Muslims Report More Discrimination Than Other Minorities, But Instead Of ‘Turning To Faith’ They Are Getting Less Religious, Report Says; Experts Say Reality Is More Nuanced
By Nikhil Rampal
31
December, 2021
Young Muslims “stand somewhat apart” from their Hindu, Sikh, and Christian cohorts as they are the only community to have recorded a significant decline in religious activities over the last five years, according to a survey report released earlier this month.
The report,
titled ‘Indian Youth: Aspirations and Vision for the Future’, was based on a
survey conducted in July-August this year on 6,277 people aged 18-34 across 18
states. The study was carried out by the Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies (CSDS) under its research programme Lokniti, in collaboration with
German think tank Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS).
The survey
found that the proportion of Muslims praying, fasting, visiting mosques, and
reading or watching religious material was lower than it was in 2016, when the
last CSDS-Lokniti survey was conducted.
Representational image of people offering namaz at Jama Masjid in Old Delhi | Taran Deol | ThePrint
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Muslims
also stood apart from other communities in another respect: their experience of
being discriminated against by their friends because of religion. While two
other religious minorities, Christians and Sikhs, were similar to Muslims in
expressing a “strong sense of despair” about communal harmony in India, a much
lower proportion of them reported experiencing religious discrimination.
The 2016
CSDS youth survey, conducted on a sample size of 5,681, found that Muslim
youths reported higher religiosity than any other group. In that year, 97 per
cent of Muslim respondents said they prayed regularly, followed by Hindus (92
per cent), Sikhs (92 per cent), and Christians (91 per cent).
However, in
2021, only 86 per cent of Muslim youth said they prayed regularly — a decline
of 11 percentage points from five years ago. In comparison, the share of youth
who report praying regularly has risen among Sikhs (96 per cent) and Christians
(93 per cent), and declined only marginally for Hindus (88 per cent).
Graphic: Ramandeep Kaur/ThePrint
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Similarly,
there has been a sharp decline in the proportion of Muslim youths visiting
places of worship.
In 2016, 85
per cent of Muslim respondents reported that they visited their place of
worship (at various frequencies), but in 2021, only 79 per cent said they had
done so. While there was a decline among other religions too, it was the highest
among Muslims — 6 percentage points, followed by 4 percentage points for Hindus
(to 88 per cent from 92), 2 percentage points for Christians (to 89 per cent
from 91), and 1 percentage point for Sikhs (to 96 per cent from 97).
Graphic: Ramandeep Kaur/ThePrint
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Self-Perception
Of Religious Participation
Overall, 19
per cent of respondents said their religious participation had witnessed an
increase, while 17 per cent said it had declined, 57 per cent said it had
stayed the same, and 7 per cent did not give a response.
Here too, a
greater share of Muslims than other religions reported a net decline in their
perception of their religious participation.
Grap
hic: Ramandeep Kaur/ThePrint
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While 18
per cent of Muslim youngsters observed an increase in their religious
participation, 20 per cent felt that their religious participation had gone
down.
For
Christians and Sikhs, the share of respondents observing both an increase and
decrease was the same, at 25 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively.
Hindus reported
a net increase in their perception of their religious participation. About 20
per cent of Hindu respondents reported a rise in religious participation, while
16 per cent observed a fall.
Pessimism
About Religious Harmony In India
The CSDS
report took note of data from the National Crime Records Bureau, pointing out
that 857 cases of communal/religious rioting were registered in 2020, nearly
doubling from 438 in 2019.
The report
also mentioned recent “hate crimes and lynchings” targeting minority communities
as well as the new citizenship law for religious minorities from India’s three
Muslim-majority neighbours. In this context, the survey asked the respondents
whether they thought religious harmony would improve or worsen in the next five
years.
While only
19 per cent of Hindus said they believed there would be a deterioration in
communal harmony, the minorities were far more pessimistic — 31 per cent of
Christians and 33 per cent each of Muslims and Sikhs said they believed
religious amity would decline.
The
report’s authors dug deeper into the views of Muslim youth on the grounds that
the community has “borne the brunt of discrimination and violence in recent
years”.
According
to the report, the “despair” about religious co-existence was higher among the
Muslims who lived in states with a Muslim population higher than the national
average of 14.23 per cent. Taken together, these states — Assam, West Bengal,
UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Kerala — were more likely to be pessimistic about
religious harmony.
In these
states collectively, 35 per cent of Muslims said they expected a deterioration
compared with 23 per cent in states with a lower-than-average Muslim
population.
The survey
further found that Muslims in states which had a higher-than-average Muslim
population were also more likely to report religious discrimination, arguably
because there was “a greater chance of interaction” between the majority and
minority communities.
Perception
Of Religious Discrimination
According
to the 2011 Census, Hindus comprise about 80 per cent of the population,
followed by the three biggest minority communities — Muslims (14.23 per cent),
Christians (2.3 per cent), and Sikhs (1.72 per cent).
Among the
minorities sampled in the survey, Muslims reported experiencing discrimination
from their friends most frequently.
About 44
per cent of Muslim respondents said they faced discrimination from their
friends, with 13 per cent saying this happened often and 31 per cent saying it
occurred sometimes. Only 18 per cent Christians (4 per cent often, 14 per cent
sometimes) and 8 per cent Sikhs (3 per cent often, 5 per cent sometimes)
reported such discrimination, the survey data showed.
Graphic: Ramandeep Kaur/ThePrint
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While, on
average, 70 per cent of the respondents said they never faced discrimination
for their religion, this was only 49 per cent for Muslims.
“What is
interesting here is that unlike on the issue of religious harmony where there
was some sort of unanimity of opinion among youths from different religious
minorities, on the issue of facing discrimination, Muslims were quite alone in
feeling so,” the report said.
Are
Muslims Really Getting Less Religious?
The survey
report in its discussion of the results said it seemed “counter-intuitive” that
Muslim youth appeared to be less religious than before.
“One would
think that being at the receiving end of hate, discrimination, and violence
would have resulted in an even greater proportion of Muslims turning towards
their faith,” the report said, adding that it was possible that some Muslim
respondents may have felt “less comfortable” about revealing their religious
practices.
ThePrint
spoke to Islamic scholars for their views on the findings of the study, and
found that they were generally sceptical.
According
to Khalid Firangi Mahali, chairman of the Lucknow-based Islamic Centre of
India, the survey’s data do not reflect ground realities.
“These
kinds of surveys are done on very few people, mostly in urban areas. They do
not represent the entire population. I don’t believe that there is any decline
in Muslim youngsters’ religious participation,” Mahali said. “You go to any
mosque in this country on a Friday and see the demographics by yourself. You
will find lots of young men coming for the prayers.”
Hilal
Ahmed, a scholar of political Islam and associate professor at CSDS, told
ThePrint that it is also important to keep in mind that how people perceive
their religious practice is subjective.
“The survey
data is based on the perception of an individual… and religiosity has a high
degree of subjectivity. For one person, offering Namaz every Friday might be
considered as a deviation from the established norm of being a practising
Muslim. A person who offers it five times a day might consider themselves as a
regular praying person,” he told ThePrint.
Ahmed also
pointed out that Muslims tend to be more private about religion, and cited an
article he wrote for ThePrint around the same issue.
“It could
be argued that Islamic religiosities do not entirely determine the everyday
life of Indian Muslim communities. That is the reason why they describe
themselves as somewhat religious,” Ahmed had written in the piece.
So Why
Does Data Show A Decline?
According
to Ahmed, there is a decline of established forms of religiosity in India. For
example, Tablighi Jamaat, which for several decades was an important Sunni
Muslim movement promoting greater religiosity, is no longer as attractive to
young Muslims for expressing their Islam. “This has resulted in a creation of a
vacuum, due to which Muslims are looking for a new religiosity,” Ahmed said.
He added
that Muslim youths may not be praying as often but many are doing other things
like visiting Babas and peers for consultation. “Muslims these days are in a
need of new religiosity — they have not moved away from religion, rather they
are seeking a new path,” he said.
(Edited by Asavari
Singh)
Source: Indian Muslims Got ‘Less Religious’
Since 2016, Shows CSDS Study. 44% Reported Discrimination
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