page_title: Hinduism in India
section_title: Partition of India
hierarchical_section_title: Hinduism in India / Partition of India
caption_attribution_description: The complexity of the task - dividing South Asia and creating states from British India; a news map from May 12 1946 Map shows British Holdings in India, native states and areas demanded by Muslims for independent Pakistan state. This map was the basis for negotiations between 3-person British cabinet delegation, All-India Congress and the Muslim League. The Muslims in 1946, demanded Calcutta to be part of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), as well as post-partition West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, along with parts of what later became Meghalaya, Manipur, Haryana, Punjab (India) and Himachal Pradesh in Pakistan. The May 1946 discussions collapsed. Source: Columbia University, July 2010
context_page_description: Hinduism is the largest religion in India, with 79.8% of the population identifying themselves as Hindus, that accounts for 966 million Hindus as of National Census of India in 2011 making it as the world's largest Hindu populated country with around 94% global hindu population are being concentrated here. While 14.2% of the population follow Islam and the remaining 6% adhere to other religions. The vast majority of Hindus in India belong to Shaivite and Vaishnavite denominations. India is one of the three countries in the world where Hinduism is the majority.
context_section_description: I find no parallel in history for a body of converts and their descendants claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock.
  — Mahatma Gandhi, opposing the division of India on the basis of religion in 1944.
  Hindu nationalism was promoted by Hindus like:
  Vinayak Damodar Savarkar – for the formation of Akhand Bharat
  Purushottam Das Tandon – promoted Hindi as the Official language of India
  Syama Prasad Mukherjee – founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a Hindu nationalist political party
  K. B. Hedgewar – founder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation
  M.S. Golwalkar – founder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Hindu nationalist organisation
  The 1947 Partition of India gave rise to bloody rioting and indiscriminate inter-communal killing of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. Around 7.5 million Muslims were moved and left for West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh) and 7.2 million Hindus and Sikhs moved to India. This was a major factor in fueling Hindu,Sikh-Muslim animosity. What followed over the years was the laying of secular principles in the Indian Constitution. The last 60 years have been seemingly peaceful in most parts of the country except with the notable exception of communal riots in 1992 Bombay riots following the demolition of Babri mosque by extremists and 2002 Gujarat riots.
  Andhra Pradesh and the Northeast of India are some of the regions where conversion is prevalent. In response to the activities of Christian missionaries in India, hardline Hindu groups like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have aggressively started reconversion of converted Christians as well as Muslims back to Hinduism. The Hindus still form the majority community in most states and territories of the country. Most of the northern and north-western India, especially Gujarat remains the stronghold of Hinduism. There is even reason to believe that Hinduism is growing through the incorporation of tribal belief-systems in specific areas of the northeast. However, in the Kashmir Valley, the Hindu population has plummeted as an outcome of the terrorism when more than 550,000 members of Kashmiri Pandit community were forced to leave the valley (mass exodus) by Islamist insurgents. In Punjab, the Sikhs form the majority population.
caption: The Partition of British India was based on religion. The negotiations failed several times, with differing demands about boundaries, as shown in this map of 1946.
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