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According to the Census of India l99l, the percentage breakdown of the
various "world" religions in India was as follows:
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Hindu
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82%
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Muslim
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12.1%
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Christian
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2.3%
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Sikh
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1.9%
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Buddhists
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0.8%
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Jains
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0.4%
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Other
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0.5%
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The category "Other" included Parsis (7l,630 in
l98l), Jews (5,6l8 in l98l), tribal traditions (roughly 500,000 in l98l), and so
forth. Projecting the percentages above on the population of India in the Census of India l99l (namely, 843,930,86l or about 840,000,000), a
reasonable rough estimate of membership in various "world" religion
groupings would be the following: Hindus - 700,000,000, Muslims - l00,000,000,
Christians - 20,000,000, Sikhs - l6,000,000, Buddhists - 6,000,000, Jains -
3,000,000, Other - 4,000,000.
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