Saturday, September 06, 2008

Is demographic change due to conversion a bogey?


One of often raised arguments by Christian Evangelists justifying negligible impact of conversion is the population of Christians was reported in the 1971 census to be 2.6 per cent of the Indian population. Their share in the population fell further to 2.44 in 1981, and 2.3 percent in 2001.

It would be wrong to take such a macroscopic view of effect of conversion. The effect of demographic change should be looked microscopic perspective as conversion efforts are usually concentrated in region or zone
  • Lets take the case of Kandhamal, The district has the highest population of Christians in orissa . In terms of percentage, Christian population in the district was 6 pc of the total populace in 1971 and has grown to 18 pc by 2001.
  • The growth in Arunachal Pradesh has been appreciable in last one decade. The Christian population in the state in 1991 was registered at 89,013 and the same in 2001 stands at 205,548. While the share of the Hindu population has decreased to 34.6 percent in 2001 from 37.0 percent in 1991
  • In Meghalaya the share of the Hindu population has decreased from 14.7 percent in 1991 to 13.3 percent in 2001. In the same period the percentage of Christians has increased from 64.6 to 70.3.
  • In Mizoram percentage of the Hindu population has declined from 5.0 in 1991 to 3.6 in 2001, while share of Christians has increased from 85.7 percent in 1991 to 87.0 percent respectively in 2001.
  • In Nagaland the percentage of the Hindu population has fallen from 10.1 in 1991 to 7.7 in 2001, while Christians has risen from 87.5 in 1991 to 90.0 in 2001.
  • In Tripura the proportion of the Hindu population has decreased from 86.5 percent in 1991 to 85.6 percent in 2001. The Percentage of the Christians has gone up from 1.68 in 1991 to 3.2 respectively in 2001.

2 comments:

R.Sajan said...

The traditional Christians, like the forward Christians of Kerala, are against conversion. More numbers mean dilution of privileges.

The Baptists, Pentecostals etc convert because they have to show statistics to please their foreign donors. It is their livelihood.

The entire North East is lost to India. You know that they do not think of themselves as Indians. China might annex those areas and teach them lessons.

Anonymous said...

Where were the fanatic hindu groups when a hindu puja like Chaat Puja was not allowed in Maharastra? Will VHP and Bajrang Dal support Raj Thakeray to protect Marathi identity by harming non-Marathis in Mumbai & Nagpur? If fanatic Hindus are supported to harm converts, fanatic Marathis will see precedent in that and start harming non-marathis in Maharastra.

Will VHP & BD request for ban of english and promote Hindi?

Educated people should know the difference between vote bank politics and real issues.