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Indian Religions
India is constitutionally a secular country, and the Indian government has no formal affiliation to any religion or religious sect. While the federal government generally respects this freedom in practice, state governments ruled by Hindu nationalist parties sometimes chose to support, overtly or covertly, their religion. Support for or against any religion is not mentioned in any Constitutional or legal documents. However, there are laws that deal specifically with certain religious communities and lay out rules involving practices like marriage and divorce. Examples include the Hindu Marriage Act, the Indian Christian Marriage Act, and the Muslim Personal Law (Shari’a) Application Act. There is a formal separation between religion and the state, although the government considers religious sensitivities before making any major decision that affects a religious group.
India’s second largest political party, the Bhāratīya Janǎtā Party (BJP), has an openly pro-Hindu agenda and has often faced accusations of supporting Hindu nationalist forces at the expense of people belonging to minority religions. The states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (BJP-led) and Tamil Nadu have all passed laws restricting religious conversions in order to prevent Dalits, Hindu untouchables, from converting to Buddhism, Christianity, and other Indian religions through increasingly popular mass conversion ceremonies. BJP-led Gujarat has reclassified Buddhism and Jainism as branches of the Hindu religion in an attempt to maintain the Hindu majority in that state.
The Indian government does not persecute outside religions, and religious proselytizing is generally legal. However, a couple of states have unsuccessfully attempted to bring in anti-conversion laws as a means to curb the practice. Conversion from religion to religion, especially from Hinduism to other religions, is a highly contentious issue in India. Christian missionaries have faced accusations of luring converts, especially the very poor, with promises of free healthcare services and education.
Foreign missionaries and evangelical groups can practice in the country, but they must register at the local police station before they can start their work. In addition, under the Foreigner’s Act, foreigners visiting the country on a tourist visa cannot indulge in religious preaching without obtaining permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs. However, foreign religious television channels can freely broadcast their programs in the country.
The possession and display of religious items and materials is legal, but the display of religious items offensive to another religious community is prohibited.
India is the birthplace of several major religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and a multitude of smaller religions. You can find most of the world’s other major religions practiced there in large numbers as well.
Hinduism, India’s predominant religion, claims a following of a little more than 80 percent of the country’s population. The Indian government tends to classify followers of indigenous tribal religions, who are usually animists, as Hindus, so this figure is somewhat inflated. The size of India’s Muslim population (about 13 percent of all citizens) is second only to the Muslim population of Indonesia and is larger than that of neighboring Islamic Pakistan. Christianity has a small following of the population, as does the Sikh religion. Other religions, such as Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Baha’i, have a combined following of just over 1 percent of the population.
