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India is a land of diversities. This diversity is also visible in the spheres of religion. The major religions of India are Hinduism (majority religion), Islam (largest minority religion), Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and the Bahá'í Faith. India is a land where people of different religions and cultures live in harmony. This harmony is seen in the celebration of festivals. The message of love and brotherhood is expressed by all the religions and cultures of India.

Whether it's the gathering of the faithful, bowing in prayer in the courtyard of a mosque, or the gathering of lamps that light up houses at Diwali, the good cheer of Christmas or the brotherhood of Baisakhi, the religions of India are celebrations of shared emotion that bring people together. People from the different religions and cultures of India, unite in a common chord of brotherhood and amity in this fascinating and diverse land.

At present Buddhism is one of the major world religions. The philosophy of Buddhism is based on the teachings of Lord Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama (563 and 483 BC), a royal prince of Kapilvastu, India. After originating in India, Buddhism spread throughout the Central Asia, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Southeast Asia, as well as the East Asian countries of China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.

Christianity is one of the prominent religions in India. At present there are about 25 million Christians in India. It is interesting to note that the Christian population in India is more than the entire population of Australia and New Zealand or total population of a number of countries in Europe.

Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world. Hinduism is world's third largest religion after Christianity and Islam. Hinduism is the dominant religion in India, where Hindus form about 84 per cent of the total population. Hinduism is also known as "Sanatan Dharma" or the everlasting religion.

One of the prominent religions of India, Islam forms about 12 per cent of India's population. Though India's contact with Islam had begun much earlier, the real push came in the 8th century when the province of Sindh was conquered. Though the Muslims form only 12 per cent of the total population of India but the influence of Islam on Indian society is much stronger.

Jains form less than one percent of the Indian population. For centuries, Jains are famous as community of traders and merchants. The states of Gujarat and Rajasthan have the highest concentration of Jain population in India. The Jain religion is traced to Vardhamana Mahavira (The Great Hero 599-527 B.C.).

Sikhs form about 2 per cent of Indian population. In comparison to other religions, Sikhism is a younger religion. The word 'Sikh' means a disciple and thus Sikhism is essentially the path of discipleship. The true Sikh remains unattached to worldly things.

Though the total number of Zoroastrians in Indian population is very less yet they continue to be one of the important religious communities of India. According to the 2001 census, there were around 70,000 members of the Zoroastrian faith in India. Most of the Parsis (Zoroastrians) live in Maharashtra (mainly in Mumbai) and the rest in Gujarat.

Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji is credited with starting the Sikh religion. He was the first Guru of the Sikhs and is worshipped next to God. His sole aim in life was to unify the Hindus and Muslims and form a universal religion of brotherhood and compassion. He believed that true salvation could be achieved only by devotion of thought and excellence of conduct.

Lord Mahavira is often credited with the advent of Jainism in India. However, Jainism existed even before Lord Mahavira was born. He is supposed to be the twenty-fourth (last) Tirthankara according to the Jain philosophy. A Tirthankara is an enlightened soul who is born as a human being and attains perfection through intense meditation.

One of the greatest philosophers of India, Adi Shankaracharya founded the Advaita Vedanta, which is one of the sub-schools of Vedanta. Adi Shankaracharya whole-heartedly believed in the concept of the Vedas but at the same time advocated against the rituals and religious practices that were over exaggerated.

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indian religions - religions in india - religions of india - indian religion -major religions of india

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India is a land of diversities. This diversity is also visible in the spheres of religion. The major religions of India are Hinduism (majority religion), Islam (largest minority religion), Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and the Bahá'í Faith. India is a land where people of different religions and cultures live in harmony.

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Indian Girls are Wearing Cow Masks to Make Point

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The Eyes of a Beggar Documentary Preview

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What Is the Custom of Sati? - Origin, Extent, Abolition, Facts

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The Indian society is the complex amalgamation of diverse cultures. Barriers of religions, language and traditions divide its people into innumerable sects and sometimes lead to incompatibility.

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India's Dalits, once deemed 'untouchable', now have a growing role in the country's modern economy.

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So, how is women's status in India? Today's India offers a lot of opportunities to women, with women having a voice in everyday life, the business world as well as in political life. Nevertheless India is still a male dominated society, where women are often seen as subordinate and inferior to men.

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The women students of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), one of India's premier institutions of higher education, are only served vegetarian food. They're not allowed to stay out of their university accommodation past 8 pm. They may not talk on their cell phones after 10pm. And if they experience sexual harassment or molestation they may be told-as one woman was last week-that it's their fault for being outside of their accommodations past 6pm.

Male students of the university, on the other hand, are served meat in their dining halls, have no enforced restrictions for cell phone use, and enjoy a laxly-enforced curfew of 10pm

It's in this context that since last Thursday, women students of the university have staged a protest so forceful university administration has resorted to shutting down the dormitories, unleashing police violence, and even diverting the route of the prime minister, who was scheduled to drive past the university late last week. The protest broke out after a woman was groped by three men on a motorcycle. When nearby security guards refused to intervene, and university officials shamed rather than helped the complainant, the women students blocked the university gates, refusing to budge for days.

In response, police brutally beat the women, causing many to be hospitalized. The university administration filed police cases against more than 1,000 protesting students. And rather than address the women's complaints, the university Vice Chancellor defended restrictive rules including curfew, accused the protesting women of being misinformed and instigated by "outsiders," and proceeded to nominate a man who has been found guilty of sexual harassment to lead the university hospital.

"Getting harassed is a very common thing in BHU. It happens almost every day," said a protesting student in an interview with The Quint.

But, says another student, "The problem is that no one wants to listen to our concerns."

The Vice Chencellor's response?

"If we listen to every girl, we can't run the university," said the vice chancellor in an interview with the Indian Express.

The uprising at BHU comes on the heels of several setbacks for women's rights in India. In the legal realm, a recent high court judgement blamed a rape survivor for being too " promiscuous." Another high court judgement set a dangerous precedent by labelling a "feeble no" between intimate partners a "yes." In education, the administration of Jawaharlal Nehru University, one of the country's highest-profile liberal arts institutions, recently defied central government guidelines against sexual harassment by unilaterally disbanding the university's elected anti-sexual harassment committee in favor of a body appointed by several university administrators already suspected of or found guilty in sexual harassment cases.

Rules like those imposed upon the women of BHU are not unusual in Indian higher education, where, in the name of women's "safety," universities impose severe restrictions on women's mobility, freedom, and access to university resources. These regulations include over-securitization of campuses in the form of guards, police, CCTV cameras and physical walls which prevent women's mobility; moral policing of women's clothing and shaming of women's sexual behavior, presumed sexual orientation and gender presentation; and curtailing of women's political activity in the name of safety. And while the Indian central government's education regulatory body has banned discriminatory rules against women in public universities, these guidelines are not widely complied with and leave out private universities entirely.

And while the BHU women's protest is one of the most militant examples of women's struggle against repressive universities, it comes as part of a long line of women university students' movements. Most notably, the , or "break the cages" movement has spread from an autonomous women's collective in Delhi to a nation-wide movement. Pinjra Tod connects the caste system, class hierarchy, and patriarchy to argue that women's restriction in university settings perpetuates a system in which women are the possessions of either their husbands and fathers (for example, women often need permission of their parents to exit university accommodations after curfew). Moral policing of women in universities upholds the idea that women are receptacles of a community's honor and maintains social hierarchies.

Pinjra Tod and BHU women's challenge to university restrictions also comes in the wake of the December 16, 2012 movement against sexual violence, following the violent rape and murder of Jyoti Singh. In that movement, feminists articulated a vision of " freedom without fear, " tracing sexual violence to the intimate spaces of the family and relationships rather than just the threat of the other, the outside, and the street.

As of now, the wave of protest in BHU has calmed, but the anger has not. And while the university's Vice Chancellor may be doubling down on a regressive vision of women's safety, the protests and harsh response to them have stirred up a furor in the media across the country. Whatever happens, one thing is certain: No matter how many patronizing words patriarchs offer about "women's safety," women's rage cannot be contained. That's exactly the rage, exactly the thirst for freedom, that scares universities and governments into regulating women so viciously.

When university authorities claim to restrict women for "women's safety," what they mean to say is that women ought to be restricted in order to protect the safety of the people in power. Because when women are free, when women make movements, when women are organized, when women seize our rights, the entire system of patriarchal control shakes to its foundations. Women's bodies can be caged, but our rage cannot be. And in the face of this irrepressible rage, every cage will be broken.
Image credit: Indian Express

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These women are making revolution in one of India's most conservative universities

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The women students of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), one of India's premier institutions of higher education, are only served vegetarian food. They're not allowed to stay out of their university accommodation past 8 pm. They may not talk on their cell phones after 10pm. And if they experience sexual harassment or molestation they ...

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50 Most Beautiful Indian Paintings from top Indian Artists

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Mirror NOW will raise accountability for the fundamental issues that citizens face in their daily lives and relentlessly drive improvement. Inefficiency and ...