Calculating Quotes - page 4
Similarly calculating from the available figures for the three countries, the Hindu percentage had come down to 65.15% in 1991. To evaluate the trend of the Hindu percentage, we must take into account that the pre-Independence census always had a tentative category "tribal" or "animist", variously defined and therefore making odd quantitative jumps (but always between 2.26% and 3.26%), from 2.57% in 1881 to 2.26% in 1941. After Independence, this category was included in the Hindu category. So, putting everything on the post-Independence denominator, we include the "animists" in the Hindu percentage to get a total Hindu percentage of 77.35% for 1881, 71.72% for 1941, and 65.15% for 1991. Here again, we see a long-term acceleration of the observed trend: a decrease of 5.63% in the sixty years between 1881 and 1941, and a larger decrease of 6.57% in the shorter period of fifty years between 1941 and 1991.
Koenraad Elst