Literacy Patterns of Major Religious Groups in India

Literacy is one of the qualitative aspects of human life and it mirrors the level of development of a country. The Indian Census follows the commonly applied defmition of literacy as an ability to read and write with understanding. Although literacy is not the same as education, it is nevertheless the first indispensable step towards it (Saini, 1975). As such, literacy rate itself is a good indicator of the socio-economic progress of a country as also of a religious group. The present paper attempts to review literacy pattern of major religious groups like Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian and Jain. The paper also review on the gender gap in literacy in these religious groups in India.