By Syed Khalique Ahmed
New Delhi, July 8, 2023: A new research has exposed claims of many right-wingers who demand a ban on polygyny among Muslims, blaming the community for India’s population growth.
The latest research on polygyny tendencies by the International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), deemed-to-be-university, and an autonomous organization under the federal Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has concluded that Christians as a faith group are the most polygamous in India, followed by Muslims and Hindus.
The researchers who conducted the study are Harihar Sahoo, R. Nagarajan and Chaitali Mandal.
The research is based on the data collected from the fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) conducted between 2019-2021. The NFHS data is based on the statements of married women who stated that their husbands had other wives besides themselves.
According to IIPS data, the rate of polygyny (men having more than one wife) among Christians as per NFHS-5 is 2.1 percent against 1.9 percent among Muslims and 1.3 percent among Hindus. Thus, the difference between Muslims and Hindus polygyny rate is just 0.6 percent.
Likewise, polygyny rate was found to be 0.5 percent among Sikhs during the period covered by NFHS-5, 1.3 percent among Buddhists and 2.5 percent among others (religion/caste group not stated).
According to the research, the national average of polygyny is 1.4 percent, indicating a declining trend because it was 1.9 percent during NHFS-3 (2006-2006) and 1.6 during NHFS-4 (2015-16). The research says that polygyny decreased in almost every state from 2015-2016 to 2019-2021, with the exception of nine states (Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Tripura, Maharashtra, and Puducherry).
Though the polygyny is not legal in India for any community other than Muslims, the IIPS research says it is still prevalent among non-Muslims in various parts of India.
Polygyny in India is more prevalent in northeastern and the southern states of India, as well Sikkim bordering Nepal. According to the report, Meghalaya (6.1%), Mizoram(4.1%) and Arunachal Pradesh (3.7%) in the Northeast have the largest prevalence of polygyny. The current rate of polygyny is 3.9 percent in Sikkim.
In South India, the highest prevalence of polygyny is in Telangana (2.9%), Karnataka (2.4), Puducherry (2.4%) and Tamil Nadu (2%). In South India, practitioners of polygyny are generally Hindus.
The districts with high rate of polygyny are: East Jantia Hills (20%), West Jantia Hills (14.5%), West Khasi (10.9%), South West Khasi Hills (6.4 %), Ribhoi (6.2%), East Khasi Hills (5.8%), all in Meghalaya.
The other districts are: Kra Daadi (16.4%), East Kameng(10.2%), Papum Pare(6.9%), Kurung Kumey(6.6%), Lower Subansir(5%), Upper Subansiri(4.9%), all in Arunachal Pradesh. Other districts with a high rate of polygyny are Bijapur (5.9) in Chhattisgarh, and Yadgir(46%) in Karnataka.
Lowest polygyny in regions with Muslim concentration
What needs to be noted is that the states or regions with Muslim dominance are among the states with least prevalence of polygyny. For instance, Lakshadweep with almost 100 percent of Muslim population and Jammu and Kashmir with overwhelming majority of Muslims have 0.5 % and 0.4% of polygyny, respectively, busting the politically-motivated claims of Hindu right-wingers that every Muslim man practices polygyny.
More prevalent among less educated, rural areas
The study indicates that polygynous marriages are more prevalent among women who had no formal education (2.4%) than among those who had higher educational (0.3%) qualifications. Polygyny was most prevalent among the poorest women and women who had no formal education. It is also most prevalent in rural areas (1.6%) than in urban areas (0.6%). Polygyny is also more prevalent among poorer people (2.4%) and very less (0.5%) among rich people.
Polygamy in other countries
According to Pew Research Center’s survey by Stephanie Kramer in 2020, polygamy is prevalent in several countries of the world like Germany, Russia,, China, Iran, Canada and the US where it is less than 0.5 percent. In Iraq, it is 2%.
West and Central African countries like Burkina Faso (36%), Mali (34%) and Nigeria (28%) are the polygyny centers of the world, with people living with more than one wife. Religion wise, they are mostly Christians and Muslims. But even people belonging to folk religions or no religion at all in Burkina Faso practice polygyny (45 %).
Rare polygamy in Muslim majority countries
Pew Research says that many of the countries that permit polygamy have Muslim majorities, but the practice of polygamy is rare in many of them. The report says that countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Egypt are Muslim majority and polygamy is allowed there but only less than one percent of men live with more than one or two wives. The Pew Research is, however, silent on polygamy in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and their neighbouring Muslim majority countries because of lack of data from these countries.
One-in-Five US Adults say polygamy is morally acceptable
According to Pew Research, one-in-five US adults consider polygamy as morally acceptable. The Pew report about the US is based on a Gallup Poll conducted in 2003. More than conservatives (9%), liberals (34%) see polygamy as morally acceptable.
Source: indiatomorrow.net
I don’t know how reliable this data is. Neo Christian tribals may have had more than one spouse before conversion but I doubt if the incidence would be so high as to impact the national average. Also factor in the number of celibates, both male and female in the Catholic Church.