By Time team
A working paper from an independent body that gives economic advice to the Indian government has published controversial findings that critics say could sow communal discord between Hindus and Muslims during the ongoing parliamentary elections.
The paper, titled “Share of religious minorities: A cross-country analysis,” was published on May 7 by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). It found that between 1950 and 2015, India’s Hindu population declined by 7.82%, while the Muslim population increased by 43.15% at the same time. Currently, Hindus make up nearly 80% of India’s 1.4 billion population, while Muslims make up 14%, according to Pew Research Center data from 2021.
The EAC-PM paper also found that the share of other religious minorities like Christians and Buddhists (but excluding Parsis and Jains) rose by up to 6.58% in the 65-year timeframe.
Authored by experts Shamika Ravi, Abraham Jose, and Apurv Kumar Mishra, the paper aimed to look at how religious composition has evolved across the globe over the past several decades. Using population data from 167 countries, it concluded that there was a dip in the majority religious population not only across India but also notably in Europe. Within South Asia—in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives—it found that the share of the majority religious denomination had decreased in four countries and increased in five.
The study also stated that it was “agnostic to the underlying causes of such demographic change,” concluding that “minorities are not just protected but thriving in India”—an observation that stands in stark contrast to concerns raised over India’s religious freedom in recent years by international human rights groups and the U.S. Department of Justice.
This story was originally published in time.com. Read the full story here.
