INDIA IS SECULAR OR SPIRITUAL - NO MATTER FOR WORLD STATISTICS SAY SPIRITUALISTS DO MORE CRIMES

India's population as on 2021 was 1.39 billion. Leaving 2.9 million atheists the remaining are part of some religions. The prime religions in India are: Hinduism (79.8%), Islam (14.23%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.72%) and others like Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrians (Parsis) etc which together have a share of less than 1% of the total population. Further to this there are some more religions which put together less than ten million members. While Hinduism is mainly divided into four castes, there are around 3,000 sub castes and a further divisions of over 25,000 denominations. Though Islamic religion has basically four schools, these are further divided into a good number of communities. Christianity is broadly divided into three groups, altogether they have over 41,000 denominations.

Even though many religions are found in India and bulk of the population belong to part of some religions, we prefer to call ourselves a secular nation. Whether it is education, employment or developmental activities due share is provided for different religions through economy based quota system. Every major religion is allowed to interfere in the day to day administration by governments. Opinions of religious leaders are sought on policy making decisions by the government. Publicly and secretly exemptions are given to religions on various grounds.

While every religion is focused on its own God, faith and observations are built mainly on superstition by almost all. However, naming ourselves as a secular country the ruling governments should be firm in every action to uphold secularism. A secular government may never try to make any religion inferior or treat superior than others irrespective of the number of members they have.

There are many countries where religious laws are their national laws and there are other countries who give no special significance to any religious scriptures. In fact we Indians cannot say where we are. One thing can however be established with the support of data. Countries where highest number of crime take place ar,e those with highest number of faithful are living whether it is Christianity or Islam or Hinduism.

K V George