Claims by Hindu radicals that Christianity is growing rapidly in India because of illegal mass conversions have been exposed as myth by new census data.
The number of Christians in India in 2011 was measured at 27.8 million, a total of 2.3 per cent of the total population, which is lower than the last census in 2001. Growth rate of Christianity is 15.5 per cent compared with Hinduism, which has grown at a higher rate of 16.8 per cent.
The figures for 2011 released by the Census Registrar of India last week showed that Islamism is the biggest growth religion in the country. In total the percentage of Hindus in the country has fallen by 0.7 percentage points to 79.8 per cent (966.3 million).
India has seen a rise in violence and intimidation against Christians from Hindu radicals. Many states in the sub-continent have passed legislation specifically aimed to prevent people from converting to Christianity since the Hindu nationalist BJP party rose to power in 1998.
Earlier this week a Catholic bishop warned that law and order for Christians in the state of Madhya Pradesh had collapsed after two Protestant ministers were arrested on charges of conversion.
The census has seen a ramping up of rhetoric from hardline Hindu nationalists. Last week Pravin Togadia, the leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a hardline nationalist organisation with almost 7 million members, warned that the country was undergoing a “population jihad” in reference to the rise of Islamism. Claiming that Hindus were in danger of “extinction”, Mr Togadia called for legislation to limit the number of children Muslims can have.
Despite the figures, population experts have pointed out that that fertility rate has been falling faster among Muslims and growth rate among Muslims is the lowest.
On the other hand, the ratio of Christians has declined in as many as five states including the southern Kerala state. In the Christian heartland where the seeds of Christianity in India were sown by St Thomas the Apostle, it has come down from 19.1 per cent to 18.4 per cent of 33 million people. The Christian population ratio in Kerala, which was nearly 25 per cent in the 1960s, has been in steady decline.
"This [decline] is already affecting the bounty of vocations from here," Father Paul Thelakkat, editor of Satyadeepam, the Catholic English newspaper told thetablet.co.uk. Kerala accounts for nearly two thirds of the 150,000 priests and nuns in India.
Loading ...
