Saturday, December 17, 2016

Hindus and Muslims Well Educated in US But Least Educated Worldwide

Are immigrants in the United States or United Kingdom or any other host country truly representative samples of the populations in their places of origin? Are American Hindu or Muslim demographics comparable to those of the countries they left? A recent report done by Pew Research answers these questions with substantial amount of data on educational attainment.

Global Hindus and Muslims:

Hindus are the best educated religious group in the United States. They are followed by Jews in the second place and Muslims at number 3, according to Pew Research. However, both Hindus and Muslims are at the bottom in terms of educational attainment measured across the globe. 41% of Hindus and 36% of Muslims have had no formal schooling. Hindus have the widest gender gap in education among all religions in the world with Hindu women trailing Hindu men by 2.7 years.

US Educational Attainment By Religion:

American Hindus are the most highly educated with 96% of them having college degrees, according to Pew Research.  75% of Jews and 54% of American Muslims have college degrees versus the US national average of 39% for all Americans.  American Christians trail all other groups with just 36% of them having college degrees.  96% of Hindus and 80% of Muslims in the U.S. are either immigrants or the children of immigrants.


US Educational Attainment By Religion Source: Pew Research

Jews are the second-best educated in America with 59% of them having college degrees.  Then come Buddhists (47%), Muslims (39%) and Christians (25%).

Worldwide Educational Achievement By Religion Source: Pew Research Center
Worldwide Educational Attainment By Religion:

Jews with average of 13.4 years of schooling are the most highly educated of all major religious groups in the world, while Muslims and Hindus, with average of just 5.6 years of schooling, are the least educated, according to a Pew Research Center global demographic study.  The global average schooling for the world is 7.7 years.



The number of Hindus with no formal schooling is 41%, the highest of all religions. It's followed by 36% of Muslims with no schooling.

Gender Gap By Religion:

Hindu women trail Hindu men in schooling by 2.7 years, the widest gender gap among all religions. The gender gap between Muslim men and women is 1.5 years while Jews have no gender gap.

Summary:

Pew research data clearly shows that Hindu and Muslim immigrants in the United States represent crème de la crème of the nations they have come from.  They are much better educated and far more accomplished. They are in no way representative samples of the demographics of their home countries.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Pakistani-Americans in Silicon Valley

Upwardly Mobile Pakistan

Muslims in San Francisco Bay Area

Pakistani Diaspora is World's 6th Largest

What Drives Islamophobia in America?

Karachi-born Triple Oscar Winning Graphics Artist

Pakistani-American Ashar Aziz's Fire-eye Goes Public

Two Pakistani-American Silicon Valley Techs Among Top 5 VC Deals

Pakistani-American's Game-Changing Vision 

21 comments:

Ravi Krishna said...

"American Hindus are the most highly educated with 96% of them having college degrees, according to Pew Research. 75% of Jews and 54% of American Muslims have college degrees versus the US national average of 39% for all Americans. "

Oh great. So 54% is well educated, but 41% is least educated.

Also only a Paki will put 96% same as 54%. But then inferiority complex has no limits.

Riaz Haq said...

RK: "Also only a Paki will put 96% same as 54%. But then inferiority complex has no limits."

Here's another example of "Paki" (NPR Radio) talking about the subject:

Hindus and Muslims who have migrated to the United States in recent years are especially well-educated, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. On average, Hindus in the U.S. have nearly 16 years of schooling, significantly more than Jews, the next most highly-educated U.S. religious group. Muslim Americans have nearly 14 years of schooling, which is well above the U.S. average.

The high education levels of U.S. Hindus and Muslims are in stark contrast to the schooling levels of those populations worldwide, where they are the two least educated of all religious groups, with just 5.6 years of schooling on average. The Pew data underscore how U.S. policies and world migration patterns have produced a highly selective representation of the two immigrant groups.

"Hindus and Muslims in the United States are a pretty elite segment of the global Hindu and Muslim population," says Conrad Hackett, a Pew demographic researcher.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/13/505427739/study-shows-the-u-s-attracts-an-elite-muslim-and-hindu-population

Syed said...

Another "Paki" news report in Christian Science Monitor:


Hindus and Muslims are two of the most highly educated religious groups in the United States, a new survey from the Pew Research Center has found.

Hindus living in the US have, on average, nearly 16 years of education, and Muslims nearly 14 years, making them the first and third most educated religious groups in the country. American Jews come in second, with just under 15 years of schooling, and US Christians have an average just under 13 years.

The high education levels of US Hindus and Muslims don't correlate with the education levels of Hindus and Muslims worldwide, however, where they rank as the two least educated of major religious groups, with an average of just 5.6 years. Therefore, experts say, the Pew data suggests that a combination of factors, including US immigration policies and world migration patterns, have resulted in a cultural phenomenon unique to the United States.

Much of the disconnect between the levels of education may be attributed to the fact that most Hindus and Muslims in America tend to be recent immigrants, the authors of the study say: Nearly nine out of 10 Hindus and two out of three Muslims in the US were born outside of the country.

Unlike immigrants from Mexico and Central America, who are able to cross more easily into the US with or without immigration papers, most Muslim and Hindu immigrants must travel to America "perhaps at considerable cost" and "have to deal with U.S. migration policies, which in many cases favor people who have skills that they have acquired through considerable education," Conrad Hackett, the lead researcher on the study, noted to NPR.

In contrast, the growth of Muslim communities in European countries in recent years has been largely the result of an influx of refugees and low-skilled immigrants. In Germany, the study found, Muslims had, on average, 4.2 years less education than non-Muslims.

Advocates and researchers have attributed the socioeconomic gap between Muslims in the US and Muslims in France, for example, to sociological differences.

"The Muslim community in France is marginalized, impoverished, constantly humiliated. They live as second-class citizens, in slums, their kids have no jobs, they’re insulted whenever they step out of their areas. They don’t have a sense of hope," Akbar Ahmed, the chair of Islamic Studies at American University’s School of International Service, told the International Business Times last year. "That’s not true in the U.S. However bad the situation may get in the United States, the community doesn’t lose hope. Muslims there may feel that there is some prejudice against them but that they can still succeed."


http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2016/1214/Hindus-Muslims-among-America-s-best-educated-groups-report-finds

Riaz Haq said...

Pew: #Ireland #Muslims more educated but Muslims in rest of #Europe less educated than non-Muslims. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/ireland-s-muslims-more-educated-than-general-population-1.2904661#.WFa9aDrLTmo.twitter … via @IrishTimes

the Pew study says “for example, Ireland’s economic boom of the late 1990s drew highly skilled Pakistani and African migrants and refugees. Partly as a result of this, Muslims in Ireland have an average of 11.8 years of schooling – one more year, on average, than non-Muslims in that country.”

Muslims in Ireland are better educated on average than non-Muslims, according to new research.
Ireland was one of few exceptions in Europe with Muslims completing an average of 11.8 years of schooling, or a year more than non-Muslims, the Religion and Education Around the World report by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre found.
It attributes the relatively high education levels among Muslims in Ireland, the UK, Lithuania, Slovakia, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Hungary to the countries having “immigration policies favourable to highly educated migrants”.

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It is estimated that Ireland’s Muslim population currently stands at approximatly 70,000, of whom 2,000 are said to be doctors.
Schooling
In other European countries Muslims tended “to have less education, ranging from an average of 10.8 years of schooling in Georgia to a continent-wide low of 5.8 years in Spain, ” the study found.
The biggest gap, the report says, is in Germany, where Muslims, on average, have 4.2 fewer years of schooling than non-Muslims (9.5 years v 13.7 years, respectively).
In France, Muslims had 2.9 fewer years schooling less than non-Muslims while in Spain it was 3.2 years less. Many such European countries, the study found, had “experienced large inflows of Muslim refugees or guest workers in recent decades”.
Overall, it found that “Jews are more highly educated than any other major religious group around the world, while Muslims and Hindus tend to have the fewest years of formal schooling”.
Meanwhile “those who describe their religion as atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular’, have spent an average of nine years in school, a little less than Christian adults worldwide.”

Christians “ who make up the world’s largest religious group at 2.2 billion people” had 9.3 years of schooling, on average, worldwide making them “one of the world’s most highly educated religious groups”.

Ravi Krishna said...

"Hindus and Muslims are two of the most highly educated religious groups in the United States, a new survey from the Pew Research Center has found."

Jeez. Did it occur to you that the above statement is true, but does not make 96% same as 54%. What next, loser in Quarterfinal == Winner of final match., just because both reached top 8. Your Paki madrassa education is showing its color.

Hindus in USA are far more educated than muslims in USA.

In any case Sundar Pichai and NAdella are muslims, right ?

Also if you take NPR seriously, why not Obama's statement "we need to compete with chinese and indian kids as they are galloping away in education".


Riaz Haq said...

RK:"In any case Sundar Pichai and NAdella are muslims, right ?"


The fact that such rare talent had to leave India to succeed is not a matter pride for their native land. To the contrary, it confirms India's failure to nurture, retain and reward talent.

Here's an excerpt of an ET Op Ed by Asit K Biswas & Kris Hartley on successful Indians in America:


"One might assume that a country producing such successful talent would itself enjoy elite educational status. However, politics and bureaucratic meddling have compromised the quality of once-elite educational institutions like the IITs and IIMs. Bright young Indians have fled in part because India’s corporate and research environment failed to value and compensate them for their talents.
Between 2000 and 2014, more than 61,000 high-income Indian families emigrated in search of better opportunities and quality education for their children. In a Gallup survey published in 2012, 10 million Indians expressed a desire to move to the US."

http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-commentary/wake-up-india-why-india-must-retain-talent-to-grow/

Riaz Haq said...

Pew: #Muslims have made some of the greatest gains in #educational achievement in recent decades. http://pewrsr.ch/2hAERh3

Among the world’s major religious groups, Muslims have made some of the greatest gains in educational achievement in recent decades. The share of Muslim adults (ages 25 and older) with at least some formal schooling has risen by 25 percentage points in the past three generations, from fewer than half (46%) among the oldest group included in the study to seven-in-ten (72%) among the youngest. The Muslim gender gap in educational attainment worldwide also has narrowed.


Nearly four-in-ten (36%) Muslim adults, however, still have no formal schooling at all. That includes 43% of all Muslim women and 30% Muslim men. At the other end of the spectrum, 8% of Muslim adults – including 10% of Muslim men and 6% of Muslim women – have a post-secondary education.

There were a total of 1.6 billion Muslims of all ages in 2010. Educational attainment among the world’s more than 670 million Muslim adults varies widely depending on where they live, revealing a picture of high achievement in some countries and regions and a pattern of educational disadvantage in others. Globally, Muslim adults have an average of 5.6 years of schooling. But, regionally, the average ranges from 13.6 years among Muslims in North America (a population projected to increase from 3 million to 10 million people by 2050) to just 2.6 years in sub-Saharan Africa (where the number of Muslims of all ages is expected to expand from 248 million in 2010 to 670 million by mid-century).5

Riaz Haq said...

As of 2012, UNDP reports mean years of schooling in South Asia as follows:

Bangladesh 5.1

Pakistan 4.7

India 4.4

Nepal 3.2

Sri Lanka 10.8

http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/mean-years-schooling-adults-years

Riaz Haq said...

A little “#MIT for #Pakistan” #Technology

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1266461/little-mit-pakistan/


by Umar Saif

This little “MIT for Pakistan” is driven by a culture of research and entrepreneurship. Its main purpose is to advance innovation and research in the areas of science, technology and engineering. We are highly selective in admitting faculty, research staff and students. This year, our student admission rate was only 2.28 per cent. The scholarship programs, both merit and need based, ensure that applicants are admitted solely on the basis of merit, irrespective of their ability to pay university fees. ITU’s main strength is the quality of its tenure-track faculty. Our tenure-track faculty hiring process is driving entirely by the candidate’s potential to conduct world-class research. Faculty members must have a PhD from a top-tier university and proven research credentials.

In the short duration of 3 years, our faculty members have won over Rs700 Million in competitive research grants, published scores of papers in top journals and conferences and made technology that solves local problems in Pakistan. For instance, Dr Mujeebur Rehman has invented a low-cost ventilator to replace the hand-pumped ventilators in hospitals, which could save thousands of lives every year; Dr Tauseef Tauqir has developed a new fan motor that would drastically reduce the energy consumption for fan manufacturers in Gujranwala; Dr Ali Agha has made a speech-based system that enables illiterate people to access Internet services and Dr. Yaqoob Banghash is digitising the historical archives of Punjab. Collaboration between PITB and ITU researchers has helped the Punjab Government in designing an early epidemic warning system for Dengue, reducing the dropout rates in child vaccination programmes in Punjab, Baluchistan and K-P, and devising a data collection platform that underpins mobile applications used by the government of Punjab.

Cambridge results: Record setting year for Pakistanis

With a specific focus on entrepreneurship; we have established a startup incubator, called Plan9 which is jointly run with the PITB. It has graduated over 130 startups and helped bootstrap a culture of tech startups in Pakistan. Plan9 now supports over 17 startup incubators throughout the country. Each faculty members gets one day off every week from university services to work towards the commercialisation of their research projects. In order to establish a credible scientific publication in Pakistan, ITU has licensed MIT’s Technology Review magazine, one of the most credible scientific publications in the world. MIT Technology Review Pakistan is printed every two months and covers technology research, startups and products in Pakistan.

We have just work on a purpose-built campus spread over 183 acres on Barki Road in Lahore. At the same time, we are entering into a partnership with EdX (MIT and Harvard University online course platform) to introduce online learning in our classrooms. I hope our little “MIT for Pakistan” will become a platform to advance scientific research, innovative and entrepreneurship in Pakistan.

Riaz Haq said...

#India's #Modi Government Promoting 'Cancer Curing' Cow Urine to The World. #BJP #Hindu https://sputniknews.com/asia/201612191048747631-india-research-cow/ … via @SputnikInt

The Indian government is planning to support and promote large-scale research on medicinal properties of cow urine by infusing ancient knowledge with modern science at the upcoming Cow Science University.
New Delhi (Sputnik) – If you are in India, do not be alarmed if someone suggests you to gulp down cow urine to cure a fever or joint ache. Cow urine, commonly known as ‘gomutra’ is used in many Indian cultures for therapeutic purposes. Concoctions having cow urine as the main ingredient are mentioned in the Ayurveda (the traditional Hindu system of medicine) as miracle medicine for a number of diseases including cancer.

The Bharatiya Janata Party– led Indian Government hopes to introduce this elixir to the world by promoting large scale research to validate its medicinal properties. A recent workshop held at New Delhi’s prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) witnessed a number of research proposals floated by scientists and medical practitioners. Sources in the Ministry of Human Resource Development told Sputnik that the government is seriously considering one of the proposals that envisage setting up of a ‘Gow Vigyan Vishwavidyalaya’ (Cow Science University). Research at the university would mainly be geared towards validating cancer curing properties of Panchgavya- a concoction of cow urine, cow dung, milk and milk products. The government has set up a steering committee that would examine all the 40 proposals floated at the workshop and shortlist some for further action. The proposed research would be supported and funded by not only India’s Ministry of Health but also the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development and the Indian Council of Medical Research. Dr RS Chauhan of College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Uttarakhand, claims that his research on cow urine has revealed that certain components help in enhancing immunity and kills cancer. If approved, he will take the research further to test its effects on humans. Cow is revered as a holy animal in India by Hindus. It has been a priority for the Narendra Modi led government to protect this bovine creature and support industries derived from its waste. The government has spent around $87 million on cow shelters, ban on cow slaughter and sale of cow meat and tightened measures to stop the illicit sale of cattle to neighboring countries. The increased protection and reverence given to cow has even led to inter-faith conflict in recent times.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/asia/201612191048747631-india-research-cow/

Anonymous said...

http://www.smh.com.au/world/berlin-attack-suspect-is-a-pakistani-migrant-reports-20161220-gtfd36.html

Riaz Haq said...

Anon: "http://www.smh.com.au/world/berlin-attack-suspect-is-a-pakistani-migrant-reports-20161220-gtfd36.html"


German officials now acknowledge they made a mistake.

German officials on #Pakistan suspect: "we have the wrong man". #BerlinAttack http://www.marketwatch.com/story/german-police-may-have-arrested-wrong-suspect-over-berlin-attack-reports-2016-12-20?link=MW_latest_news …The person behind Monday's deadly truck attack in Berlin may still be at large, with German police saying they may have arrested the wrong suspect. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Berlin authorities said they were unable to confirm that the driver of the truck that plowed into a Christmas market in the capital on Monday is the 23-year-old asylum seeker they have in custody. An unnamed police source told German newspaper Die Welt that they "have the wrong man," which means "the real culprit is still armed and can commit further atrocities." Twelve people were killed and about 50 injured when the truck barreled through a Christmas market in a popular tourist spot in the German capital.

r_sundar said...

phew! That must provide temporary relief. But it is not over yet, as they have not caught the terrorist yet. What are the chances that the terrorist has a Pakistan connection?

Riaz Haq said...

In Lahore, Pakistan, parents with incomes of
less than 2,000 rupees per month spend 10–11
percent of their income on education, while
those with monthly incomes above 10,000
rupees spend 6 percent (Alderman et al.,
2001).

http://www.epdc.org/sites/default/files/documents/The%20Effects%20of%20School%20Fee%20Abolition%20on%20Parents.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

School Quality, School Cost, and the Public/Private School Choices
of Low-Income Households in Pakistan
Harold Aldermana
Peter F. Orazemb
Elizabeth M. Patern


Given the deliberate concentration on low income neighborhoods, the
sample strategy identified a large number of low income households. Fifty-five percent of the
sampled children are in households earning less than 3,500 rupees ($100) per month,
corresponding to below $1 per person per day. Despite the low incomes, a surprisingly large
proportion of children is in school. Only 11 percent of the boys and 8 percent of the girls aged
6-10 were not enrolled. However, the probability of withholding a child from school drops
rapidly as income rises. The lowest income households withheld 25 percent of their boys and 21
12
percent of their girls from school. In contrast, almost all children in households earning above
Rs 3500 are in school.
Not only is enrollment high, a high share of children is enrolled in private schools, even
children from the poorest families. Only in the poorest category in table 1 is the share of
children in government schools greater than in private schools, and then only barely so. As
household income increases, the share of children in private school increases dramatically.
Similar findings of extensive use of private schools by poor families in Karachi (Kardar 1995).
The high proportion of children in private schools is even more surprising, given the
share of household income that must be sacrificed. Even though the amount spent per child rises
with income, the share of income spent declines. In addition, for the lowest income households,
the difference in expenses between private and government schools is not large. While the fees
for private schools exceed that for public (indeed, most public schools are free) government
schools charge for uniforms, books and supplies. Operating costs of private schools are relatively
low, despite relatively higher teacher pupil ratios, due to lower salary structures. Overall, many
private schools can compete with government schools on total schooling costs. The survey
verified these costs by interviewing staff and managers.

http://econ2.econ.iastate.edu/faculty/orazem/lahore.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

Children of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin in Britain have outperformed other ethnic groups to achieve rapid improvements at every level of education, but are significantly less likely to be employed in managerial or professional jobs than their white counterparts, according to a study.

A report to be published on Wednesday by the government’s Social Mobility Commission says the trend is being driven in part by workplace discrimination, particularly against Muslim women.

--------

One study quoted claims that Indian children in Britain were much more likely to complete their homework five days a week and to have access to a computer at home. Another showed higher engagement among Pakistani and Bangladeshi families.

----------------
Secondary school is where black pupils’ attainment falls behind substantially, according to the report. Only 63% achieve a C in maths GCSE, compared with a national average of 68%, and for black boys the figure is worse, at 60%. This translates into strikingly low attainment in science, technology, engineering and maths A-levels.

The report says the university dropout rate among black pupils is 11%, compared with 5% for Chinese and 7% for other Asian and white undergraduates.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/27/british-muslim-womens-school-gains-not-paying-off-in-work-study

Riaz Haq said...

No black men, no Muslim women: UK job market discrimination remains rife, report shows

https://www.rt.com/uk/372066-black-muslim-unemployement-discrimination/

Muslim and black men are more likely to end up unemployed despite doing better in school than their white peers, a new report suggests, as Britain offers a “broken social mobility promise” to its disadvantaged youth.
A report by the Social Mobility Commission found that while white boys from poor households performed worse in the educational system as a whole, it was their ethnic minority peers who found it difficult to enter professions after school or university.

Muslim and black men are more likely to end up unemployed despite doing better in school than their white peers, a new report suggests, as Britain offers a “broken social mobility promise” to its disadvantaged youth.
A report by the Social Mobility Commission found that while white boys from poor households performed worse in the educational system as a whole, it was their ethnic minority peers who found it difficult to enter professions after school or university.

Children from lower income Chinese families were found to be highly likely to move on to higher education after secondary school (70 percent), while five in 10 Bangladeshi and three in 10 black Caribbean youngsters accessed university. But the numbers were far lower for white British kids, with only 10 percent continuing their education.

But the figures changed radically when the groups were faced with job market conditions, where ethnic minority groups are given fewer secure offers.

“The British social mobility promise is that hard work will be rewarded. This research suggests that promise is being broken for too many people in our society,” said commission chairman and former Labour minister Alan Milburn.

“It is striking that many of the groups that are doing best at school or improving their results the most are losing out when it comes to jobs and opportunities later in life.”

Muslim women were found to be especially affected by underlying prejudices in the workplace and in obtaining jobs at managerial level or in professional occupations. Indeed, Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are now the lowest earners from all black and ethnic minority groups.

Condemning Britain’s failure to offer “a level playing field of opportunity,” Milburn added: “It is deeply concerning that poor white British boys are doing so badly in education, from the early years through to university. Yet they are less likely to be unemployed and face social immobility than young people from black and Asian communities, Asian women especially.

Action is needed across the education system and labour market to better understand barriers to success. Renewed action is needed by government, educators and employers to dismantle them.”

The commission published a list of suggestions on how different British establishments can help address the problem.

Universities were told to invest in widening participation programs so to tackle the high dropout rates of poor black British students and make further efforts to appeal to poor white youths.

Businesses were told to employ specific support for Asian Muslim women wanting to progress in their careers.

Schools were advised to work with parents from demographics shown to be the least likely to get involved in their children’s education, such as low income white families and Gypsy, Roma and traveler groups.

“Everyone should have the opportunity to go as far as their talents will take them, no matter what their background,” a Department for Education spokesman said.

“We are working to make more good school places available, in more parts of the country, so that every child can have access to an education that will unlock their potential.”

Riaz Haq said...

As of 2013, there are over 12,000 Pakistani doctors, or about 5% of all foreign physicians and surgeons, in practice in the United States. Pakistan is the third largest source of foreign-trained doctors. India tops with 22%, or 52,800 doctors. It is followed by the Philippines with 6%, or 14,400 foreign-trained doctors. India and Pakistan also rank as the top two sources of foreign doctors in the United Kingdom.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2016/12/pakistan-is-3rd-largest-source-of.html


Riaz Haq said...

#India has been a post-truth society for years. #Modi #Trump #alternativefacts http://theconversation.com/india-has-been-a-post-truth-society-for-years-and-maybe-the-west-has-too-71169 … via @_TCGlobal

India: home of post-truth politics

That was the global context of post-truth politics and its advent in the West. But as the US and UK wake up to this new era, it’s worth noting that the world’s largest democracy has been living in a post-truth world for years.

From education to health care and the economy, particularly its slavish obsession with GDP, India can be considered a world leader in post-truth politics.

India’s post-truth era cannot be traced to a single year – its complexities go back generations. But the election of Narendra Modi in 2014 can be marked as a significant inflection point. Ever since, the country has existed under majoritarian rule with widely reported discrimination against minorities.

India’s version of post-truth is different to its Western counterparts due to the country’s socioeconomic status; its per capita nominal income is less than 3% of that of the US (or 4% of that of the UK). Still, post-truth is everywhere in India.

It can be seen in our booming Wall Street but failing main streets, our teacher-less schools and our infrastructure-less villages. We have the ability to influence the world without enjoying good governance or a basic living conditions for so many at home.

Modi’s government has shown how key decisions can be completely divorced from the everyday lives of Indian citizens, but spun to seem like they have been made for their benefit. Nowhere is this more evident than with India’s latest demonetisation drive, which plunged the country into crisis, against the advice of its central bank, and hit poorest people the hardest.


Despite the levels of extreme poverty in India, when it comes to social development, the cult of growth dominates over the development agenda, a trend that Modi has exacerbated, but that started with past governments.

The dichotomy of India’s current post-truth experience was nicely summed up by Arun Shourie, an influential former minister from Modi’s own party. He disagrees with the prime minister, just as many Republicans share sharp differences of opinion with President Trump.

Shourie said the policies of the current administration were equal to his predecessors’ policies, plus a cow.

------------
...there is an argument to be made that the US and the UK have been living in denial of facts and evidence for years. In 2003, after all, both the countries went to war in Iraq over the false notion that Saddam Hussein was harbouring weapons of mass destruction.
---------------
Major social change does not happen within the space of a year. Yet, to a large number of observers around the world, the “post-truth” phenomenon seemed to emerge from nowhere in 2016.

Two key events of 2016 shaped our understanding of the post-truth world: one was in June, when Britain voted in favour of leaving the European Union. The other was in November, when political maverick Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States of America. Trump’s administration spent the third day of his presidency speaking of “alternative facts”, and making false claims about the size of the crowds that had attended his inauguration.

For the rest of the world, the importance of both Trump and Brexit can best be gauged by understanding that they happened in the USA and in the UK. The UK was the key driving force of the world from the 19th century until the second world war, the US has been ever since. The US and the UK often have shared a similar point of view on many global geopolitical developments, as strategic allies or by virtue of their “special relationship”.

Riaz Haq said...

Read the following:


For the African and Indian, the parent generation has more years of full time education than the white British born reference group. The Chinese and Pakistani first generation groups are similar to whites, and the Caribbean and Bangladeshi have slightly lower years of full time education. More importantly, for all groups (except for the Caribbean), those who are born in Britain have more years of full time education than their white British-born peers. Furthermore, for some groups, the difference between the parent generation and the generation of their descendents is quite dramatic, and far larger than for British born whites. Overall, the figure suggest that the descendents of British ethnic minority immigrants (born between 1963 and 1975 in Britain, and observed between 1998 and 2009) have higher levels of full time education than their parents, and (except for the Caribbean) higher levels of full time education than their British born white peers. Also, the difference between parent- and child generation is larger for all minority groups than for whites, with the exception of the Black Caribbean. That is quite remarkable, and paints quite a positive picture of educational attainments of Britain’s ethnic minorities


http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctpb21/Cpapers/Ethn_2gen_revision_C1.pdf


https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/27/british-muslim-womens-school-gains-not-paying-off-in-work-study


Children of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin in Britain have outperformed other ethnic groups to achieve rapid improvements at every level of education, but are significantly less likely to be employed in managerial or professional jobs than their white counterparts, according to a study.

One study quoted claims that Indian children in Britain were much more likely to complete their homework five days a week and to have access to a computer at home. Another showed higher engagement among Pakistani and Bangladeshi families.

Riaz Haq said...

Hindu population up in US, becomes fourth-largest faith
The proportion of Hindus in the US population rose from 0.4 percent in 2007 to 0.7 percent last year, according to the Pew Research Center.

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/hindu-population-up-in-united-states-becomes-fourth-largest-faith-252755-2015-05-13

ueled by immigration, America's Hindu population has reached 2.23 million, an increase of about one million or 85.8 percent since 2007, making Hinduism the fourth-largest faith, according to estimates based on wide-ranging study of religions in the nation.

The proportion of Hindus in the US population rose from 0.4 percent in 2007 to 0.7 percent last year, according to the Pew Research Center's "Religious Landscape Study" published Tuesday.


The study only gave the percentage shares of Hindus in the population, rather than numbers, but calculations by IANS using the population proportions in the report and census projections showed that the number of Hindus rose from 1.2 million in 2007 out of a total US population of 301.2 million that year to 2.23 million in 2014 in a population of 318.88 million. This amounts to an increase of 1.03 million or 85.8 percent in the Hindu population during the seven-year period.

Pew said that it may have underestimated the size of the Hindu population.

An earlier report from Pew on the future of world religions in April said that by 2050, Hindus would make up 1.2 percent of the US population and number 4.78 million. This would make the US Hindu population the fifth largest in the world.

Looking at the socio-economic profile of Hindus, the new Pew report released Tuesday said they had the highest education and income levels of all religious groups in the US: 36 percent of the Hindus said their annual family income exceeded $100,000, compared with 19 percent of the overall population. And 77 percent of Hindus have a bachelor's degree compared to 27 percent of all adults and 48 percent of the Hindus have a post-graduate degree.

Even as some American Christian organisations push for proselytisation in India, their share of the US population fell by 7.8 percent during the seven-year period, from 78.4 percent in 2007 to 70.6 percent last year, the Pew study said. That works out to about 11 million fewer Christians.

However, "Christians remain by far the largest religious group in the United States, but the Christian share of the population has declined markedly," the report said.

Underlying the change, there was a marked increase in the number of people who say they have "no particular religion," the study reported. About 23 percent of American adults fell into this category, up seven percent from the 16 percent in 2007. Included in this broad category are atheists who make up 3.1 percent of the total US population and agnostics, four percent.