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Indians value religious tolerance, practise segregation: Survey
Pew said the survey was conducted among 30,000 Indians through face-to-face interviews in 17 languages in late 2019 and the beginning of 2020.
Most Indians - Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Sikhs and others - say they are free to practise their religion and that they consider respect for other religions is “very important” to their own respective faiths and being truly Indian, according to a new poll by Pew Research Center released on Tuesday.
The survey also found that members of most major religions - especially Hindus and Muslims - call themselves “very different” from people of other faiths and disapprove of inter-faith marriages, and “overwhelmingly” make friends within their respective religious communities.
The survey also found that for a majority of Hindus their religious identify is “closely intertwined” with their perception who is “truly” Indian - 64% say it is very important to be Hindu to be “truly” Indian. And most Hindus - 59% - also believe that Indians should be able to speak Hindi.
Pew said the survey was conducted among 30,000 Indians through face-to-face interviews in 17 languages in late 2019 and the beginning of 2020, a period marked by escalation in sectarian tension over the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the revocation of the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority erstwhile state.
“While people in some countries may aspire to create a ‘melting pot’ of different religious identities, many Indians seem to prefer a country more like a patchwork fabric, with clear lines between groups,” the report said.
But, first, what unites Indians. Most of them agree they are free to practise their faith - 91% Hindus, 89% Muslims and Christians, 82% of Sikhs, 93% of Buddhists and 85% of Jains; 85% of Hindus, 78% of Muslims and Christians, 81% of Sikhs, 84% of Buddhists and 83% of Jains said respect for other religions is “very important” to being “truly Indian; and 80%, 79%, 78, 75%, 86% and 73% of the six faiths say respect for other religions is a very important part of their religious identify.
There is more that they agree on - 77% of Hindus believe in karma, as do Muslims; a third of Christians and a majority of Hindus believe in the purifying powers of Ganga; and in northern India the survey found that 12% of Hindus and 10% of Sikhs, and 37% of Muslims identity with Sufism.
Now, what sets them apart, according to the Pew survey. Most Hindus - 66% - believe they are very different from Muslims, and Muslims nearly reciprocated that with 64% of them saying they consider themselves very different from Hindus. Two-third of Jains and half of Sikhs, however, say they have a lot in common with Hindus.
Difference in self-perception among Hindus and Muslims manifests in opposition to inter-faith marriage. Roughly, two-thirds of Hindus in India want to prevent inter-religious marriages of Hindu women (67%) or Hindu men (65%), the survey said. It was also found that larger shares of Muslims feel similarly - 80% say it is very important to prevent Muslim women from marrying outside, and 76% say it is very important to stop Muslim men from doing so.
A majority of those polled say their close friends are from the same religious group - 86% of Indians overall, 86% of Hindus, 88% of Muslims, 80% of Sikhs, and 72% of Jain. But Hindus were divided on who they preferred as neighbours - 45% said they were fine with anyone, 45% said they will not be willing to accept members of at least one of the religions as neighbours, mostly, 39% Muslims.
