Perhaps, you knew, but you never gave much a thought. It's not your fault.
So many times, the sentence, 'Hindus are the majority community' is repeated that one is likely to accept it on face value.
The fact is that apart from Jammu & Kashmir, Hindus are a minority in seven states and a union territory.
You can't ignore the statistics by saying that some of these states are small and are located in North East.
India has 30 states and six union territories, excluding Delhi. Apart from these eight states, there are other states where Hindus are not the overwhelming majority and are less than 65% of population.
These states include Kerala, Assam & Goa. West Bengal is another state that has less than 75% Hindus. This is the list of states where Hindus are minority (Alpsankhyak)
State Percentage of Hindus in population Minorities percentage
1. Jammu-Kashmir 28.44% 71.56%
2. Punjab 38.4% 61.6%
3. Mizoram 2.75% 97.25%
4. Meghalaya 11.53% 88.47%
5. Arunachal Pradesh 29% 71%
6. Manipur 41.39% 58.61%
7. Lakshadweep 2.5% 97.5%
8. Nagaland 8.75% 91.25%
In this table minorities include non-Hindu religions
[Muslims are a majority in Jammu Kashmir and Lakshadweep. Rest of others have Christian majority or a high Buddhist population as in Arunachal Pradesh]
*One is a union territory i.e. Lakshadweep
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FIVE OTHER STATES THAT HAVE VERY HIGH MINORITY POPULATION
Minorities are over 45% in Kerala [mostly Muslims, Christians]
Minorities are over 40% in Sikkim [Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Tribal]
Minorities are 40% in Assam [mostly Muslim and Christian]
Minorities are nearly 35% in Goa [Christian and Muslim]
Minorities are nearly 30% in West Bengal [chiefly Muslims]
Jharkhand a unique state
Jharkhand has 67% Hindus. The non-Hindus include 14.6% Muslims, 4.5% Christians and a huge number of non-Hindu tribals. Non-Hindus in this state are nearly 33%
FOUR MORE STATES THAT HAVE SIGNIFICANT MINORITIES
Three more states Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh have 20% or more minority population
Bihar has nearly 18% minority population. Bihar has 1.75 crore or 17.5 million Muslims, calling which a minority is not correct. UP has even more large Muslim population, almost double of Bihar, and nearly 20% of UP's population percentage terms.
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India has 36 administrative units including 29 states, six union territories administered by centre and a National Capital Region (NCR) i.e. Delhi.
A. 13 of these units [states and UTs] have minorities in the range of 30-35% population up to 99%]
B. 12 of these units [states and UTs] have more than 40% minorities in India]
C. 17 of these states and UTs have very significant minority population and calling them minority is not proper, as their numbers are so huge.
D. Nearly a dozen states have 10% or more minorities, which also number in millions.
E. Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, are among the three states that have more than 90% Hindu population. They could be termed as 'Hindu states', though Orissa and Chhattisgarh have sizeable Christian and Muslim population and a very high number of minorities in several towns and cities.
