Southern India Leads the Way to Tolerance
By Sadanand Dhume, 7/8/21, Wall St. Journal

How is religious pluralism faring in India, one of the most
religiously diverse countries on the globe? The nation’s
1.4 billion people include most of the world’s Hindus,
Sikhs & Jains, its third-largest Muslim population (over
200 million), & more Christians than Peru or Canada.

In a sweeping new survey, the Pew Research Ctr provides
answers, but they’re complex. You could come away reassured
by the religious tolerance professed by Indians of all
faiths, or worried by their marked preference for living
apart in religious silos.

Beyond the headlines, a striking fact emerges: On contro-
versial issues like eating beef, interfaith marriage &
intercaste marriage, South Indian attitudes are markedly
less rigid than those of the populous Hindi heartland.
This helps explain why the 5 southern states—with 275
million people & an area over 250% of the size of the U.K.—
have largely shunned PM Narendra Modi’s muscular brand of
Hindu nationalism. (Karnataka, home to Bangalore, is the
exception.)

First the main findings: Indians are overwhelmingly devout—
97% believe in God. Large majorities say that to be truly
Indian you must respect all religions, & that respecting
other faiths is part of their religious identities. The
overwhelming majority of Indians say they are free to
practice their faith.

In India, many Muslims & Christians subscribe to beliefs
rooted in Hinduism. 3/4 of Muslims believe in karma.
Nearly 1/3 of Christians believe in the purifying power
of the Ganges River. This syncretism cuts both ways. 1/6
of Hindus celebrate Christmas. About 1 in 10 North Indian
Hindus & Sikhs identify with Sufism, a mystical brand of
Islam that venerates saints & shrines.

At the same time, India is no melting pot. In a phone
interview, Neha Sahgal, the survey’s lead researcher,
calls it “a patchwork fabric.” Roughly 2/3 of Hindus &
Muslims see themselves as “very different” from each
other. About 6 in 10 Christians feel “very different”
from Hindus & Muslims. Muslims & Hindus alike consider
preventing interfaith marriages a high priority. Among
Hindus, 36% don’t want a Muslim as a neighbor, & 31% feel
the same way about Christians.

The survey also reveals deeply ingrained beliefs—some would
call them prejudices—among Hindus regarding food habits.
Less than half of Hindus say a person must believe in God
to be regarded as a member of their faith. But nearly 3/4
of Hindus feel that anyone who eats beef isn’t a Hindu.
They regard the cow as sacred & balk at any harm to it.
Ms. Sahgal says the surveyors didn’t probe the apparent
contradiction between prizing tolerance & getting upset
by cheeseburgers.

In all this, southern India stands out. Only 37% of South
Indians pray daily, compared with between 2/3 & 3/4 of
those in the populous Hindi-speaking states of northern
& central India. Unlike in most of India, religiosity has
declined markedly in the South, albeit moderately. 69% of
South Indians say religion is very important to them today,
compared to over 3/4 who say it was important to their
families growing up. Roughly 1/4 of South Indians say
their faith is “the one true religion.” In the rest of
India that figure ranges between 40%-55%.

S Indians are a lot less burger-phobic than their
compatriots in the Hindi heartland. Half of S Indian
Hindus don’t think you cease to be Hindu by eating beef.
Only 1/3 of them apply the litmus test of celebrating
Hindu festivals, compared with nearly 70% in the Hindi-
speaking states of northern & central India. The same
relatively relaxed attitude extends to interfaith & inter-
caste marriage. These remain exceedingly rare in the South,
as they do in the rest of the country, but only slightly
over 1/3 of S Indians think it’s “very important” to stop
them. Roughly twice as many N Indians feel strongly that
interfaith unions should be stopped.

The South also appears more comfortable than the rest of
India with freedom of conscience. Though only a minuscule
0.4% of the survey’s respondents are Christians who had
converted from Hinduism, 3/4 of these converts live in
the southern states.

What does this “southern exceptionalism” mean for Indian
politics? For starters it’s no coincidence that Modi’s
Bharatiya Janata Party has struggled to make inroads in
the South. Less than 10% of its 303 directly elected
members of the lower house of Parliament come from the
5 southern states—and almost all of those are from
Karnataka, the party’s sole bastion in the region.
Nationwide, the beleaguered Congress Party won only about
1/6 as many seats as the BJP. But over half of the party’s
52 seats came from the south. A Congress offshoot led by a
Christian, Jagan Mohan Reddy, governs Andhra Pradesh.

In the Hindi heartland, dominated by the BJP, large
majorities believe that to be “truly Indian” a person must
be Hindu & speak Hindi. Less than 40% of S Indians conflate
religion with nationality; only about 1/4 agree that
speaking Hindi is intrinsic to Indianness.

With its emphasis on things like the imaginary crime of
“love jihad” & punishing people for their dietary choices,
it would benefit the BJP if the South became more like the
Hindi heartland. But it would be better for India & the
world if the poverty-stricken & sanctimonious North
emulated the more prosperous & less rigid South.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/southern-india-leads-the-way-to-tolerance-11625782002