Hindu population grew by over 13 crore in 10 years

Increase in the number of Hindus during 2001-2011 was more than three-fold in comparison to the rise in the number of people from all other religions together, latest Census figures showed.

Hindus grew by 13.86 crore in 10 years while people from other religions together rose by only 4.20 crore, including Muslims who saw an increase of 3.40 crore.

Though the percentage or proportion of religion to total population shows that Hindus have marginally declined, the statistics may take the sting out of the campaign by right-wingers that the minorities, especially Muslims, were increasing their population unchecked.

Hindus and Muslims had the biggest increase in Uttar Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh, Hindu population rose by 2.53 crore to over 15.93 crore in 2011 compared to 2001 statistics. Muslims rose by 77 lakh in numbers to touch 3.84 crore.

In percentage terms, Hindu's proportion slided to 79.93 per cent in 2011 from 80.61 per cent while that of Muslims rose to 19.20 per cent from 18.49 per cent.

“It is said statistics conceal more than what they reveal. In general, these numbers show that there is nothing alarming as some section try to portray,” a senior Home Ministry official said.

For Hindus, the major increase was reported from Bihar (8.60 crore in 2011) where 1.7 crore were added to the community, which saw a 24.61 per cent rise.

Maharashtra was another prominent state where there was an increase of over 1.18 crore in Hindu population followed by Madhya Pradesh 1.1 crore, Rajasthan 1.05 crore and Gujarat 83.90 lakh.

Karnataka with a rise of 69.96 lakh and Andhra Pradesh with 69.87 lakh were other states that added substantially to the Hindu population of 96.66 crore in 2011 Census.For Muslims, Uttar Pradesh remained the biggest state in terms of increase followed by Bihar (38 lakh increase) and Maharashtra (27 lakh).

Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state, had an increase of 17.74 lakh in number of Muslims while there was a rise of 5.61 lakh in number of Hindus.