Religious Landscape in Manipur
- Part 3 -

Prof RK Narendra Singh *

Irrespective of religion, the decadal growth rates for valley districts were running less than 17% which was less than the national figure of 17.64%. Highest decadal growth rate (16.56%) pertained to Imphal West and lowest (13.93%) to Bishnupur. Hindu community was growing faster in Thoubal district (20.82%), followed by in Imphal West and in Bishnupur districts with around 17% each, and lowest (14.37%) in Imphal East.

For Muslim highest growth rate (31.68%) noticed in Bishnupur and lowest (23.57%) in Thoubal, and in Imphal East and in Imphal West, the rate was about 27% each. Imphal West again had highest Christian’s growth rate (29.29%), next to the highest belonged to Imphal East (16.85 %), and negative growth rates were witnessed in two other valley districts viz., Bishnupur and Thoubal.

Jain had negative growth in all valley districts and Sikh had also negative growth in all valley districts except in Thoubal district while Buddhist population spurts occurred in all the districts of which more in Bishnupur. The variation of decadal growth rates over the four valley districts is found to be highly significant statistically. This is true in all religions.

In case of the hill district of the state, irrespective of religion, the decadal growth rates for hill districts were running above 20%. Senapati had highest decadal growth rates (206.13%) which was followed by Ukhrul (30.70%), Tamenglong (26.14%), Chandel (21.85%) and Churachandpur (20.28%) respectively. Technically unacceptable decadal growth rate for Senapati district is attributed with many population dynamics and causes, of them excluding population of three sub-divisions of Senapati district viz., Mao Maram, Paomata and Purul in the census, 2001 was one of the main reasons.

When bisecting religion wise, Chandel had highest Hindu decadal growth rate (89.61%), followed by Senapati (43.99%), Ukhrul (32.81%), Churachandpur (14.19%) and Tamenglong had negative growth (-6.02%). In case of Muslim population Senapati maintained highest growth (158.86%), and lowest and negative growth rates respectively related to Churachandpur and Tamenglong districts.

For Christian, the highest growth rate (247.78%) was detected in Senapati and next to it was correspondingly in Ukhrul (29.96%), Tamenglong (27.38%), Churachandpur (19.60%) and Chandel (18.25%). Buddhist and Jain were growing faster in all the hill districts while Sikh had negative growth in Senapati and Tamenglong districts. The decadal growth rates over the five hill districts are found to be highly significant except in cases of Sikh and Jain.

Summary:

Composition of Hindu population is reducing faster than it had in the previous decades, and Hindu is no more majority religion in Manipur. As it has lowest decadal growth rate of 18.56% and consequently in very near future, it turns to minority. On the contrary, composition of Christian population is growing faster from the last six decades and now it is par with Hindu population.

In the next decades it is certain that Christian religion becomes the majority religious community in the state as the present decadal growth rate is 59.85%. For the present decade, the composition of Muslim population is third in rank with a decadal growth rate of 25.61%.

The district decadal growth rates between the valley and hill as well as among the districts within valley and within hill, the decadal growth rates are significantly varied, which is found true in all the religion groups except for Sikh and Jain in hill. This is not a good sign for the state.

This trend of imbalance religious community has certain ramification upshot on the society as whole. To maintain harmony and peace among the all sections of the society, it is the high time to check these imbalance religious communities otherwise a serious demographic aftermath may soon be happen in this miniature state.

However, at present the data on Population by Religious Community-2011 speaks on religious composition only, and of course on this data one can forecast the future trend with possible catastrophe, but it does not speak much on the reasons behind it.

Whether it is caused by diverse demographic components like immigration and in-migration; variation of fertility, mortality and morbidity levels amongst the religious communities in the state or caused by any other man-made episode. Indeed, it is quite possible to diagnose the causes if one analyses microscopically through dissecting all the relevant census publications and allied ones viz., migration, fertility, mortality, caste series, so and so forth. If so it will be quite useful to the planners and administrators for remedial steps in order to save Manipur from this catastrophe.

Hope for the better future with peace and harmony!

References:

1. C -1 POPULATION BY RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY -2011.
Govt. of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Office of the
Registrar General of Commissioners, India
http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/c-01.html

C-1 Annexure - Details of Sects/Beliefs/Religions clubbed under Specific Religious Community. Govt. of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Office of the Registrar General of Commissioners, India

C - 1 APPENDIX - Details of religious communities shown under ‘Other religions and persuasions’ in main table C-1. Govt. of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Office of the Registrar General of Commissioners, India

Census 2001. Religion Table C-1. Introductory Note. Govt. of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Office of the Registrar General of Commissioners, India. Statistical Abstract Manipur 2009. Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Govt. of Manipur.

Concluded