India’s Hindus have dropped below 80 per cent of the population for the first time since independence and media had speculated the previous government deliberately delayed the release of the data because it showed a rise in the Muslim population. Members of Hindu Nationalist Party, which swept to power, last year, have expressed growing concern about the rising numbers of Muslims.

The census data shows that Hindus declined to 79.8 per cent of the country’s 1.2 billion people in 2011, from 80.5 per cent a decade earlier. The share of Muslims rose to 14.2 per cent from 13.4 per cent in 2001 – the only major religious group to record a rise. Christians stayed at 2.3 per cent and Sikhs fell to 1.7 per cent from 1.9 per cent.

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Looking at projected populations, PEW Research Center has released a report (2nd April 2015) stating that the population of Hindus in India will fall down from the present 79.5 per cent to 76.7 per cent, and the Muslim population will rise up to 18 per cent by 2050. The report also stated that the population of Muslims in India will overtake the population of Muslims in Indonesia and Pakistan.

Earlier this year, Sadhvi Prachi advised that Hindu women should produce 40 children each while Sakshi Maharaj, a Hindu priest-turned-politician, advised four children each for Hindu women to ensure that their religion survives.

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In the first census, conducted after Britain carved India and Pakistan out of colonial India in 1947, Hindus accounted for 84.1 per cent of the Indian population. Although population growth is slowing in all religious groups, India is still set to overtake China to become the world’s most populous country by 2022, according to a United Nations forecast.