Source

CHENNAI, INDIA, April 25, 2004: The Centre for Policy Studies here has issued a book, Religious Demography of India, and a part of it has been put on the Web at “source.” It contains data on the trends in religious affiliation in India. If you would like to order the book (cost Rs 800/) e-mail policy@vsnl.com or write to Centre for Policy Studies, 27 Rajasekharan Street, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004 or call 91 44 28473802, fax 91 44 28474352.



Here is an excerpt:



“The part of India that came to form the Indian Union after Partition has a substantial majority of Indian Religionists; but their proportion has been declining throughout the twentieth century, except for the rise associated with the abnormal and traumatic event of Partition. In the pre-Partition period, the proportion of Indian Religionists in this part of India declined from 86.6 percent in 1901 to 84.4 percent in 1941. Between 1941 and 1951, their proportion rose by about 2.8 percentage points as a result of the forced and violent transfer of populations that occurred at the time of Partition. And in the following four decades the proportion of Indian Religionists in Indian Union has declined by the same 2.2 percentage points as in the four decades prior to Partition for which we have the data.



“Consequently, there has been a net decline of 1.6 percentage points in the proportion of Indian Religionists in Indian Union between 1901 and 1991. This decline is not much larger only because of the intervening effects of Partition. Those effects have been almost completely wiped out by the continuing decline of the next four decades.



“As far as the proportion of Indian Religionists in the population of Indian Union is concerned, therefore, Partition has proved to be a minor event in the long-term trend of a slow decline. And, as we shall see later, the growth of Muslims and Christians has not been uniform over the whole of Indian Union. It has been concentrated in various pockets; this has led to the formation of several clusters within Indian Union, where the proportion of Indian Religionists in the population is getting sharply eroded.”

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