Page 13 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change
Notes
8 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh). The two states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alone
account for more than 27 per cent of the countrys’ Hindu population. Likewise the four southern
states accommodate one-fourth of the Hindu population.
The Buddhists
This is the most widely spread religion in Asia today but it is a minority religion in India, the
country of its’ origin.
The Buddhists constitute 0.76 per cent of the country’s population. Traditionally, the Buddhists
are mainly located in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.
In terms of absolute numbers the bulk of Buddhist population today lives in Maharashtra (as
much as 79 per cent). These Neo-Buddhists are converts from Hindu lower castes, initiated into
Buddhism by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. In several districts of Maharashtra, these Neo-Buddhists account
for 5-17 per cent of the population. “The presence of the Dalai Lama and settlements of refugees
in India since then-exile from Tibet in 1959, has enhanced general awareness about Buddhism in
it’s different expressions of doctrine and practice in India. The conversion of large number of low-
caste Hindus, who call themselves Dalits (the oppressed) and are generally referred to as Neo-
Buddhists, under the charismatic leadership of B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956), has contributed
significantly to the same process. It has, however, explicitly politicized Buddhist identity” (T.N.
Madan, ibid).
The Jains
Another offshoot of early Hinduism, a protest movement, is Jainism whose followers are known
as the Jains. They constitute 0.40 per cent of the total population of the country. About 60 per cent
of the country’s 3.27 million Jains live in the three states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The Jain population is largely concentrated in the urban centres of these three states as well as in
the neighbouring states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Their concentration in urban
centres may be explained by the fact that they are largely a trading community. Even in the three
states mentioned above - showing their largest concentration - the proportion of Jains in the
population is in significant. They account for just 1.28 per cent of the total population in Rajasthan,
1.22 per cent in Maharashtra and 1.19 per cent in Gujarat. As against this their proportion in the
urban population of these states is comparatively higher - 3.4 per cent in Rajasthan, 3.5 per cent in
Maharashtra and 2.6 per cent in Gujarat. “The Jains have favoured their concentration in the dry
regions of Rajasthan and Gujarat. The two districts in which their share is the highest in urban
population are Barmer (13.4 per cent) and Jalor (10.5 per cent)” (Aijazuddin Ahmed, 1999).
Elsewhere in India they are conspicuous by their absence.
Religious Pluralism as Ideology
Religious pluralism in India is not merely a narrative of cultural diversity and pluralism but may
also be seen as ideology. In a significant writing of great scholarly merit T.N. Madan (2003) says
that contemporary ideologies of secularism often claims that pluralism is as old as the oldest
Veda. It is recalled that the Rigveda proclaims that ‘the Absolute is one, although the sages have
given it different names’. Hinduism tolerates differences by incorporating and hierarchizing it.
However, conflict has not been altogether absent. In modern, times, the Bengali mystic, Rama
Krishna (1836-86) and his renowned disciple Vivekanand (1863-1902) are credited with promoting
the ideology of religious pluralism by word and deed though he was sometimes critical of Buddhism
and Christianity. In the twentieth century Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) put forward the most
explicit formulation of religious pluralism and announced that ‘the world as a whole will never
have and need not have a single religion’. By acknowledging his indebtedness to Christianity and
Islam, Gandhi implied that Hinduism could be enriched by incorporating in it some of the truths
discovered by other religions. “A careful reader of the holy book of Islam will find many passages
on which an ideology of religious pluralism can be based. To give but one example: “To you your
religion, and to me mine” (T.N. Madan, ibid). In the twentieth century, the most celebrated effort to
argue for religious pluralism on the basis of the Quran itself was made by Maulana Abul Kalam
Azad, a profound scholar of religion and distinguished political leader. The task of developing a