Indian religions Historically, the Southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan had long periods of Hindu-Buddhist predominance. There are about 1,300 Afghan Sikhs and a little over 600 Hindus living in different cities but mostly in Kabul, Jalalabad, and Ghazni.
Kabul was the capital of the great Hindu Shahi kings. Afghanistan was a great center of Vedic culture. There were many Hindu temples in Afghanistan. Some temples in Kabul have survived the recent turmoil.
That number dropped sharply to 15,000 when the mujahideen was in power during the 1990's and remained at that level during the Taliban regime. It is now estimated that only 1,350 Hindus and Sikhs remain in the country.
Islam is the official religion of Afghanistan and the majority of the population is Muslim (approximately 99.7%). There are some very small residual communities of other faiths, including Christians, Sikhs, Hindus and Baha'i.
India has no military presence in Afghanistan. An estimated 3,000 Indian nationals in Afghanistan worked for reconstruction companies, international aid agencies or diplomats working at the consulates and embassies. As part of its humanitarian mission, India established field clinics and a children's hospital.
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Before the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, the Afghan people were multi-religious. Religious persecution, discrimination, and forced conversion of Hindus in Afghanistan perpetrated by Muslims, has caused the Afghan Hindus, along with Buddhist and Sikh population, to dwindle from Afghanistan, and mostly to India.
The first mention of a Hindu in Afghanistan appears in the 982 AD Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, where it speaks of a king in "Ninhar" (Nangarhar), who shows a public display of conversion to Islam, even though he had over 30 wives, which are described as "Muslim, Afghan, and Hindu" wives.
Afghanistan is an Islamic state, in which most citizens follow Islam. As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam. According to The World Factbook, Sunni Muslims constitute between 84.7 and 89.7% of the population, and Shia Muslims between 10 and 15%. Other religions are followed by 0.3% of the population.
The Hindu Shahi is known to be the last Hindu king of Afghanistan and was famous for their war against the Ghaznavids in which they found support of Rajputs and Punjabi Hindus, but were finally defeated.
Before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, there were a number of religions practiced in modern day Afghanistan, including Zoroastrianism, Ancient Iranian religions, Buddhism and Hinduism.
Once home to a thriving and ancient population of Hindus (and later Sikhs) dating back to the Indus Valley Civilization more than 3,000 years ago, Afghanistan is now 99.7% Muslim.
Kaiyuan Temple was one of the few surviving Hindu temples in mainland China. The central figures of veneration in the temple are the Five Tathāgathas from Chinese Esoteric Buddhism who are enshrined in the temple's Mahavira Hall.
Prithviraj Chauhan is mentioned in history textbooks today mainly because he lost a major battle in 1192 against Shihab al-Din Muhammad Ghuri, based in Afghanistan.
Bahlul Lodi was the founder of the first Afgan rule in India. In 1451 after defeating Sayyid ruler Alauddin Alam Shah Sayyid, he founded Lodi dynasty.
From the Middle Ages to around 1750 the eastern regions of Afghanistan such as Kabulistan and Zabulistan (now Kabul, Kandahar and Ghazni) were recognized as being part of Indian subcontinent (Al-Hind), while its western parts were included in Khorasan, Tokharistan and Sistan.
Hinduism is a minor religion in Iran. As of 2015, there were 39,200 Hindus residing in Iran. Two Hindu temples were built by the Arya Samaj, one in Bandar Abbas and one in Zahedan, both funded by Indian merchants in the late 19th century. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada traveled to Tehran in 1976.
“A group of at least 100 Indians are still trapped in the country after the Indian government failed to evacuate them following the Taliban takeover,” says Manav Sachdeva, a former senior official with the UN in Afghanistan.
Brahmans are located throughout India and there are influential Brahmans among all the major language groups. Brahmans tend to be a higher percentage in the north Indian language groups than they are among the south Indian language groups.
During the 1980s Soviet–Afghan War, many Afghan Sikhs fled to India, where 90% of global Sikh population lives; a second, much larger wave followed following the 1992 fall of the Najibullah regime.
Harris Park, a small suburb next to Parramatta is home to migrants from Lebanon, Italy, Greece, and China. In the last 10 to 15 years it has become the go-to spot for Indian migrants, it said. A 2021 census revealed that 45 per cent of the 5,043 Harris Park residents have Indian roots, the report said.
As a result, Indians now account for 2.8% of the population, compared with China's 2.3%, while Britons lead with 3.8%. Yet reflecting the distortions of the pandemic, the proportion of Australia's population who are overseas-born actually edged down to 29.1% in 2021 from 29.8% a year earlier.
At the 2021 census the states with the largest number of people nominating Indian ancestry were: New South Wales (350,770), Victoria (250,103), Queensland (93,648), Western Australia (77,357) and South Australia (43,598).