77% of India’s Buddhists live in One State, which one?
India’s population of Buddhists in 2011 was 8.4 million. The Birthplace of Gautam Buddha ranks 9th in terms of Buddhist population worldwide and makes up for just 1.5% of the world’s Buddhists.
Buddhism disappeared from India over the last 1000 years but what is surprising is how concentrated India’s Buddhist Population is in one State.
77% of India’s 8.4 million Buddhists live in one State – MaharashtraCensus India 2011
The land of Ajanta Caves also has most of India’s Buddhist population. Most of India’s Buddhists are Dalits and converts from Hinduism. In 1951, there were about 2500 Buddhists in Maharashtra. It was Ambedkar’s call to conversion that drove the rapid conversion amongst Dalits to Buddhism.
