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Hinduism

Spread of Hinduism

Hinduism is the third largest world religion after Christianity and Islam. Hinduism comes originally from populous India, which is why it is very widespread, with about one billion people. And 92 percent of all Hindus come from India. With more than 3,500 years, it is also one of the oldest religions with widespread practice today.
Distribution Hinduism



Hinduism (also known as "Sanatana Dharma") is a polytheistic or henotheistic religion. Unlike Christianity, for example, there is no single god or all-father. It is rather a complex of variously shaped traditions and religions that have developed and overlapped over time. The biggest Hindu currents are Vishnuism, Shaktism and Shivaism.

CountryDistributionTotal
India79.8 %1,137,769,000
Nepal81.3 %24,418,000
Bangladesh9.6 %16,258,000
Indonesia1.7 %4,654,000
Pakistan2.0 %4,628,000
United States of America1.0 %3,319,000
Sri Lanka12.6 %2,792,000
Malaysia6.3 %2,115,000
China0.1 %1,426,000
United Kingdom1.3 %875,000
Mauritius48.5 %614,000
Kuwait8.3 %353,000
United Arab Emirates3.6 %337,000
Qatar12.0 %323,000
Singapore5.2 %284,000
Trinidad and Tobago18.2 %278,000
Fiji27.9 %258,000
Oman5.3 %240,000
Guyana28.4 %228,000
Bhutan22.1 %172,000
Suriname27.4 %168,000
Bahrain9.8 %143,000
New Zealand2.1 %108,000


Phases of dissemination

The oldest knowledge about Hinduism goes back to the third millennium B.C.E with the Vorvedic religions. Within India, the spread of Hinduism was slow at first, and it was not until the 12th century C.E. that it displaced the predominant Buddhism to second place. Even today, in many countries Hindu and Buddhist traditions still mix.

In the neighboring countries of Southeast Asia, the number of followers rose steadily during the first 600 years after Christ. In Burma, Cambodia and Malaysia, trade routes played an important role in the development of Hindu communities. In many of these regions, Hinduism was later largely replaced by Buddhism.

There are also striking Hindu shares in the countries that belonged to the British Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. India also belonged to it from 1858 to 1947, which is why numerous traders and workers moved to the other British territories. The distribution areas in the Middle East and North America have similar backgrounds, where numerous Indian workers have been drawn for about 30 years.

Hindu Dharma in Bali

The Indonesian island Bali plays a special role in the spread of Hinduism. Indonesia as a whole has a clearly predominant Muslim population with a share of almost 90 percent. Only on the island of Bali is the situation reversed, where 90 percent of the population belongs to the Hindu Dharma religion. The first Hindus already existed here in the 8th century. Bali became the "Island of a Thousand Temples" from 1478 onwards, when the Hindus of the neighboring island of Java, who had been ousted by Islam, moved to Bali.