I know they are fundamentally against Islam, and I can't blame them. But, Buddhism is much more peaceful. I heard that some Indians feel that Buddhism is a break away version of Hinduism? Are there still Buddhists in India today?

There are still Buddhists in India. Buddhism is not a breakaway....its still part of the dharmic religions family. Its simply not as popular anymore.....

A significant minority of Indians (about 13%) are Muslims themselves.

Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism are all Dharmic religions descended from the same Vedic religion. Many Hindus revere Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu.

Buddhism and Jainism were very popular in ancient India, but they have now largely been replaced by Islam, Christianity and Sikhism in terms of popularity but Buddhism and Jainism are still practiced in India to a lesser extent. There has been an attempt at a neo-Buddhism revival in recent years though.

Most Indians don't have any real beef with Islam itself as long as Muslims don't go around telling everyone their religon is better, however most people do have real beef with Pakistan even if they are just going with the flow. In India, Buddhism isn't really percieved as a fundamentally different religon.

The Gujarati government also classifies Buddhism and Jainism under the Hinduism label.

Most acknowledge some similarities from what I know.


That Colorado Indian guy who killed his girlfriend's mom said that he was buddhist in his myspace profile.

Some lower-caste Hindus have converted to Buddhism, such as Dr. Ambedkar.

I haven't met an Indian-Buddhist here in America though

I'm a Theravada Buddhist convert.
I was born Brahmin

I did a good deal of research on why Buddhism stopped being dominant in India. There are a ton of reasons and all of them are relatively accurate. Circumstances and fanatic Hindus just tied together and slayed Buddhism and the Muslim invaders hacked its head off.

The Sinhalese saved my form of Buddhism and I am greatful.

I don't agree with the Neo-Buddhists. They are butchering the religion just like the creators of heterodox schools like Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna, and Kālacakrayāna except this time what they are doing is basically wrong. Buddhism does not equal politics.

I'm an indian buddhist...born hindu. I have experience of both, since they are both dharmic based, they are very similar. There are differences tho, but I think that one could say they are intercompatible religions. For instance, buddha never denied being hindu, his take on things was just different and had never been done before.

Do you mean that you think they are compatible religions rather than incompatible?

I've always thought of Buddhism and Hinduism as being the same, but with slight alterations in Buddhism.

Kind of like Buddhism being a reformed Hinduism.

i've heard there is a pretty decent sized Bhuddist population in sri lanka. maybe it's mainly the sinhalese sri lankans.

Yeah I think 70% of the Sri Lankan population is Buddhist.

Buddhism, Hinduism all the same, Hinduism's own essence has been manipulated and changed through thousands of years, its not how you believe how you eat defines pillars of dharmic faith but it is in the deep routed phisolosophy which defines how we eat and how we drink.



The clash between non abrahmic faiths not understanding dharmic faith can be well summed up as,

Any religious debate between Hindus and the Judeo-Christian-Islamic (JCI) triad seems to be a parallel discourse. Here are a couple of reasons for such disconnect:

Hindus argue abstract philosophy. JCI argue dogmatic theology or “throw the books” at non-believers.

Hindus are governed by Social controls – that is there is no dominating hierarchical power structure. JCI on the other hand are organized as a bureaucracy in a top-down hierarchy.

Hindu philosophers are more interested in pursuing ideas, JCI are interested in pursuing souls.

Hindus, who are not philosophers, blindly follow tradition and indulge in ritualistic worship. JCI view the practices and traditions as the essence of Hinduism and thus find fault in it constantly, ignoring or being ignorant of Hindu philosophy.

Ironically, Hindus are in a Social Controlled organization, yet seek to establish hierarchy – a meritocracy. Whereas, the JCI are organized as a bureaucracy, yet they attempt to seek equality among all participants that adhere to their belief system.

I am sure the list is longer, but the parallel talk will continue until, all the intellectual elite in JCI see the brilliance of Hinduism, and all the “duffers” choose JCI. Now how is that for elitism?



I'm not saying any religions are bad, There are good Muslims and bad, good christians but Evangelicals are really bad, Judaism apparently is very nice as they have never done anything to dharmic faiths.

Jews in India has lived peacefully for thousand of years..

Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism are all classify as "Dharmic" religions. They generally get along fine.

Its the Abrahamic ones (Judiasm, Christianity, Islam ...) that tend to have conflicts more.

yeah the philosophical aspects of Hinduism are brilliant, it's all the superstitions and ritualism that really bog it down. It also suffers from traditionalists and people who try to dogmatize it instead of seeing it as an ongoing and growing philosophical tradition.

This is the matter of personal perception.


Most Hindus do not see Hinduism as a philosophy (per say) but as a religion.

Whether you call it a philosophy or a religion, any hindu who denies the philosophical aspect of Hinduism is denying by far the most important elements of Hinduism.

Thanks to Buddhism, India was taken over by islam. But yeah, it's part of Hinduism.