The latest report published by the Pew Research centre ranks India as the worst placed among populous countries in terms of religious freedom, a report said.
The Pew Report uses two indices – the Government Restriction Index (GRI), measuring government restriction on free practice of religion, and the Social Hostilities Index (SHI) which measures hostilities around the issue of religion. India ranked “very high” on the SHI index with an index value of 8.7 out of 10, being the worst among the 198 countries across the world.
In the case of SHI index, India ranks bottom along with countries such as Nigeria, Syria and Iraq. India ranked 4th in terms of SHI index. Syria lies in the bottom with an index value of 9.2 out of 10.
The research centre considers incidents of crime/acts of violence motivated by religious hatred, use of force to dominate public life with their perspective on religion, preventing religious groups from operating in the country, harassment of women for violating religious dress codes, etc. to mark the social hostility.
Under the Hindutva rule, attacks on freedom of expression and religious intolerance are increasing in the country. The world’s largest democracy ranks 42nd in terms of government restriction on religion.
The repeated instances of violence committed by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes are the main reason behind India’s social hostility, the lead researcher of the Pew Research centre was quoted by HuffPost as saying. Between 2007 and 2015, India’s average SHI score was as high as 8.9.