It is contrary to common knowledge that Muslims are more literate in seven Indian states than Hindus and believe it or not, one of these states is Gujarat, where they were killed in thousands in 2002. The credit for finding out this data goes to a new book authored by a demographer Mahendra K. Premi.
At an all-India level, while the literacy rate of the male population for all religious groups is 75.3 per cent and of Hindus is 76.2 per cent, it is 67.6 per cent for Muslims, says the book Population of India in New Millennium: Census 2001.
In Gujarat while Hindu males are having a literacy rate of 79.1 per cent, Muslim males are doing fairly well with a rate of 82.9 per cent. Again, in this state, 63.5 per cent Muslim females are literate compared to 56.7 per cent Hindus.
In Andhra Pradesh, while the Hindu male literacy rate is 69.5 per cent, the Muslims are having a higher rate of 76.5 per cent. And, here also the Muslim females are leading the Hindu females with literacy rate of 59.1 per cent against the Hindu females of whom 49.2 per cent are literate.
Mahendra Premi’s book reveals that both Muslim males and females have got better literacy rate in seven states – Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.