Irreligion in India

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Atheism and agnosticism have a long history in India and flourish within the Śramaṇa movement. Indian religions like Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism consider atheism to be acceptable.[1][2][3] Doubt has been ingrained even in Indian spiritual culture.[4]

India has produced some notable atheist politicians and social reformers.[5] Around 0.7 million people in India did not state their religion in the 2001 census and were counted in the "religion not stated" category. They were 0.06% of India's population. Their number has significantly increased four times, from 0.7 million in the 2001 census to 2.9 million in the 2011 census (0.24% of India's population) at an average annual rate of 15%.[6][7][8] According to the 2012 WIN-Gallup Global Index of Religion and Atheism report, 81% of Indians were religious, 13% were non-religious, 3% were convinced atheists, and 3% were unsure or did not respond,[9] while a demographic study by Cambridge University Press in 2004 found that around 2-6% of Indians identified as atheists or irreligious.[10]

  1. ^ Chakravarti, Sitansu (1991). Hinduism, a way of life. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 71. ISBN 978-81-208-0899-7. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  2. ^ Joshi, L.R. (1966). "A New Interpretation of Indian Atheism". Philosophy East and West. 16 (3/4). University of Hawai'i Press: 189–206. doi:10.2307/1397540. JSTOR 1397540.
  3. ^ Cohen, Signe (7 April 2019). "There are 2.9 million atheists in India and it's been around in Asia for centuries". ThePrint. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  4. ^ Bharath, Deepa (5 October 2023). "Nonreligious struggle to find their voice and place in Indian society and politics". AP News. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference secularism was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Daniyal, Shoaib. "People without religion have risen in Census 2011, but atheists have nothing to cheer about". Scroll.in. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  7. ^ "Population by religious community – 2011". 2011 Census of India. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner. Archived from the original on 25 August 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015. Percentages are calculated from population figures for individual religions in this word document by dividing them from total population of India.
  8. ^ "All India Religion Census Data 2011". Government of India. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
  9. ^ "Global Index of Religion And Atheism" (PDF). WIN-Gallup. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  10. ^ Zuckerman, Phil (2006). "Atheism: Contemporary Numbers and Patterns". In Martin, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge University Press. pp. 47–66. ISBN 9780521842709.