Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation

What This Report Is

Pew Research Center published “Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation” in 2021. Researchers interviewed 29,999 Indian adults face-to-face in 17 languages. The survey covers religious identity, attitudes toward other faiths, and views on segregation across India.

What We Looked At

How a study is done determines whether you can trust what it found. The Citation Integrity Dashboard (CID) evaluates methodology (how the research was done) — not conclusions (what the research found). We classified this report as a Survey, which means it collects original data from a defined group of people using questionnaires. Surveys are scored on sampling design, question quality, and data transparency.

What We Found

Start with where this report is strongest. It scores 9 out of 10 on Coverage Symmetry (a dimension, or scoring category, that measures whether a study treats all groups equally). Pew asked identical questions to Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, and Jains. The survey instrument itself is symmetric by design. That is rare in this space.

Sampling also scored 9 out of 10. Case Capture and Sampling (a dimension that measures whether the data collection process can support the claims being made) checks whether the people surveyed actually represent the population being studied. Pew used stratified multistage probability sampling. That means researchers divided India into geographic layers, then randomly selected households within each layer. They weighted the results to match India’s demographics. The sampling frame — the defined group they drew from — is Indian adults aged 18 and older, stated clearly in the methodology.

Definitional Precision scored 9 out of 10. This dimension measures whether a report defines its key terms clearly enough that someone else could apply the same definitions. Pew published the full questionnaire text in all 17 languages. Every survey question is available for inspection.

The weakest score is Counter-Evidence at 6 out of 10. This dimension measures whether a report engages with criticism and acknowledges its own limitations. Pew does discuss limitations — mode effects, non-response bias, geographic variation. But that discussion lives only in the methodology appendix. It does not appear in chapter introductions or the executive summary. Most readers never reach the appendix. A score of 6 means the engagement exists but is not where readers will see it.

Verification Standards scored 8 out of 10. This dimension measures whether an outside researcher could check the data independently. Pew does not offer its survey data for open download. Instead, it maintains a formal archive request process. That process is publicly documented and consistently honored. Under the CID’s revised scoring rules, a documented formal request process counts the same as open download. Protecting respondent privacy through a structured access pathway is not a transparency failure.

The Bottom Line

This report scored 8.3 out of 10. That places it in the Research-Grade band (8.0 to 10.0), which means its methodology meets the standards of peer-reviewed social science for its document type. No non-compensatory cap (an automatic score limit triggered by critical failures) was applied. This is the only report in the CID’s ten-report calibration set to reach Research-Grade. The score reflects methodology only. It does not tell you whether Pew’s conclusions are right or wrong — only that the methods behind them meet the field’s highest standards.