Those converted in India are mostly Hindus : ‘Pew Research Centre’ Survey

  • Percentage of Hindus converting to Christianity is the highest
  • Majority of the converted Hindus are from South India
  • Half of the converted Hindus belong to the Scheduled Castes
  • The Central Government should enforce Anti-Conversion law now that these alarming figures have come up from the survey. Hindu organisations must create pressure for the same.
  • Christian missionaries are working in India only for the conversion of Hindus under the guise of social service. Clearly, they do not have any purpose beyond that. Will the so-called secularists and rationalists utter a word of protest over this ?
  • As the survey is conducted by an American organisation, hopefully, anti-Hindu parties and organisations will not accuse Hindu organisations of any conspiracy.
Representative image

Washington (US) – According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Centre of various religions in India, the majority of those who converted were Hindus. Among the converted Hindus, the majority became Christians. Three-quarters of India’s Hindus who converted to Christianity (74%) are in the Southern part of the country – the region with the largest Christian population. Most former Hindus who are now Christian are from Scheduled Castes (48%), Scheduled Tribes (14%) or Other Backward Classes (26%). Converted Hindus, especially the schedule castes, say that there was a lot of discrimination against lower castes in India.

Inappropriate for Hindu girls to marry into other religions

According to the survey, Hindus in India do not want their daughters to marry outside their religion. Roughly two-thirds of Hindus in India want to prevent inter-religious marriages of Hindu women (67%) or Hindu men (65%). Even larger shares of Muslims feel similarly; 80% say it is very important to stop Muslim women from marrying outside their religion, and 76% say it is very important to stop Muslim men from doing so.

One who eats beef and does not visit a temple
cannot be considered a Hindu

Nearly two-thirds of Hindus (64%) say it is very important to be a Hindu for being ‘truly’ Indian. Among them, 80% also say it is very important to speak Hindi to be truly Indian.

Among Hindus, those in the South (42%) are far less likely than those in Central States (83%) or the North (69%) to say being a Hindu is very important to be truly Indian. 72% of Hindus in India said a person who eats beef cannot be a Hindu. 49% of Hindus said a person cannot be Hindu if they reject belief in God. 48% of Hindus said a person cannot be Hindu if he does not go to a temple.

 


Some of the important points from the report published by Pew Research Centre

1. This Survey of religions across India, finds that Indians of all these religious backgrounds overwhelmingly say they are very free to practice their faiths.

2. 84% of the people consider themselves as true Indians and respect all religions. 78% of Muslim respondents said the same. (Why is the number of Muslims less in respecting all religions ? – Editor)

3. For friendship, every believer prefers a person of his own religion.

4. Three-quarters of Muslims (74%) support having access to the existing system of Islamic courts (Sharia court). Since 1937, India’s Muslims have had the option of resolving family and inheritance-related cases in officially recognised Sharia courts. (Uniform Civil Code is needed to put an end to Sharia courts. – Editor)

5. Nearly half of Muslims say Partition of India hurt communal relations with Hindus (48%), while 37% Hindus and 66% Sikhs regard Partition as the friction point between Hindu-Muslim relations.