Muslim share of population up 0.8%, Hindus' down 0.7%
Bharti Jain
New Delhi
Numbers Growing Slower For All Communities
The share of Hindus in India's population came down a tad from 80.5% in 2001 to 79.8% in 2011, while the share of Muslims rose from 13.4% to 14.2%, census data released on Tuesday showed. Among the other large religious communities, Christians remained at 2.3% of the population and Jains at 0.4%, while Sikhs dropped slightly from 1.9% to 1.7% and Buddhists from 0.8% to 0.7%, the data showed.
The official release con firmed what TOI had reported a good seven months earlier, on January 22. The census has had the data ready for more than a year, but had not made it public. Coming as it does in the build-up to the assembly elections in Bihar, the census data could stir up even greater heat and passion than it would normally .
In line with the overall de cline in the decadal growth rate of the country's population, all religious communities have seen growth rates of their populations declining sharply in the 2001-2011 period compared to the rates in the earlier decade, the lowest decline being among Hindus from 19.9% to 16.8%. While the national shares of dif ferent religious groups have changed only marginally changes are somewhat more sizeable , the in states like Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Punjab, Uttarakhand and some states in the Northeast.
In Assam, for instance, the share of the Muslims in total population has increased from 30.9% in 2001 to 34.2% in 2011. That illegal migration from Bangladesh is playing a part in this is evident from the fact that nine of the state's 27 districts are now Muslim-majority compared to six of 23 earlier. All of these districts are in the areas bordering Bangladesh.
In West Bengal, too, the Muslims in 2011 constituted 27% of the population against 25.2% a decade earlier, though in this case the border districts do not show a noticeable jump in minority population shares compared to 2001. Uttar Dinajpur has joined Malda and Murshidabad in the list of districts where Muslims outnumber Hindus, though at 49.9% they are just short of being an outright majority.
Kerala and Uttarakhand have also registered significant increases in the share of the Muslims in their population, while in many other states there is a small increase in the share of Muslims.
In Punjab, on the other hand, the share of Hindus has increased from 36.9% to 38.5%, with the share of Sikhs dropping from 59.9% to 57.7%. The Sikhs have also declined from 16.1% to 13.1% of Chandigarh's population and from 4.0% to 3.4% of Delhi.
The Hindu share of population has also risen by one percentage point in Nagaland, and more marginally in Karnataka and Goa and in some of the union territories like.
In Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, the Christians formed a significantly larger share of the population in 2011 than they did in 2001. In Arunachal, their share rose from 18.7% to 30.3%, while in Manipur it rose from 34% to 41.3%, which is just a little lower than the 41.4% share of population that Hindus have in the state.
The Muslim population grew by 24.6% between 2001 and the 2011 Census, against the 16.8% decadal growth rate of Hindus in the same period.
Though the all-India decadal growth of Muslims was less than 29.3% between 1991 and 2001, their statewise decadal growth rate, as reflected in the 2011 Census, is higher than Hindus in all 35 states and UTs.
The 2001-11 growth rate of total population was 17.7%.Christians, during this period, grew by 15.5%, Sikhs by 8.4%, Jains by 5.4% and Buddhists by 6.1%. Those stating other religions and persuasions grew by 19.6% in the 10 years preceding 2011.
Significantly, the number who didn't state their religion went up by 294% between 2001 and 2011.
The stateUT figures for decadal growth between 2001 and 2011 show a notable rise in the Hindu population of UP (24.6%), Jharkhand (21.1%), Rajasthan (20.9%), MP (20%), Puducherry (28.9%) and NCT of Delhi (20.7%). States that show a Hindu decadal growth less than the national average are Kerala (2.2%), Arunachal (5.8%), Bengal (10.8%), Assam (10.9%), Andhra (10.3%), Himachal (12.6%), Odisha (13.2%), Chhattisgarh (13.2%), TN (14.9%), Maharasthra (15.2%), Karnataka (15.8%) and Haryana (16%), among others. Lakshadweep and Mizoram recorded a negative decadal growth at -19.5% and -4.5%. This could be due to their low population base.
States and UTs where the Hindu decadal growth was higher than their averages are Punjab, Karnataka, Goa, Puducherry , Chandigarh, Nagaland, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
Muslims, on the other hand, rose across states, bet tering their national average in Mizoram (46.9%), Haryana (45.7%), Chandigarh (44.7%), Punjab (40.2%), Nagaland (39.9%), Uttarakhand (39%) and the NCT of Delhi (33%), Rajasthan (29.8%), Assam (29.6%), Bihar (28%) and Gujarat (27.3%). Kerala returned interesting results with a 12.8% rise in Muslim population between 2001 and 2011, far higher than the corresponding figures for Hindus (2.2%) and Christians (1.4%).
The decadal growth rate for Christians (2001-11) was higher than 100% in Bihar and Arunachal, but the community recorded a negative growth in five states, including Nagaland (-2.8%), Andhra (-4.4%), Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
Sikhs recorded a high decadal growth in Odisha (25.7%), Gujarat (27.8%), Andhra (29.8%), Kerala (38.1%) and TN (53%), among others. The community showed negative growth in eight statesUTs.
Jains have shown a 5.4% decadal growth across the country . While Himachal shows a notable growth rate for the community between 2001 and 2011 (28.2%), as many as 8 states recorded a negative growth rate.
The share of Hindus in India's population came down a tad from 80.5% in 2001 to 79.8% in 2011, while the share of Muslims rose from 13.4% to 14.2%, census data released on Tuesday showed. Among the other large religious communities, Christians remained at 2.3% of the population and Jains at 0.4%, while Sikhs dropped slightly from 1.9% to 1.7% and Buddhists from 0.8% to 0.7%, the data showed.
The official release con firmed what TOI had reported a good seven months earlier, on January 22. The census has had the data ready for more than a year, but had not made it public. Coming as it does in the build-up to the assembly elections in Bihar, the census data could stir up even greater heat and passion than it would normally .
In line with the overall de cline in the decadal growth rate of the country's population, all religious communities have seen growth rates of their populations declining sharply in the 2001-2011 period compared to the rates in the earlier decade, the lowest decline being among Hindus from 19.9% to 16.8%. While the national shares of dif ferent religious groups have changed only marginally changes are somewhat more sizeable , the in states like Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Punjab, Uttarakhand and some states in the Northeast.
In Assam, for instance, the share of the Muslims in total population has increased from 30.9% in 2001 to 34.2% in 2011. That illegal migration from Bangladesh is playing a part in this is evident from the fact that nine of the state's 27 districts are now Muslim-majority compared to six of 23 earlier. All of these districts are in the areas bordering Bangladesh.
In West Bengal, too, the Muslims in 2011 constituted 27% of the population against 25.2% a decade earlier, though in this case the border districts do not show a noticeable jump in minority population shares compared to 2001. Uttar Dinajpur has joined Malda and Murshidabad in the list of districts where Muslims outnumber Hindus, though at 49.9% they are just short of being an outright majority.
Kerala and Uttarakhand have also registered significant increases in the share of the Muslims in their population, while in many other states there is a small increase in the share of Muslims.
In Punjab, on the other hand, the share of Hindus has increased from 36.9% to 38.5%, with the share of Sikhs dropping from 59.9% to 57.7%. The Sikhs have also declined from 16.1% to 13.1% of Chandigarh's population and from 4.0% to 3.4% of Delhi.
The Hindu share of population has also risen by one percentage point in Nagaland, and more marginally in Karnataka and Goa and in some of the union territories like.
In Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, the Christians formed a significantly larger share of the population in 2011 than they did in 2001. In Arunachal, their share rose from 18.7% to 30.3%, while in Manipur it rose from 34% to 41.3%, which is just a little lower than the 41.4% share of population that Hindus have in the state.
The gender skew varies significantly between religious communities with the sex ratio (number of females for every 1,000 males) among Sikhs being as low as 903 and among Christians as high as 1,023, according to Census 2011 data released on Tuesday .
The good news is that compared to 2001, the sex ratio has improved in each of India's six largest religious groups, the most impressive improvement being among Muslims (from 936 to 951) and the lowest among Hindus (from 931 to 939).
A look at the state-wise data reveals however that cultural factors seem to have a much larger influence on the sex ratio than religious affiliation. Thus, even among the Christians, the sex ratio in Punjab is 913 and in Haryana 924 while being 1,051 in Kerala.
Similarly, among Hindus, most of the northwestern states have sub-900 sex ratios, in Kerala the ratio is even higher than for Christians at 1,077. Incidentally , the Muslim sex ratio in Kerala is 1,125. It is of course possible that these figures are to some extent also effected by predominantly male migration to the Gulf, but there clearly is a larger social context of sex selection at birth not being as prevalent in the state as in some parts of north India.
Another southern state which has in recent years been able to redress the gender balance to some extent, Tamil Nadu, exhibited a similar trend with sex ratios being in the high 900s or even over 1,000. Similarly, almost every religious group in Chhattisgarh has a higher sex ratio than its all-India average. This is in line with the trend of tribal societies tending to be less gender skewed.
In sharp contrast to this, in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, like in Punjab or Haryana, each religious community has a worse sex ratio than its all-India average. Given the fact that there is a substantial migration of males looking for jobs from these states, the actual gender skew is likely to be even worse than the data suggests.
What is clear, therefore, is that while religion may play some part in determining whether or not sex selection takes place and to what extent it does, the larger cultural mileu of a state or region seems
More religious minorities live in urban areas than rural
Subodh Varma
Religious minorities in In dia -with the exception of Sikhs -live more in urban areas than rural. This trend existed in previous Census findings too but it appears to have outpaced the general trend of urbanization between 2001 and 2011, according to the Census 2011 data on religious communities released on Tuesday .
While only 29% of Hindus live in urban areas, 40% of Muslims and Christians and a whopping 80% of Jains live in towns and cities. Over 43% of Buddhists, a large share of whom are converts from Dalit communities, live in urban areas. Sikhs, on the other hand, with extensive land holdings in Punjab are still largely a rural community , with only 28% of them living in urban areas. A mere 9% of other religious communities live in urban centers. Although details of smaller minority groups have not been released yet, Parsis are large ly concentrated in urban areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Other communities in this category include communities with animist and other tribal beliefs, many of which live in remote areas in the Northeast. Over 77% of the country's Buddhists live in Maharashtra -the heartland of Dalit conversion to Buddhism at the call of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. Almost half of this population resides in urban areas.
Urban India's population inched up from 28% in 2001 to 31% in 2011. Urban Hindu population followed this trend, increasing from 26% to 29%. But Muslim urban population rose from 36% to 40% and Christian urban dwellers increased from 34% to 40%.
In some states, such as Gujarat, the jump in Muslim urban population is significantly higher than others -from 59% in 2001 to over 65% in 2011. This migration to towns and cities could be linked with the 2002 communal conflagration in the state and the desire for security .
In Maharashtra, urban share of the Muslim population continues to be high at 73%, up from 70% in 2001. In West Bengal, which has the largest Muslim population in any state, the share of Muslims staying in urban areas was 22% up from 17%.
In another high Muslim population state Assam, only 8% of the Muslims stayed in towns and cities, but that follows the low urbanization rate of just 14% in the state.
Assam, where illegal immigration from Bangladesh has been a concern, continues to show demographic changes with the 2011 Census finding nine of its 27 districts to be Muslim-majority . Adding to six such districts listed in 2001 Census, the 2011 Census has shown Bongaigaon, Morigaon and Darrang to be Muslim-majority .
In 2001 Census, the districts in Assam with a larger Muslim population as compared to Hindus, were Barpeta, Dhubri, Karimganj, Goalpara, Hailakandi and Nagaon. Bongaigaon then had 38.5% Muslim population, Morigaon 47.6% and Darrang 35.5%.
As per 2011 Census, Dhubri has 15.5 lakh Muslims compared to 3.88 lakh Hindus, Goalpara has 5.8 lakh Muslims and 3.48 lakh Hindus, Nagaon 15.6 lakh Muslims and 12.2 lakh Hindus, Barpeta 11.98 lakh Muslims and 4.92 lakh Hindus, Morigaon 5.03 lakh Muslims and 4.51 lakh Hindus, Karimganj 6.9 lakh Muslims and 5.3 lakh Hindus, Hailakandi 3.97 lakh Muslims and 2.5 lakh Hindus, Bongaigaon 3.71 lakh Muslims and 3.59 lakh Hindus and Darrang 5.97 lakh Muslims and 3.27 lakh Hindus. Other districts with a significant share of Muslims are Cachar (6.5 lakh against 10.3 lakh Hindus), Kamrup (6.01 lakh Muslims against 8.77 Hindus) and Nalbari (2.77 lakh Muslims against 4.91 lakh Hindus).
In 1998, then governor of Assam S K Sinha had, in a report on illegal influx of Bangladeshi immigrants into Assam, warned that the “silent demographic invasion of Assam may result in the loss of the geostrategically vital districts of Lower Assam“.
