Hinduism

In recent weeks, protests in India over Muslim headscarves in schools have gained international attention.

To highlight some of India’s religious, cultural and demographic differences, here are key facts about its states.

Pew Research Center’s political typology sorts Americans into cohesive, like-minded groups based on their values, beliefs, and views about politics and the political system. Use this tool to compare the groups on some key topics and their demographics.

Religious pluralism has long been a core value in India. A new report shows that India’s religious composition has been fairly stable since 1951.

All major religious groups in India have shown sharp declines in their fertility rates, limiting change in the country’s religious composition since 1951. Meanwhile, fertility differences between India’s religious groups are generally much smaller than they used to be.

Hindus were the religious group most likely to say they voted for the BJP in India’s most recent parliamentary election.

Nearly two-thirds of Hindus (64%) in India say it is very important to be Hindu to be truly Indian, our survey found.

Among India’s six largest religious groups, some are much more likely than others to abstain from eating meat.

Just about a third of Indian adults (35%) say they ever practice yoga, including 22% who say they do so monthly or less.

Our new survey of 29,999 Indian adults takes a closer look at religious identity, nationalism and tolerance in Indian society.