Places of Worship in Bangalore

Places Of Worship In Bangalore

Bangalore (Bengaluru), the capital of Karnataka state, India, reflects its multireligious and cosmopolitan character by its more than 1000 temples, 400 mosques, 100 churches, 40 Jain derasars, three Sikh gurdwaras, two Buddhist viharas and one Parsi fire temple located in an area of 741 km² of the metropolis. The religious places are further represented to include the few members of the Jewish] community who are making their presence known through the Chabad that they propose to establish in Bengaluru and the fairly large number of Bahá'ís whose presence is registered with a society called the Bahá'í Centre. In the demographically diverse, major economic hub and India's fastest-growing major metropolis of Bengaluru, the number of religious places of each religion reported reflects growth in proportion to the population growth. According to the 2001 census of India, 79.37% of Bangalore's population is Hindu, roughly the same as the national average. Muslims comprise 13.37% of the population, which again is roughly the same as the national average, while Christians and Jains account for 5.79% and 1.05% of the population, respectively, double that of their national averages. Anglo-Indians also form a substantial group within the city.

The World Council of Churches and Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD), in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of India on January 1, 2007, signed by 102 Christians of the city stated:

While we decry the attempts of religious leaders and fundamentalists of all varieties to convert and re-convert, we pledge to work diligently for inter-faith amity in the best traditions of Indian culture. We hereby call on all Indians to join in our efforts to preserve a pluralist India founded on secularism and religious inclusion and governed by a Constitution that guarantees all its citizens all freedoms vital to the functioning of a modern democracy.

The various types of religious institutions of different cultures and sub–cultures that coexist in the city also reflect the eclectic mix of languages spoken in Bangalore.