Religion in India


Religion in India is characterised by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices. Throughout India's history, religion has been an important part of the country's culture and the Indian subcontinent is the birthplace of four of the world's major religions, namely Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, which are collectively known as native Indian religions or Dharmic religions and represent approx. 83% of the total population of India.
India has the largest number of followers of Hinduism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and the Bahá'í Faith in the world. It further hosts the third most followers of Islam, behind Indonesia and Pakistan, and the ninth largest population of Buddhists.
The Preamble to the Constitution of India states that India is a secular state, and the Constitution of India has declared the right to freedom of religion to be a fundamental right.
According to the 2011 census, 79.8% of the population of India follows Hinduism, 14.2% Islam, 2.3% Christianity, 1.7% Sikhism, 0.7% Buddhism and 0.4% Jainism. Zoroastrianism, Sanamahism and Judaism also have an ancient history in India, and each has several thousands of Indian adherents. India has the largest population of people adhering to both Zoroastrianism and the Bahá'í Faith in the world; these religions are otherwise largely exclusive to their native Iran where they originated from. Several tribal religions are also present in India, such as Donyi-Polo, Sanamahism, Sarnaism, Niamtre, and others.

Constitutional status

The Constitution of India declares India to be a secular state with no state religion. The Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India enacted in 1976 asserts the Preamble to the Constitution of India as secular. The Supreme Court of India in the 1994 case S. R. Bommai v. Union of India established that India had been secular since the formation of the Republic on 26 January 1950. Secularism in India is understood to mean not a complete separation of religion from state, but a state that participates in a neutral manner in the affairs of all religious groups and as well as atheism while maintaining equidistance from all.
However, the original copy of the Indian constitution has an illustration of Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana in Part III on Fundamental Rights and Rama has been considered as the true guardian of people's rights. Article 48 of the Indian constitution prohibits the slaughter of cows or calves and the same is a criminal offence in most states of India.
Secularism is defined as a basic structure doctrine of the constitution through the argument of Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala case, that cannot be removed or amended by any means. However, there is no mention of the term “Basic Structure” anywhere in the Constitution of India. The idea that the Parliament cannot introduce laws that would amend the basic structure of the constitution have been evolved judicially over time and many cases.
The particular provisions regarding secularism and freedom of religion in India in the constitution are:
  • Article 14: grants equality before the law and equal protection of the laws to all.
  • Article 15: enlarges the concept of secularism to the widest possible extent by prohibiting discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
  • Article 25: Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of any religion.
  • Article 26: Freedom to manage religious affairs.
  • Article 27: Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion.
  • Article 28: Freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in certain educational institutions.
  • Articles 29 and 30: provide cultural and educational rights to the minorities.
  • Article 51A: i.e. Fundamental Duties obliges all the citizens to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood and to value and preserve the heritage of the country's composite diverse culture.

    History

Prehistoric religion

Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian "subcontinent" derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings depicting dances and rituals. Neolithic pastoralists inhabiting the Indus Valley buried their dead in a manner suggestive of spiritual practices that incorporated notions of an afterlife. Other South Asian Stone Age sites, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art portraying religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music.
File:Shiva_Pashupati.jpg|thumb|The Pashupati seal, discovered at the Indus Valley Civilization city of Mohenjo-daro

Indus Valley Civilization

The Harappan people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which lasted from 3300 to 1400 BCE and was centered on the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys, may have worshiped an important mother goddess symbolising fertility. Excavations of Indus Valley Civilisation sites show seals with animals and "fire‑altars", indicating rituals associated with fire. A Shivlinga of a type similar to that which is now worshiped by Hindus has also been found, however this interpretation has been disputed by Srinivasan.

Evolution of Hinduism

Hinduism is often regarded as the oldest surviving religion in the world, with roots tracing back to prehistoric times, over 5,000 years ago. Hinduism spread through parts of Southeastern Asia, China, and Afghanistan. Hindus worship a single divine entity with different forms.
File:Rigveda_MS2097.jpg|alt=|thumb|An early 19th century manuscript of the Rigveda written in Devanagari
Hinduism's origins include the cultural elements of the Indus Valley Civilisation along with other Indian civilisations. The oldest surviving text of Hinduism is the Rigveda, produced during the Vedic period and dating to 1700–1100 BCE. During the Epic and Puranic periods, the earliest versions of the epic poems, in their current form including Ramayana and Mahabharata were written roughly from 500 to 100 BCE, although these were orally transmitted through families for centuries prior to this period.
After 200 BCE, several schools of thought were formally codified in the Indian philosophy, including Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva-Mimamsa, and Vedanta.

Rise of Shramana religions

The Śramaṇa tradition includes Jainism, known endonymically as Jain Dharm, and Buddhism known endonymically as Bauddh Dharm, and others such as the Ājīvikas, Ajñanas, and others.
The historical roots of Jainism in India have been traced to the 9th century BCE with the rise of Parshvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankar, and his Jain philosophy, and to Mahavira, the 24th Jain Tirthankara. Jainism traces its roots further back to the first Tirthankara, Rishabhanatha. Mahavira stressed on the five vows.
Gautama Buddha, who founded Buddhism, was born to the Shakya clan just before Magadha rose to power. His family was native to the plains of Lumbini, in what is now southern Nepal. Indian Buddhism peaked during the reign of Ashoka the Great of the Mauryan Empire, who patronised Buddhism following his conversion and unified the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BCE. He sent missionaries abroad, allowing Buddhism to spread across Asia. Indian Buddhism declined following the loss of royal patronage offered by the Kushan Empire and such kingdoms as Magadha and Kosala.
The decline of Buddhism in India has been attributed to a variety of factors, which include the resurgence of Hinduism in the 10th and 11th centuries under Sankaracharya, the later Turkish invasion, the Buddhist focus on renunciation as opposed to familial values and private property, Hinduism's own use and appropriation of Buddhist and Jain ideals of renunciation and ahimsa, and others. Although Buddhism virtually disappeared from mainstream India by the 11th century CE, its presence remained and manifested itself through other movements such as the Bhakti tradition, Vaishnavism, and the Bauls of Bengal, who are influenced by the Sahajjyana form of Buddhism that was popular in Bengal during the Pala period.

Bhakti movement

During the 14th–17th centuries, when North India was under Muslim rule, the Bhakti movement swept through Central and Northern India. The Bhakti movement actually started in the eighth century in south India, and gradually spread northwards. It was initiated by a loosely associated group of teachers or saints. Dnyaneshwar, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Vallabhacharya, Surdas, Meera Bai, Kabir, Tulsidas, Ravidas, Namdeo, Eknath, Ramdas, Tukaram, and other mystics were some of the saints in the North. They taught that people could cast aside the heavy burdens of ritual and caste and the subtle complexities of philosophy, and simply express their overwhelming love for God. This period was also characterised by an abundance of devotional literature in vernacular prose and poetry in the ethnic languages of the various Indian states or provinces. The Bhakti movement gave rise to several different movements throughout India
During the Bhakti movement, many Hindu groups regarded as outside the traditional Hindu caste system followed Bhakti traditions by worshipping/following saints belonging to their respective communities. For example, Guru Ravidas was a Chamar of Uttar Pradesh; Guru Parsuram Ramnami was a Chura of Chhattisgarh, and Maharishi Ram Naval was a Bhangi of Rajasthan. In their lifetimes, several of these saints even went to the extent of fighting conversion from foreign missionaries, encouraging only Hinduism within their communities. In Assam for example, tribals were led by Gurudev Kalicharan Bramha of the Brahmo Samaj; in Nagaland by Kacha Naga; and in Central India by Birsa Munda, Hanuman Aaron, Jatra Bhagat, and Budhu Bhagat.

Kabir Sect

The Kabir Panth is a religious movement based on the teachings of the Indian poet saint Kabir.
Kabir sermonised a monotheism that appealed clearly to the poor and convinced them of their access to god with no liaison. He denied both Hinduism and Islam, as well as meaningless religious rituals, and condemned double standards. This infuriated the orthodox aristocracy. No one could frighten Kabir who was bold enough to stand up for himself and his beliefs.
The Kabir Panth considers Kabir as its principal guru or even as a divinity—truth incarnate. Kabir's influence is testimony to his massive authority, even for those whose beliefs and practices he condemned so unsparingly. For Sikhs he is a forerunner and converser of Nanak, the originating Sikh Guru. Muslims place him in Sufi lineages, and for Hindus he becomes a Vaishnavite with universalist leanings.