Hindus have a habit of living in their own shell. Sometimes, this is spiritual, while other times it is financial or cultural. There has to be a clarion call; otherwise, they fail to assert themselves. Recently, the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief made a strong statement to get Hindus out of their newly gained cultural shell of working extremely hard but having no familial ambition.
Often, you would have heard people cursing the population for every minor discomfort in India. But Mohan Bhagwat has a different take. He seems to be more concerned about the makeup of this population tilting in a direction not favorable for the future of Hindus.
Pointing out the well-established scientific fact around declining population, Bhagwat said, “Population sciences point out that any social group which has a birth rate below 2.1 soon vanishes from the face of the earth. It doesn’t happen because it is annihilated by others. It simply ends even without facing any catastrophe.”
The second part of his statement, in which Bhagwat is talking about the self-destruction algorithm set in Hindu society, explains how bad it is. In the last millions of years of human evolution, people, families, villages, states, nations, and cultures have survived to stay alive and prosper at the same time. Loots and killings have been the norm.
Incidentally, Hindus have been arguably the most physically scathed but financially unscathed ones of the bunch. While we suffered innumerable attacks, it is also true that our true material wealth never really died down. Even now, the main problem is that our wealth lies with Mandirs, which are controlled by the governments.
So, ultimately, the decline in Hindu power has been the consequence of invasions looking to extinguish Hindus from the face of Earth. But somehow, we survived and are up and running with significant economic upturns in India’s favor.
At the same time, the means to achieve this level of urbanisation has got us in a culturally bad position. The economic growth came on the back of cultural compromise that it is better to have fewer children with that iconic slogan called “Ham Do, Hamare Do.”
Hindus, as would any sensible community, obliged to this demand. The thinking was that a little compromise on everyone’s part would result in a better future for our upcoming generations. The better future in the average mind was quality education at an affordable price, quality and eco-friendly homes, and good connectivity for medical emergencies and other facilities helpful in increasing human happiness.
But two kinds of problems occurred. Firstly, Hindus compromised, but everyone else did not. In fact, no one compromised as much as Hindus, and that is now showing up in numbers and census figures.
According to the 1951 census figures, Hindus’ population was 30.3 crore. The number jumped to 96.6 crores in 2011. Contrarily, the Muslim population increased from 3.5 crore in 1951 to 17.2 crore in 2011. Its Abrahamic brother Christianity grew from 80 lakh in 1951 to 2.78 crore in 2011.
On the face of the data, Hindus seem to be comfortably placed way ahead of others in sheer numbers. But, as they say, to find a lie behind statistics, one needs to dig deeper into them. Turns out, the catch lies in the relative share of different religions in the Indian population.
Despite witnessing more than a 66 crore increase in its population, the Hindus’ share has declined from 84.5 percent in 1951 to 79.8 percent in 2011. In the same period, the Sikhs’ share declined from 1.9 percent to 1.7 percent, while the Jain community’s share decreased from 0.5 percent to 0.4 percent.
On the other hand, the Muslims’ share in the Indian population increased from 9.9 percent in 1951 to 14.2 percent in 2011. The Christian population also increased from 2.2 percent to 2.3 percent, but this data is a gross underestimation, according to the Pew Research Centre, which puts this figure at 2.6 percent.
Christians in India are primarily those who converted from Scheduled Castes to Christianity, but since they can’t receive reservation benefits under the new religious fold, they tend not to mention Christianity as their religion.
In comparative terms, Hindus’ share in the population declined by 5.57 percent, while Muslims’ share increased by 43.43 percent.
The only Indic religion that has witnessed positive growth in six decades is Buddhism, but that is also a loss for Hinduism, because Dalits have been pushed into the Buddhism fold by non-government organisations.
These massive changes have accumulated over decades. Turns out, Hindus’ decadal growth rate has been significantly lower compared to Islam. Hindus’ decadal growth remained in the 20s, while Muslims’ decadal rate of growth mostly remained in the 30s. Even Christianity grew faster in four out of six decades.
The numbers are alarming and could have been justified if the society as a whole got everything better. But no such consolation prize exists. The quality of education has been good overall, but its cost is becoming a big hindrance. Similarly, real-estate prices and medical expenses -thanks to expensive but qualitatively bad food – are not helping at all.
These are also crucial issues stopping people from having babies.
Another structural problem is false idealism on which women’s empowerment took place. Hindu women were brought into the economy by making them believe that they would be free from the shackles of family planning and can focus on their career. No one told them to balance it out, as a consequence of which more and more women are bailing out of family responsibilities.
Bhagwat’s statement rings a bell for everyone. People may start to work on it, but will the government chip in with regulating adulteration in food, school education, and real estate prices?
If not, Hindus are set to lose as the Overton window shifts from “Hum Do Hamare Do” to “Jiski Jitni Abadi, Uski Utni Hissedari.”