Hinduism is the largest religion in India. There are approximately 96,00,00,000 Hindus in India by the 2011 census, which is approximately 80% of the total population of India. 40% of those are living in cities and 60% in villages. Over the last few years, the urbanization has seen exponential growth in India. The number of cities is increasing rapidly and the population of the major cities in India is exploding. With this in mind, it would be interesting to know about Hinduism in cities in India.

Please keep these factors in mind before reading the further article:

1. Most of the people in cities in India are those who have come from villages.

2. The literacy rate is higher when compared to that of villages in India.

3. Most of the people in cities in India either do service in private or government organizations or own a business. Very few percentages are dependent on agriculture.

4. Most of them fall in the middle-class group with a handful of the rich and upper-middle class. A very large portion of the population falls in the poor group.

You will experience a modern form of Hinduism in the cities of India. As the literacy rate is higher, there are very few people who are orthodox Hindus. Inter-caste marriages are common in cities but still, a large portion of the population does not agree to it easily.

Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesha, and Goddess Laxmi are the most popular deities in cities in India. Popular Hindu festivals like Diwali, Mahashivratri, Holi, Ganesh Festival, Navratri, and others are celebrated with great enthusiasm. The use of loudspeakers is a common practice while celebrating Hindu festivals. But small festivals related to agriculture are not celebrated enthusiastically compared to the big festivals like Diwali. But the elders in the family who have spent some part of their lives in villages do celebrate these festivals.

Lots of Hindus go to temples regularly. There are a large number of both big and small Hindu temples in cities in India. You will find some ancient temples also there. Hindus in cities in India believe in God but do not believe in rituals mostly. They even tend to question the usefulness of rituals.

Life in cities is mostly money-centric, therefore people are always after money to make their lives better. They have very little time for religion. The number of non-believers is more in cities than villages in India.

Most of the marriages are arranged marriages in cities also but the number of love marriages is also increasing. The modern generation does not oppose them but the old people in the family still want to stick to the caste-based arranged marriages.