The Hindu : Front Page : Revised data shows drop in growth rate of Muslims

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 10, 2004

Front Page

Revised data shows drop in growth rate of Muslims

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 9. Criticised for its methodology that resulted in the reflection of a high growth rate of Muslim population in the country in the `First Report on Religion Data', the Office of the Census Commissioner today revised its data from 1971 onwards to establish a drop in the growth rate of the community over the last decade.

The new analysis has been made by excluding the population of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam; both of which were left out of the census exercise once each since Independence.

As per the ``adjusted data'', the growth rate of Hindus was 20 per cent in 1991-2001 and that of Muslims 29.3 per cent. Monday's report pegged the growth rate of Hindus for the last decade at 20.3 per cent against 25.1 per cent in 1981-91, and that of Muslims at 36 per cent compared to 34.5 per cent in 1981-91.

As per the readjustment, Hindus now constitute 81.4 per cent of the country's population and Muslims 12.4 per cent. If the population of J&K and Assam are factored in, Hindus make for 80.5 per cent of the population and Muslims 13.4 per cent. In the case of other religions, there is only a marginal difference of 0.1 percentage point in the proportion of those registered under ``Other Religions and Persuasions.''

Change in growth rate

However, the readjustment has affected the growth rate across the board with Christians coming down to 22.1 per cent from 22.6 per cent, Sikhs 16.9 per cent from 18.2 per cent, and Buddhists down to 23.2 per cent from 24.5 per cent. Only the growth rate of Jains remains unaffected at 26 per cent. Even in the case of `others...', it has gone up from 103.1 per cent to 111.3 per cent and that of those who did not state their religion from 75.1 per cent to 76.3 per cent.

The ``adjusted data'' was released after doubts were raised about pegging the growth rate of Muslims at 36 per cent in 1991-2001 without taking into account the fact that no census was conducted in Jammu and Kashmir in 1991. And, since Assam was left out of the census exercise in 1981, the data was reworked right back to the 1971 census to establish the proportion and growth rate based on the actual data gathered.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page