Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation
Relatively few in India see widespread caste discrimination; perceptions vary by region
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- Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation
- India is majority Hindu, but religious minorities have sizable populations
- Indians feel they have religious freedom, see respecting all religions as a core value
- India’s religious groups generally see themselves as very different from each other
- Stopping religious intermarriage is a high priority for Hindus, Muslims and others in India
- Substantial minorities would not accept followers of other religions as neighbors
- Most Hindus in India say being Hindu, being able to speak Hindi are very important to be ‘truly’ Indian
- Support for BJP higher among Hindu voters who link being Hindu, speaking Hindi with Indian identity
- Among Hindus, large regional divides on views of national identity and politics
- How regions of India are defined in this report
- Among Hindu voters in India, religious nationalism is accompanied by heightened desire for religious segregation, greater religious observance
- Hindus who see Hindu and Indian identity as closely tied express positive views about diversity
- Vast majority of India’s Muslims say Indian culture is superior
- Overall, one-in-five Muslims say they have personally faced religious discrimination recently, but views vary by region
- Muslims in India support having access to their own religious courts
- More Muslims than Hindus in India see partition of the subcontinent as a bad thing for communal relations
- Most Indians say they belong to a Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Class
- Relatively few in India see widespread caste discrimination; perceptions vary by region
- In the South and Northeast, many Dalits say they have faced caste discrimination
- Most Indians say it is very important to stop people from marrying outside their caste
- Religious groups show little change in size due to conversion
- Hindus gain as many people as they lose through religious switching
- Vast majority of Hindu converts to Christianity in India are concentrated in South
- Most Indians have a strong connection to their religion
- Indians say life’s milestones should be marked by religious ceremonies
- One-third of Indian Buddhists do not believe in God
- In India, most Hindus and some members of other groups say there is one God with many manifestations
- More Hindus feel close to Shiva than any other deity
- Indians show high levels of religious observance across socioeconomic levels
- Overwhelming shares say religion was very important to their family growing up and is to them personally now
- Respecting elders a key shared religious, national value in India
- Some religious beliefs and practices shared across religious groups in India
- Indians of many religions celebrate Diwali
- India’s Hindus mostly say a person cannot be Hindu if they eat beef, celebrate Eid
- In India, Hindus’ views toward beef consumption linked with attitudes toward segregation, nationalism
- Indian Muslims more likely to say eating pork is incompatible with Islam than not believing in God
- Indian Muslims are as religious as Muslims in neighboring countries, but fewer say there is just one correct way to interpret Islam
- Overall, Indian Muslims’ level of belief in heaven, angels resembles Indian Hindus more than other Muslims in South Asia
- Most Indian Muslims oppose triple talaq
- Vast majority of Sikh adults in India say they keep their hair long
- India’s Sikhs are nearly universally proud of their national, state identities
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- Who We Surveyed in India