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Indian Population Statistics
In India Everyone Grows, Some Faster
By Ahtesham Qureshi, Hindustan Times
NEW DELHI: July 8: The population of Muslims in the country has shown
an overall growth of 32.76 per cent during the decade between 1981-1991
- which is higher than the average national population growth rate of
23.79 per cent. Muslims now comprise 12.12 per cent of the country's
total population of over 81.61 million.
The Hindus, on the other hand, registered a growth of 22.78 per
cent during that decade, and now constitute 82 per cent of India's total
population. The increase in the population of the Hindus varied from 8
per cent in Meghalaya to 73.34 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh.
These interesting figures have been brought out in the latest
report published by the Census Commissioner of India. The document
titled as "Paper 1 of 1995 -- Religion" gives a break up of the
country's population on the basis of religious faiths, listing six
major communities - Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Budhists and
Jains.
The just published report is a follow-up of the main census
figure of 1991.
The report, which also gives a state-wise break up of the
population of these six major communities, shows that the male-female
ratio among the Christians was on top of the list with 994 women for
every 1,000 men. The sex ratio among the Hindus was 925 females per
thousand males. The ratio of 930 women for every 1,000 Muslims
suggested that the general impression of polygamy as a common practice
in that community was not based on the facts. The sex ration among the
Sikhs was 1,000:888.
While Hindus constituted 76.35 per cent of the total urban
population, the overall proportion of the Muslims in the cities was
16.70 per cent, 2.85 for Christians while 1.75 per cent were Sikhs.
According to the census report on religions, the population of
Hindus showed a significant increase in the north-eastern states of
Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura, though for some inexplicable
reasons, it went down by 1.3 per cent in Mizoram during the decade of
1981-1991.
In Arunachal Pradesh, the population of Hindus went up from
184,732 in 1981 to 3,20,212 in 1991 -- an increase of 73.34 per cent.
While Hindus formed 37.04 per cent of the population, Christians were
now 10.29 per cent.
While in the country as a whole the population of Hindus showed
a marginal fall, from 83.09 per cent of the total population in 1981 to
82.41 a decade later, they were 89.14 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 82.42
per cent in Bihar, 89.48 per cent in Gujarat, 89.2 in Haryana, 95.9 in
Himachal Pradesh. 92.8 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, 81.12 per cent in
Maharashtra, 94.67 per cent in Orissa, 89 per cent in Rajasthan, 81.74
in U.P and 83.67 in Delhi.
In terms of percentage the population of the majority
community during the decade showed a marginal drop in Bihar and
Haryana.
Despite this, there was a general trend of increase in the
population of Hindus in almost all the states and Union Territories
during the decade. The Census Commissioner's report, however, did not
indicate the reason for increase or fall in population per centages.
So far as the Muslim population is concerned, the tables in the
document showed that the community formed 28.43 per cent of the total
population in Assam, followed by 23.61 per cent in W.Bengal, 23.33 in
Kerala, 17.33 per cent in U.P, 14.81 in Bihar, 11.64 per cent in
Karnataka, 9,67 per cent in Maharashtra and 8.91 per cent in Andhra
Pradesh. In Delhi, Muslims were only 9.44 per cent of the population.
