Thread by @SuhagAShukla

The @pewresearch survey of 30,000 Indians has fascinating findings that we will discuss in detail tomorrow evening.

Sharing here a few quick takes showing how Indians see religious tolerance as a central part of who they are as a nation. Tolerance seen as a civic virtue. 1/

Most Hindus in India believe religious diversity benefits the country.

Factoid: BJP supporters were most likely to champion religious diversity (two-thirds). 2/

How about a surprise?

India's Hindus and Muslims believe equally in the concept of Karma! Hindus & Muslims believe in Karma even more than all other Dharma religious traditions. 3/

Only 24% of Muslims say their community faces “a lot” of discrimination in India. The share of Muslims who see widespread discrimination against their community is similar to the share of Hindus who say Hindus face widespread religious discrimination in India (21%)@pewresearch 4/

"Sikhs are overwhelmingly proud of their Indian identity. A near-universal share of Sikhs say they are very proud to be Indian (95%), and the vast majority (70%) say a person who disrespects India cannot be a Sikh." @pewresearch 5/

Let's talk about caste:

Forget any notion that caste is rooted in Hindu practice or fundamental to Hinduism. Every religion in India equally identifies with a caste! 6/

Let's talk about caste discrimination:

While the majority of those surveyed self-identified as SC/ST/OBC, caste discrimination was reported as very unusual and occurred more in the South or Northeast. Rare in the West (Gujarat, Maharashtra). 7/

And then there's marriage:

The vast majority of Indians--of all religions and all castes--want their children to marry within their religion (Muslims insist on this the most) and within their caste.

Caste endogamy preferences are equal among SC/ST and General categories. 8/

This is just a glimpse. This well done survey challenges many myths and assumptions about India perpetuated by editorial pages & op/eds in the West.

So much more to discuss Wednesday evening with @PewReligion @pewresearch
Don't miss this event 👇
hinduamerican.org/events/convers…