| "Statistics of Religion in India" |
| Religion in India is a way of life. Though Hinduism is the dominant religion, Indians have learned to co-exist with people of other faiths. The ancient shlokas of the Hindu prayers, the aazaans of the Muslim prayers, the gurvani of the Sikhs, chanting of the Buddhist monks fill the skies simultaneously. About 80 percent of the Indian people are Hindus, about 14 percent are Muslims. The next largest religious groups, are Christians (2.4%), Sikhs (2%), Buddhists (0.7%), Jains (0.5%) and the rest are Parsis and Jews. |
| Religion plays a vital role in the Indian way of life. Religious laws of the Hindus and Muslims govern the people's clothing, food, and marriage. They also strongly influence the type of occupation among persons who strictly follow the laws. Violence between Hindus and Muslims led to the division of India into three nations, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. |
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| Christians Muslims Hindus Non-religious Other religionists Chinese folk religionists Buddhists Ethnic religionists Atheists New-Religionists Sikhs Jews Spiritists Baha'is Confucianists Jains Shintoists Zoroastrians Mandeans |
| 1,999,560,000 1,182,242,000 811,337,000 768,158,000 771,841,000 384,807,000 359,981,000 228,366,000 150,089,000 102,356,000 23,259,000 14,433,000 12,335,000 7,107,000 6,299,000 4,218,000 2,762,000 2,544,000 39,000 |
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| Adherents of All Religions by Six Continental Areas Source: 2001 Encyclopedia Brittanica Book of the Year |
| Copyrights � 2003 Parsi Community of United States. All Rights Reserved. |
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