New Delhi: India belongs equally to all of its citizens, Hindu or otherwise, more than three-quarters of respondents to a countrywide survey by the Lokniti programme have said.
When asked if they thought India belongs equally to citizens of all religions or if it belongs to Hindus alone, 79% of Lokniti’s respondents choose the first option, while 11% chose the second. One in ten respondents did not indicate an opinion.
Lokniti found that more respondents between 18 and 25 years of age indicated a pluralist view (81%) than those aged 56 years and above (73%).
College-educated respondents had higher shares of those picking the pluralist option (83%) than respondents who did not go to school (72%).
Fewer Hindus picked the pluralist option (77%) than did Muslims (87%) or respondents of other minority religions (81%), while residents of towns were more likely (85%) than city-dwellers (84%) or those living in villages (76%) to indicate a pluralist view.
Lokniti is a program conducted by the Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. It conducted a pre-election survey between March 28 and April 8 among a total of 10,019 respondents spread across 100 assembly seats in 19 states.
The results of its survey are being published in The Hindu.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
