By Mubasshir Mushtaq

MUMBAI, India

The Hindu population in India has dropped to below 80 percent for the first time since the country’s independence in 1947, a newly released census has shown.

India on Tuesday released a 2011 census, compiled by the Registrar General of India , which showed that the Hindu population constituted 79.8 percent of the country’s total population while Muslims stood at 14.2 percent.

The census data on population by religious communities registered that the Hindu population dipped by 0.7 percentage point while the Muslim population increased by 0.8 percentage point from 2001 to 2011. 

However, community experts pointed to the gradual decline of growth ratio across all  the religious communities, especially among Muslims, the country’s largest minority which stood at 172.2 million in 2011.

“The Muslim population has indeed registered a growth of 24.6 percent in the 10-year period but their growth ratio witnessed the sharpest decline among all the religious communities,” political analyst Mustafa Khan told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday. 

“The total share of the Muslim population has increased but their growth ratio has fallen,” Khan said, adding that improving socio-economic conditions and increasing participation in higher education are the primary reasons that the community is witnessing lower fertility rates.

Khan said that the Hindu growth rate of population in the last decade fell by 3.1 percent while the Muslim community’s growth rate declined by 4.9 percent. 

According to the Census data, India had 966.3 million Hindus in 2011.

Author Subhas Gatade, who is considered an authority on right-wing Hindu movements in the country, regretted that the media focused on the Hindu population growing by 16.7 percent and the Muslim population by 24.6 percent.

“The regional media is sensationalizing this aspect of the religious data which is quite disturbing,” Gatade said, adding that the media should analyze the data with the “correct perspective” and not cater to right-wing groups who speculate that Muslims will be the biggest population by 2050.

“The general message seems to be that the Muslim population is going up and the Hindu population is going down,” Gatade said. 

“There has been a gradual decline in growth of population across all communities. But very few newspapers are focusing on the balanced picture,” Gatade said.

“The crux of the 2011 census is the closing gap between Hindu and Muslim growth rates,” Gatade said.

Religious-based population figures are considered quite sensitive in India where there can be a polarization along communal and caste lines. 

Other religious minorities, Christians and Sikhs make up 2.3 percent and 2.1 percent respectively out of India’s total of 1.2 billion people.