India is among just six countries worldwide with a "very high" score for religion related social hostilities in 2023, according to a new Pew Research Center study, with the year's communal violence in Manipur featuring among the incidents the report cites for the country.
The study, released by the Washington based think tank on June 15, examined two separate measures across 198 countries and territories. The Government Restrictions Index (GRI) tracks laws, policies and actions by governments that curb religious freedom, while the Social Hostilities Index (SHI) records religion related harassment and violence carried out by private individuals, groups and organisations.
Pew placed India alongside Nigeria, Israel, Syria, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the "very high" SHI category, the most severe band on the index. Each of the six countries scored at least 7.5 out of 10 in 2023. India held this very high rating for a second straight year, the report's own classification shows, while Israel and Bangladesh entered the category for the first time in 2023 and Afghanistan, Egypt and Iraq dropped out of it over the same period.
India did not, however, feature among the five most populous countries with the highest scores on the Government Restrictions Index, a list led by China, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt and Russia. Looking at combined scores on both indexes among the world's 25 most populous countries, Pew placed India together with Egypt, Pakistan, Iran and Indonesia among those with the highest overall levels of restriction and hostility in 2023.
Manipur conflict features in country findings
Among the incidents documented for India, the report gives considerable space to the ethnic conflict in Manipur between the Meitei community, which is largely Hindu, and the Kuki community, which is largely Christian. The unrest followed a court ruling that granted the Meitei "Scheduled Tribe" status.
Citing the U.S. State Department's 2023 report on International Religious Freedom, Pew records that more than 250 churches were torched, over 200 people were killed and more than 60,000 people were displaced during the conflict. Both Hindu temples and Christian churches came under attack, though, as the State Department put it, "more churches than Hindu temples were destroyed."
The report also notes an attack on the Bnei Menashe, a small Jewish community drawn from ethnic Kukis. One community member was killed, two synagogues were destroyed and more than 1,000 people from the community were displaced, Pew's account states.
Haryana demolitions also recorded
Separately, the report documents the demolition of homes and structures in Haryana in August 2023, days after communal violence broke out over a Hindu procession through a Muslim majority area. More than 500 people, mostly Muslims, were forcibly evicted when authorities tore down 1,208 structures. The government maintained the buildings were linked to rioters or built illegally on government land, but Pew notes that media reports and civic organisations said the demolitions disproportionately targeted Muslims, including a Rohingya refugee camp. The demolitions were eventually stopped after Haryana's High Court intervened.
Part of a wider regional pattern
India falls within the report's Asia Pacific grouping of 50 countries, where the median GRI score climbed to 4.7 in 2023, the highest such figure recorded since Pew started compiling the index in 2007. The region's median SHI score rose to 2.5, the second highest level it has recorded in the study's history.
Globally, the report found that 55 countries had high or very high levels of social hostilities involving religion in 2023, up from 45 the previous year, with researchers attributing much of the increase to the worldwide fallout of the Israel-Gaza war. Fifty eight countries recorded high or very high government restrictions, just one short of the record set in 2022.
The Pew study does not assign India an individual numerical score on either index, nor does it record a year on year change for the country, details it provides for several other nations named in the report.
