India Has 4th Highest Religious Hostilities, Below Syria and Iraq

India falls in the 4.5 to 6.5 range on the index of government restrictions on religion. (Photo: iStock)

India ranks 4th on Pew Research Centre’s index of social hostilities involving religion as per data from 2015. India is just behind Syria, Nigeria and Iraq.

Afghanistan came in at rank 8 and Pakistan at 10. Along with Israel, Yemen, Russia, Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and Egypt, these countries fall in the very high social hostilities category with scores 7.2 and higher.

Katayoun Kishi, the lead researcher on the study, told Huffington Post India that Hindu-Muslim hostility played a role in India’s rank.

[O]ne of the indicators in the Social Hostilities Index looks at whether incidents of violence occurred as a result of tensions between religious groups. In India in 2015, there were instances of attacks by Hindus on Muslims due to alleged cow slaughter, rioting after clashes between Hindus and Muslims, and mob violence involving the two groups.

Katayoun Kishi to Huffington Post India

India falls in the 4.5 to 6.5 range on the index of government restrictions on religion which is the High category. Egypt tops the list on this ranking.

India’s government restrictions index dropped from 4.8 to 4.5 between 2007 and 2014 but shot up to 5.1 in 2015. Similarly, the social hostilities index fell between the same time period from 8.8 to 7.9, but came back up to 8.7 in 2015.

The report says that government restrictions rose in nearly all regions in 2015.

Of the world’s most populous countries – 25 nations where 75% of the world’s population lives – Russia, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Nigeria had the highest combined levels of government restrictions and social hostilities involving religion in 2015.

Christians and Muslims were harassed in the most number of countries in 2015. Jews faced harassment in 74 countries, which is less than in 2014.

Hindus were harassed in 18 countries in 2015 which is more than in 2014. Buddhists, however, were harassed in fewer countries in 2015 than in 2014.

Read the whole report here.

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