“The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.”
– Part III, Article 15 of the current Constitution of India – which came into force in the year 1950
India has one billion people. Thus, even the country’s minority religions can be big ones …
India has more than one billion people. Some even believe that it may have overtaken China as the most populous nation in the world. If not, it is easily still the second most populous. Thus, even the country’s minority religions can be big ones today. Hinduism, as you may know, is the largest religion in India today. Nearly 80% of the country are Hindus, according to an Indian census in 2011. The second largest religion in India today, as it turns out, is Islam. Nearly 15% of the country are Muslims. It would probably be even more, if you were to include nearby Pakistan and Bangladesh – both of which were once parts of British India, along with what is today “India.” If you do the math, these two religions alone would thus account for more than 90% of the current population of India. But what about the rest of the country? The third largest religion there is Christianity, with roughly 2% of the country. The influence of prior British colonization may help to explain this Christian segment somewhat. But here, I will be focusing on two lesser-known religions, whose very names are often unknown to many of my fellow Americans. Thus, in the interest of education, I would like to focus on Jainism and Sikhism, two of the important minority religions of India. I will start here by talking about Jainism.
Guru Nanak explaining Sikh teachings to Sadhus
Jainism is one of the world’s oldest religions, with about 4 or 5 million adherents
Jainism is one of the world’s oldest religions. The religion itself traces its first tirthankara (or “preacher of dharma”) to millions of years ago. But Pārśvanātha was the first of these tirthankaras to be acknowledged by others as possibly being a historical figure. That is, he seems to have been born in the ninth century BCE. Another important tirthankara was Mahavira, a contemporary of the Gautama Buddha. He lived in the sixth century BCE. The religion has three main pillars. One of these pillars is nonviolence (or ahiṃsā), which would later be shared by the Hindu leader Mahatma Gandhi. Another pillar is asceticism (or aparigraha), which involves a renunciation of nearly all physical pleasures. Ascetics can also be found in the history of Christianity, particularly in Catholicism. And the third of these pillars is “a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality” (or anekāntavāda), as Wikipedia puts it. Today, there are roughly four or five million Jains. Nearly all of them live in India, which has 4.5 million Jains. They seem to account for only 0.4% of the population of India. But, as mentioned earlier, even a minority of the massive population of India can still be a lot of people. Indeed, Jainism is still one of the 20 biggest religions in the world – and the seventh largest in India itself.
Dilwara Jain Temples
Sikhism is a somewhat younger religion, with about 25 to 30 million adherents
Sikhism is somewhat larger. This is all the more remarkable, given that it is a much younger religion – even younger than Islam. That is, Sikhism arose in the 15th century CE – remembered in Europe as a sort of transition period between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Sikhism arose in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. As Wikipedia puts it, “Sikhism developed from the spiritual teachings of Guru Nanak (1469–1539), the faith's first guru, and the nine Sikh gurus who succeeded him. The tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708), named the Guru Granth Sahib, which is the central religious scripture in Sikhism, as his successor. This brought the line of human gurus to a close. Sikhs regard the Guru Granth Sahib as the 11th and eternally living guru.” (Source: Their page on “Sikhism”) Sikhs also believe in meditation and faith in the one creator god. This monotheism, in and of itself, is quite different from the beliefs of Hinduism – which is sometimes said to believe in 330 million gods. Sikhs also believe in “the divine unity and equality of all humankind, engaging in selfless service to others (sevā), striving for justice for the benefit and prosperity of all (sarbat da bhala), and honest conduct and livelihood,” as this same page also puts it. Sikhs also believe in uncut hair for both men and women, which is part of why practicing Sikh males usually wear turbans. Sikhs also reject the idea that any one religion has a monopoly on absolute truth. This is why Sikhs do not usually proselytize, although they do welcome voluntary converts to their religion. There seem to be between 25 to 30 million Sikhs in the world today. Roughly 21 million of these Sikhs reside in India. They make up about 1.7% of the current population of India. This makes them more popular there than the tribal religions of India – and even more popular there than Buddhism. Buddhism is popular in many other places, but never really caught on in India. Sikhism thus seems to be one of the ten largest religions in the world – and the fourth largest in India itself.
The holiest shrine in Sikhism, located in the city of Amritsar, India
India has freedom of religion, which has been most helpful to its minority religions
The Preamble to the Constitution of India proclaims a number of things, but one of them is particularly relevant to our current subject. That is, the Constitution of India proclaims “liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship” (Source: Preamble). Thus, freedom of religion is much valued in modern India. In part, this was born of twentieth-century compromises between Hindus and Muslims, when India first became independent from the British Empire. (More about that here.) But it also had important consequences for Jains, Sikhs, and the other minority religions of India. It has allowed them to flourish, even if they remain relatively small in numbers. It seems likely that these religions will thus continue to be important forces there for years to come. One hopes that India will continue its respect for minority religious rights, and continually allow them to practice their religion in peace.
“Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.”
– Part III, Article 25 of the current Constitution of India – which came into force in the year 1950
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See also the audiobook series
Religions, Scriptures, and Spirituality
Others to be covered later
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