Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Demographic siege in Bharatvarsh

Hindu nationalists have two main objectives: to save civilization from swallowing ideologies and to disseminate the indigenous spiritual ideology.
The major issue that the Hindu nationalist have to contend with is demography. Pakistan poet Iqbal had once remarked that democracy is a number game where heads are counted and not weighed. Muslims believe in number game and their penchant for increasing population is recorded worldwide. The Hindu population in Pakistan, which stood at 19.2 percent in 1948, has declined to 1.6 percent as per the 1998 Pakistani census. Similarly, the Hindu population in Bangladesh, which was 28 percent in 1941, has declined to 9.2 percent in 2001. It is obvious that the drastic reduction of Hindu population was due to their persecution by the Islamic majority of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The demographic situation in India is no better. The book – Religious Demography of India – published by the Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai claims that if the Hindu population declines in a similar manner, they would form less than 50 percent of the population b the year 2060. Alarming indeed. If we consider the population of entire India (including Jammu and Kashmir as well as Assam) the Hindu population has declined by 6.74 perent while the Muslim population has increased by more than 3.03 percent. It should also be mentioned that an increased Muslim population also leads to shift in the political dynamics. Muslims vote en-bloc and even their minority votes have a lot of bearing on the ultimate results.

The drastic demographic changes are even confirmed by secularist publications. The total fertility rate (TFR) is 3.4 children per woman. Muslims have considerably higher fertility than any other religious group. Muslim women have a TFR of 4.4, which is 1.1 children higher, then the TFR for Hindu women (Manorama Year Book 96, pg 458-459).

Muslims, who constitute barely one percent of the US population, have made the Americans paranoid about their security following 9/11. The Noble prize awarded to Sir V S Naipaul soon thereafter was a testimony to the havoc that the jehadi Islamic ideology can wreak. There is not even a single Islamic nation in the world that swears by secularism and it is obvious that the swelling of Islamic population would mark the herald of Talibanism and sound the death knell for other religionists. In this context, the Hindu nationalists have the additional responsibility of preserving civilization from the forces of barbaric medievalism.
Hindu population in Bangladesh region
Year Percentage (%)
1941 28.0
1951 22.0
1961 18.5
1974 13.5
1981 12.13
1991 10.52
2001 9.2
Sources: Census of India 1941, Census of East Pakistan, Bangladesh Government Census
Population of Kashmiri Hindus
Year Percentage (%)
1901 7% *
2001 0.5 %
( estimate)*Imperial Gazetteer of India, volume 15. 1908

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you compare the total muslim and christian population vis a viv hindus in pre independence India and todays combined muslim, christian population in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh versus hindu population, there would be a remarkable growth of muslims and christians. This has happened in both Islamic states and ostensibaly secular india. I am sure the growth of so called minorities would be much faster than in muslim (mughal) ruled or british ruled India.