0.45 percent in 1950 to 0.36 percent in 2015.

“The majority Hindu population share decreased by 7.82 percent (from 84.68 percent to 78.06 percent) between 1950 and 2015. The share of Muslim population in 1950 was 9.84 percent and rose to 14.09 percent in 2015 – an increase of 43.15 percent in their share,” said the document prepared by a team led by Shamika Ravi, Member of the EAC-PM.

According to the newspaper, the share of the Christian population increased 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 – an increase of 6.58 percent in their share, the share of the Parsi population in India witnessed a steep decline from 85 percent, from 0.03 percent. share in 1950 to 0.004 percent in 2015.

The data indicates that “there is an enabling environment to promote diversity in society,” the paper said, adding that it is not possible to promote better life outcomes for the disadvantaged sections of society without a nurturing environment and social support to offer through a soil community. -up approach.

The article notes 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 social processes is to create a favorable environment for increasing diversity in society.

The report points out that in line with global trends of declining majorities, India too has witnessed a reduction in the share of the majority religious group by 7.82 percent.

“This is particularly notable given the broader context within South Asian neighbors, where the proportion of majority religious groups has increased and minority populations have shrunk alarmingly in countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afghanistan,” the paper said.

According to the newspaper, it is not surprising that minority groups from all over the area come to India in times of need.

It pointed out that all Muslim-majority countries witnessed an increase in the share of the majority religious group, except the Maldives, where the share of the majority group (Shafi’i Sunnis) fell by 1.47 percent.

In Bangladesh, there was an 18 percent increase in the share of the majority religious group, which is the largest increase in the Indian subcontinent. Pakistan witnessed a 3.75 percent increase in the share of the majority religious sect (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 group.

The article noted that the year 1950 is important as a base year for two main reasons.

This was around the time that the international human rights framework was beginning to take shape under the auspices of the newly established United Nations, integrating minority rights and state responsibility for the protection of minorities into international law, the paper said.

The article is a detailed, cross-country descriptive analysis of the status of minorities around the world, measured in terms of their changing share of a country’s population over a 65-year period between 1950 and 2015.

For the 167 countries analyzed, the mean value for the share of the majority religious group in the base year 1950 is 75 percent, while the mean of the distribution showing the change in the majority religious group between 1950 and 2015 is 21.9.