Amid controversy in several states regarding conversion, a recent survey has found that religious change has the least impact on the size of religious groups.
This comes as a new Pew Research Center report conducted a face-to-face survey of 29,999 Indian adults in late 2019 and early 2020 – ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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About 98 percent of the respondents in the survey, which was conducted by local interviewers in 17 languages and covered almost all the states and union territories of India, used the same method to identify their current religion and their childhood religion. responded to.
religious switching rate
The survey found an overall pattern of stability on the part of religious groups with little net change in or out of most religious groups from the movement.
For example, among Hindus, any out-group conversion is matched with an in-group conversion. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 0.7% of respondents said they were Hindu but now identified as something else and about 0.8% reported that they were not Hindu but now identify as Hindu.
In other words, Hindus have gained as many people as they have lost by conversion.
Religious change was the same for Muslims. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 0.3% of respondents say they were Muslim but now identify as something else, and roughly the same percentage say they were not raised because Muslims now identify as Muslims. .
However, the survey found that for Christians there was some net benefit from conversion. About 0.4% of the respondents are former Hindus who now identify themselves as Christians, while 0.1% were Christians who have abandoned their childhood religion.
The survey, which took a closer look at religious identity, nationalism and tolerance in Indian society, found that religious conversion is rare in India to the extent that it is.
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