Freely accessible, the paper draws on a dataset, Religious Characteristics of States Dataset, 2017 (RCS-Dem), where two U.S.-affiliated researchers have compiled an extensive dataset of religio-demographic changes in 167 countries. Muslim proportion meanwhile has risen from 9.84% to 14%. They note that the Indian experience, vis-à-vis the proportional decline of Hindus, is unexceptional in the light of broad trends globally. That the rise in Muslim numbers proved media reports and UN human rights reports (which they cite) of discrimination and violence against Muslims in India were false. They single out Pakistan and Bangladesh to underline that “demographic shocks” reduced the proportion of the largest minorities, Hindus, there.

Source: The Hindu May 13, 2024 07:22 UTC