Hindu population in India dipped 8%, Minorities' went up: PMs panel

The share of Hindu population in India decreased by 7.82 percent between 1950 and 2015, while that of the Muslims saw a 43.15 percent increase in the corresponding period, according to a working paper of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) released Tuesday. Barring Parsis and Jains, the share of all other religious minorities in India saw saw a rise in their population share up to 6.58 percent in this period.The share of the Christians rose from 2.24 percent in 1950 to 2.36 percent in 2015 (an increase of 5.38 percent), share of population went up from 1.24 percent to 1.85 percent (a 6.58 percent point rise) for the Sikhs as well as for the Buddhists whose population increased from 0.05 percent to 0.81 percent. But the share of Jains in the population decreased from 0.45 to 0.36 percent and the Parsi population witnessed a “stark 85 percent decline”.
“In India the share of the majority Hindu population decreased by 7.82 percent between 1950 and 2015 (from 84.68 percent to 78.06 percent). The share of Muslim population in 1950 was 9.84 percent and increased to 14.09 percent in 2015 — a 43.15 percent increase in their share,” says the working paper,Share of Religious Minorities: A Cross-Country Analysis (1950-2015), authored by Shamika Ravi, Apurv Kumar Mishra and Abraham Jose.The paper also throws light on the global trend in share of religious minorities and majorities in 167 countries over a period of 65 years.In the Indian subcontinent, it says, all the Muslim majority countries witnessed an increase in the share of the majority religious denomination except Maldives where the share of the majority group (Shafi’i Sunnis) declined by 1.47 percent.
As opposed to the scenario in India, the share of the majority religious denomination has increased and minority populations have “shrunk alarmingly across countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afghanistan”.India, the paper says, provides a conducive environment to foster diversity in the society and the outcome of the “progressive policies and inclusive institutions” are reflected in the growing number of minority populations. It says that political changes are mere symptoms of deeper structural changes that are happening in societies due to a variety of transformations, of which demographic evolution is an important component.
Globally, the share of the majority population has decreased in 123 countries while it went up in 44 countries only, according to the paper.The share of the majority religious denomination globally has gone down by approximately 22 percent. “On every major continent, more countries have seen a decline in the share of the majority religious denomination than increase,” it says.