Why BJP leaders’ comments on study about Muslim population in India are misleading
A study by Modi’s Economic Advisory Council has mentioned data on rise in share of Muslim population. This was already known from the decadal Census.
On Thursday, several news outlets reported on a study released by the prime minister’s Economic Advisory Council on the changes in the share of population of religious minorities in 167 countries between 1950 and 2015.
The headline for most publications was that the share of Muslim population in India had risen from from 9.84% in 1950 to 14.09% in 2015 – which is so say, 43.15%. On the other hand, the share of India’s Hindu population declined from 84.68% to 78.06% during that period – that is, 7.82%, the study said.
Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar claimed that the “demography of India is being altered” due to increase in population of a “particular community”. He also linked the study to the Bharatiya Janata Party's claim that the Congress wanted to introduce reservations in education and government jobs on the basis of religion.
The first claim made by Chandrasekhar is misleading while the second one is outright false. The findings of the study about the change in religion-wise population share is not new and follows a trend that has been well-documented in the decadal Census.
Census data shows that the religious composition of the country’s population has undergone only modest changes since 1951. In fact, the decadal growth rate for Muslims has been declining...
