Madhya
Pradesh is a land that embraces all the major religions of India -
Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism and Christianity. Even
though the state is a common abode of people belonging to numerous
religions, castes and creeds, no internecine feuds exist amongst them.
In fact, the state upholds 'Unity in Diversity', on which rests the
entire concept of secularism in India. However, the Aryans and the
tribal people are the two main races of the state.The people of northern region and those of the Narmada Valley are mostly of the Aryan race. Whereas, the south and east regions of Madhya Pradesh domicile a considerable populace of tribal people. In fact, almost 40% of the total population in the state comprises of tribal natives. The demographic pattern, as regards to the population of the country, shows that most of the people in the state are followers of Hinduism, about 91.1% according to the 2000 census.
Muslim comprises a sizeable minority of 6.40%, followed by people professing the Jain faith (0.9%). Christians and Buddhists are significantly lower in number, being only 0.30% of the total population. People belonging to the Sikh community are lowest, only about 0.20% of the population. Apart from all these major religions, the agro-climatic disparity witnessed in the various regions has also resulted in the unique tribal mosaic of people found in the state.
