Kerala Population and Religions: Amusing Features

In my earlier hub "Music has no language", I had narrated about the strange habits of Malayalees (the people of Kerala). The people's love for music from five languages was illustrated in that hub.

I am from Kerala. It is also called "The God's Own Country". The irresistible charm of this land must be the reason for coining such a title to her.

Kerala shines with a lot of positive feature. 100% literacy (the only state in India with that record), high living standards matching with many West European countries, progress in the fields of education, health care, social uplift, etc.

But above all, what makes Kerala a unique place is the communal harmony among its citizens. It is very much important when Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike have a strong presence here.

As per the Census of 2011, Kerala population comes to 33,387,677 persons. It includes 16,021,290 males and 17,366,387 females. Kerala is the only state in India, females outnumber men with a sex ratio (females per 1000 males) of 1084. It is a healthy figure. Though this tiny state accounts for only 1% of the total area of India (India 3,287,263 Sq. Km. and Kerala 38, 863 Sq. Km), it contains about 3% of the country's population. It is one of the densest states in the country. 859 people per square km are the state's population density and three times higher the national average.

Kerala recorded a decadal population growth of +4.86% (1,546,303) persons. The state also stands tall in human development scale and related indices among the Indian states.

Now let's have a look into Kerala's Religious Population.

(Note: The above figures are extracted from Census Reports of 2001. Currently, a Census work is being carried on in India. The Census 2011 Report will be published this year.)

While studying the above chart, we can understand one interesting thing that Kerala has got a mixed population of all the three major religions in the world. No other state in India has such feature. Interestingly, Kerala has the largest representation of Christians in India. Out of the total 14 districts in Kerala (except Malappuram, where Muslims are a majority), Hindus constitute the majority in all other districts. Though Christians rank in 3^rdplace, they are not a majority in any of the districts. But again note: In India the largest concentration of Christians are in Kerala with a number of 60,57,427. My Hub "Christianity in Kerala" will help the readers to study and refer more about Kerala Christians.

Here in Kerala you can see temples, churches and mosques exist in the close vicinity. No major communal clashes were reported from anywhere. All live in peace and harmony. Festivals of all these three religions are celebrated with an equal degree of passion and fashion. Though Onam is a Hindu festival, both Muslims and Christians also celebrate it. They purchase new clothes and make big shopping during the season. It is also the national festival of Kerala.

Hindus visit and pray at Churches and vice versa. You will find stars, illuminations and other decorations of Christmas in the houses of non-Christians too.

Like Islam, Christianity was also propagated in Kerala and it is believed that the religion spread to other parts of India from Kerala! Thus, the "God's own country" is showing a classic example of religious amity to the rest of the world.