Geographical+Spread+of+Hinduism

Geographical spread of Hinduism Ever since it emerged 5,000 years ago Hinduism has been relatively contained in comparison to other religions such as Islam or Christianity. It first developed in and around the Indus River in India which is also where the name of the religion came from. Although it is the third largest religion after the ones mentioned earlier with as much as 850 million followers (meaning that one every seven people you meet on average should be Hindu) it is a deceptive title. 95% of the world’s Hindu population (800 million) is in India and 98% in South-Asia (Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc.). During its history it has also been contained. With multiple different cultures coming into India and in some cases, like the Aryans, they have fused with Hinduism but none of them have actually displaced them completely from India. Indian traders often travelled out to the Middle East for trade, carrying with them Hinduism and ruins of Hindu temples have been found in Azerbaijan, Iran and Afghanistan suggesting they might’ve reached as far as the Caspian sea. Closer to home though, in eastern Afghanistan, there were some Hindu kingdoms of Kabul and Zabul who were ruled by the Hindu Shahiya kings. But around 654 A.D they were attacked by Arabs and eventually forcibly converted to Islam or slaughtered (which is why the mountains round the area are called the Hindu Kush, “India Slaughter”). The religion had better luck in south-east Asia with Hinduism coming to Indonesia supposedly through the legendary Sage Agastya who is credited with spreading Hinduism through Southern Asia. Angkor Wat was the largest Hindu temple in the world before it was converted to its current use, a Buddhist monastery. Indonesia was the home of Hindu empires such as the Majhapit but they were also pushed further downwards into southern Java and Bali by the advent of Islam until the Dutch came and checked it. Hindu traditions are still found there despite it being a predominately Muslim country. Their greetings and names are still Hindu and the symbol of the national airlines is a Garuda bird, the mount of the Hindu god Lord Vishna.

The picture below shows how far Hinduism ever reached as being a major part of a countries religion (mostly in ancient times). Recently however they have suffered some losses due to a few reasons. The most common is mixture with the other religions. Conversion and in particular Islam is the bane of Hinduism. It is a policy of Hinduism not to convert people to their religion, forcefully or peacefully and it has very rarely happened in history. Islam on the other hand has no such withdrawals and during Hindu history forceful conversions have been very common. Pakistan was once a Hindu state but thanks to the rampaging Arabs marching through Hindus now only form a minority which is actually smaller then the Christian minority there and Hindus every year are fleeing to India. Hindus in Kashmir have been horrifically persecuted by Islamic terrorists and nearly the entire Kashmir Hindu community of 300,000 has immigrated to India. Even India itself for a time was in danger with Mughal, Dutch, French, British and Portuguese rulers all forcibly converting Hindus into Islam and Christianity until these religions formed 25% and 1.5% percent of the population respectively. During the Muslim rule of India an estimated 80 million Hindus were massacred. Hinduism is put even more at a disadvantage since although people can convert from Hinduism they cannot convert back.

With all these forces acting against them it is still amazing that Hinduism is still as large as it is today. Although still mainly placed in India Hinduism is starting to spread out to other places in the world. Hindu communities have been established in pacific islands as well as Africa and after World War 2 many Hindus moved to Britain. Australia also has a sizeable Hindu community of around 100,000, most of who have emigrated since the white Australia policy was canned. Particular aspects of Hinduism are also starting to spread such as the notion of rebirth which one in four adults in the United States believes in and Yoga is a practise gaining popularity through many non-Hindus. It is slowly becoming a worldwide religion again and as of 1995 Hindu population by continent has reached:

Asia: 8,000,000 Africa:1,535,000 Europe: 1,522,000 Latin America: 748,000 North America:1,185,000 Oceania: 305,000

References: Author Unknown, 2011, //Indians Abroad//, viewed 27 November 2011 <[] > Narayanan, V 2011, //Encyclopedia Britannica,// viewed 27 November <[]> Keene, M 1997, //Examining four religions,// viewed 27 November 2011 Rosen, J 2006, //Hinduism,// viewed 28 November 2011