1.88 lakh persons in Tamil Nadu have stated ‘no religion’

Asked for his comments, Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) leader K. Veeramani said that the heading “Religion not stated” in the census table does not clearly indicate whether all those under the heading could be atheist or rationalist, so government should have separate columns for atheist and rationalist.

“If one wants to identify himself as atheist, he has no such column so he comes under the heading - Religion not stated. Census data can’t be taken as 100 per cent foolproof as nobody knows whether all people in the country were included in the exercise,” he said.

Hindu Munnani general secretary A.T. Elangovan said that his organisation did not believe in the census data as it does not reflect reality.

“Several who get converted to Christianity from Hinduism in Tamil Nadu still continue to claim as Hindus as per government records to get government benefits. So one could see fewer Christians under the Christian category in census, so we don’t believe the data,” he alleged.

As per the 2011 census data, there are 6,31,88,168 Hindus and 44,18,331 Christians in Tamil Nadu. Pointing out that it was Hinduism which allows persons to be identified as atheist, Mr Elangovan said that no other religion had such an option, so several persons who have come under ‘Religion not stated’ heading could also be Hindus, which did not get added to Hindus count.