Pew: Religion in India

[Vinayaka]

"More than 70 years after India became free from colonial rule, Indians generally feel their country has lived up to one of its post-independence ideals: a society where followers of many religions can live and practice freely."

I find this surprising, since I often hear about strife between religions. Violence. Suppression of Hindus of Muslims. Bigotry. The problems between Muslims and Hindus doesn't seem to have subsided according to what I've read in the News. Recently, in fact, Hindus have passed new laws banning conversion to Islam, claiming that Muslims force Hindu women to convert when they marry.

It's the news. They write what they think (incorrectly or not) what people want to hear, and generally speaking, that would be the negative side. News is a business, making money. This part didn't surprise me at all, as I've travelled to India. So a single event in a billion events makes the news.

 

[sayak83]

I was surprised to see that only 40 % of Hindus believe in reincarnation.

It's not something people can directly experience.

"More than 70 years after India became free from colonial rule, Indians generally feel their country has lived up to one of its post-independence ideals: a society where followers of many religions can live and practice freely."

I find this surprising, since I often hear about strife between religions. Violence. Suppression of Hindus of Muslims. Bigotry. The problems between Muslims and Hindus doesn't seem to have subsided according to what I've read in the News. Recently, in fact, Hindus have passed new laws banning conversion to Islam, claiming that Muslims force Hindu women to convert when they marry.

You should note that there is strong disapproval of inter-religious marriage both among Hindus and Muslims as per data of the survey. So probably majority of both religions approve of this? Also forced conversion is banned.
On average around 15-20% of people of all religions and castes have said that they have personally experienced discrimination at some point in their lives. In some places the numbers are higher, like 40% in North-central India and similar numbers in the North-East. So while the majority of most groups and religions have no faced discrimination, some have, and often in larger number is some specific pockets. The news you hear come from these places and report some of these instances. They are true...but what they miss is the larger picture of usually peaceful co-existence.

 

[metis]

"More than 70 years after India became free from colonial rule, Indians generally feel their country has lived up to one of its post-independence ideals: a society where followers of many religions can live and practice freely."

I find this surprising, since I often hear about strife between religions. Violence. Suppression of Hindus of Muslims. Bigotry. The problems between Muslims and Hindus doesn't seem to have subsided according to what I've read in the News. Recently, in fact, Hindus have passed new laws banning conversion to Islam, claiming that Muslims force Hindu women to convert when they marry.

We should always remember that there are radicals within all religions. The man who had Gandhi murdered was from a radical Hindu group who believe Gandhi was too chummy with the Muslims. And in both Judaism and Christianity we've seem much the same.

As long as any religion contains human beings within it, there's going to be different elements, and not all of them are going to be nice. However, I'm not suggesting that we just tolerate them and do nothing to try and stop them from doing harm.