ABSTRACT
Religious pluralism is one of the fundamental features of the Republic of India. India is indeed a mosaic of various faith traditions and diverse cultures. Hinduism is the predominant religion in the country. Three other faiths not fundamentally different fromHinduism are Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism; the population figures for adherents of these three faiths are 16 million, 8 million, and 3.5 million, respectively. At the same time India is home to the second largest Muslim community in the world next to Indonesia (nearly 160 million) and has a Christian population of about 24 million. While Islam constitutes the majority religion in two of the 35 constituents of federal India,1 Christianity is the dominant religion in three-all located in the Northeast.2 In several other states the number of adherents of these faiths is much above the national average.3 Among the smaller religious communities of India are the Parsi Zoroastrians, Bahá’ís, and Jews.
