The Changing numbers of Other Religions and Persuasions (ORPs)
In our previous post on the religious demography of Jharkhand, we have noticed that the ORPs in that State are a significant player in the contention for demographic space that is occurring between different communities almost everywhere in India. The main players are, of course, the Hindus, the Muslims and the Christians. But, the Sikhs, the Jains, the Buddhists and the ORPs add complexity to the situation; and, like the changing numbers of Hindus, Muslims and Christians, any sharp changes in their numbers in different regions also has important sociological, political and strategic consequences. Before continuing with the larger story of the relative growth of Hindus, Muslims and Christians in different parts of India, we discuss the details of the changing religious profile of these less numerous communities in this and the following post. We begin with the ORPs.
Five
major religions and others
The Census of India compiles
numbers for five major religious communities: Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs,
Jains and Buddhists. Persons belonging to religions other than these five are added
together under the category of Other Religions and Persuasions (ORPs). In
addition, there is also the category of ‘Religion Not Stated (RNS)’.
The details of the relatively
less numerous religions added together in the category of ORPs are compiled and
published separately in an Appendix to the main Religion Tables. Hindus,
Muslims, Christians, etc., themselves are also composite categories; people
tend to belong to many sects and beliefs within these wider categories. Numbers
of the followers of these diverse sects and beliefs are also recorded and
tabulated in an Annexure to the main Religion Tables.
Religious
Demography of India, 2001-2011
|
|||||
Population in ’000s
|
Share in Percent
|
Decadal
Growth %
|
|||
2011
|
2001
|
2011
|
2001
|
||
Total
|
1,210,855
|
1,028,610
|
100.00
|
100.00
|
17.72
|
Hindus
|
966,257
|
827,579
|
79.80
|
80.46
|
16.76
|
Muslims
|
172,245
|
138,188
|
14.23
|
13.43
|
24.65
|
Christians
|
27,820
|
24,080
|
2.30
|
2.34
|
15.53
|
Sikhs
|
20,833
|
19,216
|
1.72
|
1.87
|
8.42
|
Jains
|
8,443
|
7,955
|
0.70
|
0.77
|
6.13
|
Buddhists
|
4,452
|
4,225
|
0.37
|
0.41
|
5.37
|
ORPs
|
7,938
|
6,640
|
0.66
|
0.65
|
19.55
|
RNS
|
2,867
|
728
|
0.24
|
0.07
|
294.08
|
In the Table here we give the
numbers counted in the seven categories of the main Religion Tables for 2001 and
2011. More than 96% of the Indians belong to one of the three largest
religions: Hindu, Muslim and Christian. Of the total population of 121 crore in
2011, nearly 117 crore is accounted for by these three. Of the rest, about 2
crore are Sikhs, 84 lakh Buddhists, 44 lakh Jains and 79 lakh ORPs. The numbers
counted under RNS used to be fairly small; in 2011 it has suddenly increased to
about 29 lakhs; this needs to be looked into it.
Though the population of
persons belonging to religions other than Hindu, Muslim and Christian is small,
yet their numbers can be fairly significant and the changes in their relative
presence quite consequential in some parts of the country. As seen in the Table
above, between 2001 and 2011, the Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists have all grown at
a much slower pace than the total population and their relative share in the
population of India has declined. The ORPs have, however, grown at a somewhat
higher rate than the Indian average and there has been a slight rise in their
share. In the following, we discuss the demographic progression of the ORPs
since Independence; we shall give detailed data about the Sikhs, Jains and
Buddhists later.
Background
of the ORPs category
As we have noted, ORPs is a
Census category that encompasses persons belonging to religions other than the
five major religions—Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist—whose
numbers are compiled in the main Religion Tables.
Number and Share of
ORPs 1951-2011
|
|||
Census Year
|
Persons
in ’000s
|
Percent
Share
|
Decadal
Growth %
|
1951
|
1,848
|
0.52
|
—
|
1961
|
1,607
|
0.37
|
-13.04
|
1971
|
2,185
|
0.40
|
35.97
|
1981
|
2,766
|
0.42
|
26.59
|
1991
|
3,269
|
0.39
|
18.19
|
2001
|
6,639
|
0.65
|
103.09
|
2011
|
7,938
|
0.66
|
19.57
|
In the pre-Independence times,
numbers for the Parsis, Jews and the so-called Tribal Religions, also referred
to as Animists in the earlier Censuses, were also separately tabulated. The
last was a very ambiguous category; in each of the pre-Independence Census
Reports, the then British Census Superintendents engaged in extensive anthropological
discussion about the meaning of ‘Tribal’ or ‘Animist’ and went through great intellectual
contortions to separate these religions from the underlying and overarching
Hindu religion. But they were unable to find a satisfactory definition and the instructions
to the enumerators in this regard had to be changed in almost every Census.
After Independence, persons
belonging to religious other than the main five are tabulated together under
the category of Other Religions and Persuasions, ORPs. The category includes a
large number of local religious practices prevalent mainly in States and
districts with considerable presence of Janjati (Tribal) communities. It also
includes some relatively small religious communities of adherents of religions
of foreign origin, like the Jews, the Parsis and Bahais, etc. In addition, some
rather small communities like the Nirankaris and Ausho Commune International
also have managed to find a place in this category as distinct religious
persuasions. As we shall see below, a large majority of the persons counted
among ORPs are in fact followers of a handful of religious practices prevalent
in specific Janjati areas.
Number
and Share of ORPs
The number and share of ORPs
in India was fairly small up to 1991. Their number, however, more than doubled
during 1991-2001; the increase in the last decade of 2001-2011 has, however,
been modest and in line with their growth in the earlier decades. This
moderation of the trend of rapid growth of ORPs is one of the more significant
features of the religious demographic data of 2011 and is perhaps another
indicator of the noticeable resurgence in the Hindu numbers in several parts of
India that we have been noticing.
Distribution
of ORPs
Distribution of ORPs across different States
of India, 1991-2011
|
|||||||
Number of ORPs
|
Percent Share
|
||||||
2011
|
2001
|
1991
|
2011
|
2001
|
1991
|
||
INDIA
|
79,37,734
|
66,39,626
|
32,69,355
|
0.66
|
0.65
|
0.39
|
|
Jharkhand
|
42,35,786
|
35,14,472
|
14,39,066
|
12.84
|
13.04
|
6.59
|
|
West
Bengal
|
9,42,297
|
8,95,796
|
4,52,403
|
1.03
|
1.12
|
0.66
|
|
Odisha
|
4,78,317
|
3,61,981
|
3,97,798
|
1.14
|
0.98
|
1.26
|
|
Madhya
P
|
5,99,594
|
4,09,285
|
45,087
|
0.83
|
0.68
|
0.09
|
|
Chhattisgarh
|
4,94,594
|
95,187
|
17,370
|
1.94
|
0.46
|
0.10
|
|
Maharashtra
|
1,78,965
|
2,36,841
|
99,768
|
0.16
|
0.24
|
0.13
|
|
Arunachal
P
|
3,62,553
|
3,37,399
|
3,13,118
|
26.20
|
30.73
|
36.21
|
|
Manipur
|
2,33,767
|
2,35,280
|
14,066
|
8.19
|
10.86
|
0.76
|
|
Meghalaya
|
2,58,271
|
2,67,245
|
2,98,466
|
8.71
|
11.53
|
16.81
|
|
A
large majority of the ORPs in India are concentrated in just 9 States of India
listed in the Table above. Of the total 77.9 lakh persons counted in the
category of ORPs in 2011, 77.8 lakhs are in these States, and 42.4 lakhs of
them are in Jharkhand alone.
Within
these 9 States, the ORPs are concentrated further in a few districts.
Consequently, we get 3 distinct clusters of ORP concentration comprising of several
contiguous districts of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha in the east; of some
contiguous districts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra in the centre;
and, of much of Arunachal Pradesh and some parts of Meghalaya and Manipur in
the northeast. These 3 clusters of ORPs are clearly visible in the Map VII-A
below, which gives the distribution of ORPs in the districts of India.
Jharkhand-West Bengal-Odisha region
We
have seen earlier that the ORPs in Jharkhand are concentrated in Singhbhum and in
parts of Ranchi region. In West Bengal, they are concentrated in Bankura,
Puruliya and Pashchimi Medinipur districts east of the Singhbhum region; of 9.42
lakh ORPs in the State, 7.54 lakh are in these 3 districts. Of 4.78 lakh ORPs
in Odisha, 3.52 lakhs are in Mayurbhanj and another 0.90 lakhs in Sundargarh.
Both these districts adjoin Singhbhum and Ranchi regions of Jharkhand. The
considerable increase in the share of ORPs in the population of Odisha is
largely because of the sudden rise in the number of ORPs in Sundargarh, from
21.4 thousand in 2001 to 90 thousand in 2011; the proportion of Hindus in that
district has therefore declined from 78.2 to 73.2 percent. Overall proportion
of ORPs in this cluster, however, has remained unchanged.
Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra
region
In this
region, there was a great rise in the numbers of ORPs between 1991 and 2001; in
that decade, their number went up from 45 thousand to 4 lakhs in Madhya
Pradesh, from 17 thousand to 95 thousand in Chhattisgarh and from about 1 to
2.4 lakhs in Maharashtra. During 2001-11, the number of ORPs has increased again
from 4 to 6 lakhs in Madhya Pradesh; and, it has increased phenomenally from
about a lakh to nearly 5 lakhs in Chhattisgarh. In Maharashtra, however, their number
has declined from 2.4 to 1.8 lakhs.
In
2001, ORPs in this region were concentrated largely in Dindori, Mandala, Seoni
and Balaghat of Madhya Pradesh; Kawardha, Bilaspur and Korba, and to a small
extent in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh; and, in Gondiya, Gadhchiroli,
Bhandara, Chandrapur, Nagpur and Yavatmal of Maharashtra. These districts form
a contiguous region extending across the three States in the central part of
India. In addition, there was considerable presence of ORPs in Mumbai and Pune
in the western part of Maharashtra.
In
Madhya Pradesh, the number of ORPs in Dindori, Mandala, Seoni and Balaghat has
increased from about 3.60 to about 4.48 lakhs now; the proportion of ORPs in
Dindori has declined considerably, but there has been a larger increase in
Mandala. Chhindwara in the same region has now acquired more than 25 thousand
ORPs compared to only about 4 thousand in 2001. In addition, there are now
about 80 thousand ORPs in Shahdol, Umaria, Anuppur, Sidhi and Singrauli region
where there were only about 20 thousand in 2001. The ORP presence has expanded
to several other areas like Betul, Satna and Katni. The proportion of ORPs has
also increased slightly in Jabalpur; this district accounts for another about
20 thousand ORPs. Thus, in Madhya Pradesh, the area of ORP influence in the
southeastern part of the State has clearly expanded beyond the few districts of
2001; within this region, there has been much change in the proportion of ORPs
from district to district, though overall the ORPs have registered a considerably
high growth.
In
Chhattisgarh, the growth of ORPs has been much sharper than in Madhya Pradesh;
here the footprint of ORPs seems to have spread to almost all districts of the
State as may be seen in Map VII-A above. The proportion of ORPs in the State as
a whole has risen from 0.46 to 1.48 percent, leading to a nearly similar
decline in the proportion of Hindus. The rise in the presence of ORPs has been
particularly remarkable in Kanker (Uttar Bastar) and Bastar districts; there
were only about 7 thousand ORPs in these two districts in 2001, their number in
2011 is 1.93 lakhs. In Kanker, the proportion of ORPs has increased by as much as
13.24 percentage points and that of Hindus has declined by 13.61 percentage
points; in Bastar, the share of ORPs has increased by 6.02 percentage points
and that of Hindus has declined by 6.59 percentage points.
In
the Kawardha-Bilaspur-Korba region, where the presence of ORPs had become the
most marked in 2001, their share in 2011 has increased considerably and has
spread further to Rajnandgaon and Durg. In Rajnandngaon, the share of ORPs has
risen by 4.21 percentage points from less than 0.2 percent in 2001; the share
of Hindus in the district has correspondingly declined by 3.67 percentage
points.
The
presence of ORPs has also expanded to Koriya, Sarguja, Jashpur region in the northern
part of Chhattisgarh. In each of these 3 districts, the share of ORPs has
increased by about 1.7 percentage points and there has been a considerable
decline in the Hindu share. This region adjoins Shahdol-Umaria-Anuppur region
of Madhya Pradesh; ass we have seen, the presence of ORPs has considerably
increased in this region also.
Chhattisgarh,
along with the neighbouring districts of Madhya Pradesh, thus seems to have
experienced an unusual and widespread growth of the ORPs and a corresponding
contraction of the Hindus.
In
the adjoining districts of Maharashtra, on the other hand, the share of ORPs
has declined and their presence seems to have gotten restricted to fewer
districts. In fact, the share of ORPs has either declined or remained nearly
unchanged in all districts of the State. The largest decline, however, has
occurred in Gadhchiroli, where their share of 4.62 percent in 2001 was the
highest in the State; in 2011, it has declined to 2.80 percent.
This
rise of ORPs in some districts and some parts of central India, and the decline
in others, is obviously an indicator of the dynamic nature of religious
demography in many parts of India. This dynamism has little to do with the
demographic parameters of fertility, mortality and migration, etc., and seem
related to socio-political factors, which need to be studied and understood.
ORPs in the Northeast Region
As
seen in the Table above, the proportion of ORPs in Arunachal Pradesh has
declined considerably during 2001-2011; this decline comes on top of an even
larger decline during 1991-2001. The decline is a consequence of the
large-scale conversion of tribal communities to Christianity. Arunachal Pradesh
is going through this process since 1981; Nagaland, Mizoram, etc., have passed
through the same phenomenon earlier; there nearly the entire populations have
been converted and the share of ORPs has become negligible.
There
is a decline in the share of ORPs in Meghalaya similar to Arunachal Pradesh.
This too is because some of the tribal communities in certain districts of
Meghalaya have not been yet fully converted; their share in the population,
however, is declining from decade to decade, as that of the Christians has been
rising.
The
situation of Manipur is, however, different. The tribal communities of Manipur,
inhabiting the hill districts, have already been converted to Christianity and
there are few ORPs among the Scheduled Tribes now. The share of ORPs there was
negligibly small in 1991. In 2001, a considerable number of the Meiteis of the
plains districts of Manipur chose to get counted as adherents of Sanamahi, and
this suddenly increased the share of ORPs in Manipur to 10.86 percent. In 2011,
the vigour of that movement among the Meiteis seems to have waned and the
proportion of ORPs has somewhat declined in the State and in all of the four
plains districts of Bihunpur, Thoubal, Imphal West and Imphal East, where their
presence had increased suddenly in 2001.
The Religions and Persuasions counted
among the ORPs
The Six
Larger ORPs, 2001
|
|
Total ORPs
|
66,39,626
|
Sarna
|
40,75,246
|
Sari Dharma
|
6,38,266
|
Gond/Gondi
|
5,86,723
|
Doni Polo/Sidonyi Polo
|
3,02,928
|
Sanamahi
|
2,23,742
|
Khasi
|
1,22,694
|
The
Census category of ORPs includes, as we have seen, several religious practices.
The Census also publishes detailed district-wise data for each of the
individual religions and persuasions included in the ORPs. Such data has not
been published yet for the Census of 2011. According to the disaggregated data
of 2001, there are a total of 108 religions and persuasions included among the
ORPs. Many of these have only a few adherents; 62 have less than a thousand
followers and another 32 have between one to ten thousand followers. Only 6 of these religions and persuasions have
more than a lakh of adherents; these six account for 59.5 lakhs of the total
66.4 lakh ORPs counted in 2001.
Sarna of Jharkhand and Odisha
The
largest among these is Sarna. Of 66.4 lakh ORPs in 2001, 40.8 lakhs are Sarnas.
And of them, 34.5 lakhs are in Jharkhand and 3.5 lakhs in of Odisha; of the
latter 3.3 lakhs are in Mayurbhanj alone. Nearly all of the ORPs of Jharkhand
and Odisha are Sarnas.
Sari Dharma of West Bengal
Of
the ORPs, Sari Dharma is the second largest. In 2001, there are 6.38 lakh
followers of Sari Dharma; of these 6.37 lakhs are in West Bengal, 5.52 lakhs in
Bankura, Puruliya and Medinipur districts and the most of the remaining in
Hugli and Barddhaman.
Gond/Gondi of Central India
Gond/Gondi
form the third largest group among the ORPs. Of 5.87 lakh Gonds/Gondis counted
in 2001, 4.00 lakhs are in Madhya Pradesh, 0.89 lakhs in Chhattisgarh and 0.84
lakhs in Maharashtra.
Doni Polo of Arunachal P, Khasi of
Meghalaya and Sanamahi of Manipur
Of
3.02 lakh adherents of Doni Polo or Sidonyi Polo counted in 2001, 3 lakhs are
in Arunachal Pradesh. Of 2.24 lakh Sanamahis, 2.22 lakhs are in Manipur; and of
1.23 lakh Khasis, nearly all are in Meghalaya; of the latter 1.09 lakhs are in
East Khasi Hills district. Besides the Khasis, there are 49.6 thousand
Songsarek among the ORPs in Meghalaya; the latter are almost all in the Garo
Hills and they are concentrated particularly in West Garo Hills district.
Major practices listed under ORPs are
local rather than tribal
Thus,
the main religions counted under ORPs are practices prevalent in geographically
limited regions that often have a considerable population of the Scheduled
Tribes. But these religions and persuasions are not exclusive to the Scheduled
Tribes. The Sanmahi adherents of Manipur are mostly the non-tribal Meiteis. Even
a practice like Sarna, which prevails mainly in the Schedule Tribes of Jharkhand
and the adjoining districts of Odisha, has considerable following among the
non-tribal people of that region. According to the published data of Census
2001, of 34.5 lakh Sarnas in Jharkhand, only 31.4 lakh are from the Scheduled
Tribes, and there are more than 3 lakh non-tribal adherents of Sarna practice. There
would also be many non-tribal persons who follow the Sarna practices, but
continue to think of themselves as Hindus and have been recorded as such in the
Census. Conversely, there are more than 28 lakh tribal persons who continue to
get counted as Hindus notwithstanding the large-scale prevalence of Sarna in
the region.
Rise in the number of particular ORPs
follows socio-political movements
The sudden
growth in the numbers of persons following particular faiths and practices in
certain regions seem to be the result of systematic and intense campaigns among
the followers of those local practices to get them counted as other than Hindu.
Some of these movements, like those of Sanamahis in Manipur and of Gonds/Gondis
in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, are quite recent. Others, like that of
Sarnas in Jharkhand and Sari Dharma in West Bengal, have a longer history and
seem to have run their course.
When
the vigour of a campaign wanes, the numbers sometimes can decline sharply. For
example, in 2001, the number of ORPs in Karnataka had suddenly risen to 1.15
lakhs from almost nothing; in 2011, that number has declined to about 11
thousand.
Many
of the ORP campaigns and movements have been particularly strong in regions
that have significant Christian evangelical activity. During 2001-2011, there
has also been a significant rise in the share of ORPs in the particularly
disturbed region of Bastar.
Most of the ORPs are probably sects and
practices within Hinduism
Besides
the locality specific religions that we have discussed above, the ORPs also
includes Parsis and Jews; in 2001, their total number was 69,601 and 4,650,
respectively. There were also 11,324 Bahais among the ORPs in 2001. These, of
course, are separate religions of non-Indian origin. But before closing this
discussion of the ORPs, we must ask whether religious practices like that of
the Sarnas, Sari Dharmis, Gonds or Doni Polos, etc., are to be seen as distinct
religions and persuasions outside Hinduism or as sects and practices within the
larger Hindu fold. The Census counts large groups that follow distinct
religious practices, like the Lingayats of Karnataka, as sects of Hindus. The
Census also counts several other distinct religious practices as sects of Islam
or Christianity. Could some of the Other Religions and Persuasions be treated
similarly?
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