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→Religious matters
India has a long and rich religious history. Four major religions — Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism — originated in India. Others, including Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islamism, have been imported.
Islamism has not co-existed well with the other religions because of its aggressive manner of pushing [[Islam]] on non-Muslims with the sword and by such tactics as forced circumcision. For example, more than 300 British soldiers were captured by Muslims in 1780 and forcibly [[circumcised]].<refname="fcirc">{{URLwikipedia|Forced_circumcision|Forced circumcision}}</ref>
The British Raj assumed governance of India from the East India Company in 1858.<ref>{{URLwikipedia|British_Raj|British Raj}}</ref> The British Raj decided to partition India in 1947, essentially for religious reasons. Two regions in the north of India — East and West Pakistan — would be assigned to Pakistan, which would be a home for Muslims. East Pakistan later became Bangladesh.<ref name="partition1947">{{URLwikipedia|Partition_of_India|Partition of India}}</ref>
The remainder of India would be a home for non-Muslims.
Hindus, Sikhs, and adherents to other religions would be protected from most of the Muslims who were now in a separate nation. Pakistan now has 241.5 million Muslims and Bangladesh now has 169 million Muslims who have been removed from India and who cannot conveniently prey upon the non-Muslim citizens of India.
The partition caused a mass migration with Muslims moving from India into Pakistan and non-Muslims moving from Pakistan into India. Muslims continued to conduct forced circumcisions at this time.<ref name="fcirc" />
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