Leaving Religion in India

Religious deconstruction in India is a complicated category because the Hindu tradition itself is much more diffuse and family-cultural than the institutional religions Westerners think of as "religion." Many people who would be "ex-Hindu" in a Western sense never went through a doctrinal break with Hinduism; they simply stopped doing the rituals their family expected, married outside their caste or jati, and built a more secular life in an urban context. The hard exits are usually about caste, marriage, and the family’s response to nonconformity, more than about belief in specific gods.

There are also two significant minority deconstructions happening. The Indian Muslim exit, especially in conservative families in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Kashmir, and Hyderabad, follows the patterns of the broader ex-Muslim experience with strong family and community cost. The Indian Christian exit is concentrated in Pentecostal and evangelical contexts, especially in Andhra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Mizoram, and looks more like a Pentecostal exit than like an Indian-religious one.

For Indian readers, the pillar pages on Islam, Pentecostal Christianity, and on family shunning will probably fit better than a single "leaving Hinduism" page would, because the Indian situation is too plural to compress into one tradition page. The page on the spouse who still believes will also be especially relevant given how many Indian deconstructions are entwined with marriage politics.