Religion in South Asia
[4] Early Christianity and Islam were introduced into coastal regions of South Asia by merchants who settled among the local populations.
[14] Centuries of Islamic invasion and rule over South Asia in the medieval era began to change the religious character of the region.
[16] Nepal's formation during this period occurred in part due to the desire of Hindus to avoid being influenced by the dominant Muslim Mughal Empire and British Christian missionaries.
The Epic and Early Puranic period, from c. and 500 CE, saw the onset of the Hindu synthesis, followed by the classical "Golden Age" of India (), which coincides with the Gupta Empire.
Islam is the second-largest religion in South Asia, with more than 650 million Muslims living there, forming about one-third of the region's population.
Islam first spread along the coastal regions of the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, almost as soon as it started in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Arab traders brought it to South Asia.
Christianity then spread through the missionary work of his apostles, first in the Levant and taking roots in the major cities such as Jerusalem and Antioch.
According to tradition, further eastward expansion occurred via the preaching of Thomas the Apostle, who established Christianity in the Parthian Empire (Iran) and India.
It has significant minority populations in South Korea, Taiwan, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Israel, Palestine (including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and several other countries in Asia with a total Christian population of more than 295 million.
The core beliefs and practices of Sikhism, articulated in the Guru Granth Sahib and other Sikh scriptures, include faith and meditation in the name of the one creator (Ik Onkar), the divine unity and equality of all humankind, engaging in selfless service to others (sevā), striving for justice for the benefit and prosperity of all (sarbat da bhala), and honest conduct and livelihood.
Sikhism emphasizes meditation and remembrance as a means to feel God's presence (simran), which can be expressed musically through kirtan or internally through naam japna ().
The Buddhist tradition of Vajrayana is sometimes classified as a part of Mahayana Buddhism, but some scholars consider it to be a different branch altogether.
Central to understanding Jain philosophy is the concept of bhedavijñāna, or the clear distinction in the nature of the soul and non-soul entities.
This principle underscores the innate purity and potential for liberation within every soul, distinct from the physical and mental elements that bind it to the cycle of birth and rebirth.
Recognizing and internalizing this separation is essential for spiritual progress and the attainment of samyaka darśana or self realization, which marks the beginning of the aspirant's journey towards liberation.
Jain monks take five main vows: ahiṃsā (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing), brahmacharya (chastity), and aparigraha (non-possessiveness).
Parasparopagraho jīvānām (the function of souls is to help one another) is the faith's motto, and the Namokar Mantra is its most common and strongest prayer.
Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the name Zoroaster ( ).
Among the world's oldest organized faiths, its adherents exalt an uncreated, benevolent, and all-wise deity known as Ahura Mazda (), who is hailed as the supreme being of the universe.
In the 7th century CE, the rise of Islam and the ensuing Muslim conquest of Iran marked the beginning of the decline of Zoroastrianism.
The persecution of Zoroastrians by the early Muslims in the nascent Rashidun Caliphate prompted much of the community to migrate to the Indian subcontinent, where they were granted asylum and became the progenitors of today's Parsis.
Its oldest and most central component are the Gathas, purported to be the direct teachings of Zoroaster and his account of conversations with Ahura Mazda.
Zoroaster proclaimed that Ahura Mazda was the supreme creator and sustaining force of the universe, working in gētīg (the visible material realm) and mēnōg (the invisible spiritual and mental realm) through the Amesha Spenta, a class of seven divine entities that represent various aspects of the universe and the highest moral good.
Inspired by European fascism,[83][84] the Hindutva movement has been variously described as a variant of right-wing extremism,[85] as "almost fascist in the classical sense", adhering to a concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony[86][87] and as a separatist ideology.
[101][102] With financial and political support from the Sikh diaspora, the movement flourished in the Indian state of Punjab – which has a Sikh-majority population – continuing through the 1970s and 1980s, and reaching its zenith in the late 1980s.
The Sikh separatist leader Jagjit Singh Chohan said that during his talks with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the latter affirmed his support for the Khalistan movement in retaliation for the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, which resulted in the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan.
[107][108] By the mid-1990s, the insurgency petered out, with the last major incident being the assassination of Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was killed in a bomb blast by a member of Babbar Khalsa.
[109] The movement failed to reach its objective for multiple reasons, including violent police crackdowns on separatists, factional infighting, and disillusionment from the Sikh population.
