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Comment by j0e1 | Hacker News Reader

>because Hindus are a dying majority in India.

Curious what you meant by that. Care to explain?

Hindus have always been the majority on the Indian subcontinent (around 90%), similar to how the majority of Americans (after the 1700s) have been white. The prime worry of the Hindu population seems to be that gradually they would represent smaller proportions of the overall population. The reasoning behind this is that although you can convert to other religions, it isn't possible to convert to Hinduism. In 1951 Hindus were 84% of the population. In 2011, that had dropped to 79%. [1]

With the loss of majority status, it becomes difficult to dominate the political discourse like Hindus do today. Just like how it was impossible to think of a non-white person becoming President of the US, it is also impossible to think of a non-Hindu holding any serious power in India for the foreseeable future.

Note for those unfamiliar with India - the language Hindi is unrelated to the religion Hinduism. Its possible to be a Hindi speaker and not a Hindu and also possible to be a Hindu and not a Hindi speaker.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Census_of_India

It is always possible to convert to Hinduism. There is no authority that decides if you are Hindu or not. You just are if you believe that you are.

Lets I digress. You can be a Hindu today if you want. Just start incorporating Hindu philosophies in your life. Choose an atheist one if you like.

PS: Not advocating anyone to convert to Hinduism. In fact I think that the lower castes should abandon Hinduism if the upper castes don't reform fast enough.

> it is also impossible to think of a non-Hindu holding any serious power in India for the foreseeable future.

the last prime minister was a Sikh, the leader of the party which was in power for the last 10 years was an Italian Catholic.

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