Judaism: Jews in India, such as the Bene-Israel (Hebrew: "Sons of Israel"), have lived for centuries in Bombay and adjacent regions, totally isolated from other Jewish influences. These settlers came as merchants in search of spices, sandalwood, cloves, ivory and precious stones. Some of these are descended from Jews who escaped persecution in Galilee in the 2nd century BC and were identified as "Black-Jews".   There is very little reliable information about the origin of Kerala Jews. One belief is that 10 Jewish families released from jail by a Persian king in 605 BC came by ship to Kodungallore. Another group must have followed in 586 BC when Judea was defeated by Babylon. There were many subsequent waves of migration in 369 AD and most historians agree that the local Hindu rulers did everything to settle the new immigrants. India is perhaps one of the only countries in the world where there has never been any ant-Semitic sentiments expressed by the local communities. Jews continue to live and prosper in Western India, though with a population of only 6,000.

  He dispatched one of the distinguished Bahá'í teachers, Jamal Effendi, to teach the Cause of God in the years 1874-75. Jamal Effendi travelled to various parts of India and was successful in attracting many learned people to the Faith. In the beginning of this century, in the early twenties, a few Local Spiritual Assemblies were formed in the primary Indian cities, and by 1944, India had 24 Spiritual Assemblies. At the present, in the 26 Indian States, the Indian Bahá'í Community has 24 State Baha'í Councils, the state level Bahá'í administrative institutions, managing the affairs of over 1450 Local Spiritual Assemblies (locally elected Bahá'i Institutions), and over 2.3 million believers spread over 31829 localities in all parts of the country

Christianity: Trade between India and West Asia since ancient times was not only feasible, but common, and ports in the Western sea coast state of Kerela were well visited by such travelers. St. Thomas the Apostle arrived in Kodungalloor in Kerala on Nov. 21(?) 52 AD, and attempted to preach the Gospel to the Jews settled there. However, he was more successful in preaching to the Keralites and baptizing a number of high caste Hindus, including members from royal families, who formed the first Christian community in India. He then moved on to other kingdoms, probably reaching Sri Lanka, and returning to Madras in 72 AD where he was martyred that year. Indeed, the early Christians of India were known as Thomas Christians - until the advent of the Portuguese in the 16th century followed closely by the British. The arrival of St. Thomas was recognized by several writers from west Asia since 2nd century. The doctrine of the Apostle Thomas and the Acta Thomae, both of which are written at or near Edessa, circa 200-250 AD. St. Ephrem, St. John Chrisostom and St. Gregorios Nazianzen, in the 4th century, St. Jerome circa 400 AD, historian Eusabius circa 338 and Theodore of the 5th century attest to Apostle Thomas in India. History has it that His Grace Mar John, Archbishop of India, represented the Indian church in the Council of Nicea, in the year 325. In his signature to the decrees of the Council, he gives his title as "Prelate of Metropolitan of Persia and the Bishop of Great India". These Christians in India had no written records but an oral tradition handed down by their elders and to these they were most tenaciously attached. They lived under native princes who rarely interfered with their faith and one of the paramount Rajahs of Malabar, Cheruman Perumal, had conferred on them a special civilian status. Thus these Christians obtained status above the lower classes, and made them equal to the middle class in the country. The honorific appellation bestowed upon them by the rulers of the country is that of "Mapla", which signifies great son or great child, and they are commonly called ‘Mapla’ by the people even to this day. However, these St. Thomas Christians now prefer to be called the Nasrani (Nazarenes), the designation given by the Mohammedans to all Christians.Today, 2.5% of India's population are Christians, and Christianity is the third most populace religion in India.

Zoroastrianism: Zoroastrianism is a small religious community, with its population base centered around Mumbai, established by Zarathustra in the 6th or 7th century BC. The followers are called Parsis because they came from Persia, now Iran, from where they were exiled in the 7th century AD because of religious persecutions by the Muslims. They traveled by sea, arriving in the coastal state of what is now called Gujarat in Western India. The Parsis believe in the existence of one invisible God. They believe that there is a continuous war between the good forces (forces of light), exemplified by good deeds, thought and speech and the evil forces (forces of darkness). God is represented in their temples through fire, which symbolizes light and believe that fire, water, air and earth are pure elements to be preserved. The holiest place for them is the village of Udvada in Gujarat, India. The Parsis are a close knit community numbering about 0.01% of India's population, however, they have contributed more to India than perhaps any other minority. Some Parsis were founders of the Indian Nationalist movement (for freedom from the British); they established modern Indian industry; they have been benevolent and have contributed enormously to establish charitable and such institutions in India, and they continue to oversee some of the bigger finance houses in India.

Hinduism: Hindu mythology is rich, multifarious, and inclusive. It portrays the terrible alongside the benevolent, the trivial alongside the cosmic, and the grotesque alongside the sublime. The earliest source of Hindu mythology is the Vedic literature, the oldest texts of which are the four Vedas, or "Books of Knowledge": Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharvaveda. These books are the oldest Indian documents and represent the religion of the Aryan invaders of the subcontinent over the period from 1400 to 500 BC.

Because it integrates a variety of heterogeneous elements, Hinduism constitutes a complex but largely continuous whole; and, because it covers the whole of life, it has religious, social, economic, literary, and artistic aspects. Hinduism thus resists a precise definition, but a common core of characteristics most Hindus share can be identified. Hinduism is a religion with various Gods and Goddesses. According to Hinduism, three Gods rule the world. Brahma: the creator; Vishnu: the preserver and Shiva: the destroyer. These three Lords have consorts and they are goddesses too. Consort of Brahma is Sarasvati; goddess of learning. Vishnu's consort is Lakshmi; goddess of wealth and prosperity. Shiva's consort is Parvati who is worshipped as Kali or Durga. Besides these there are a number of other Gods and Goddesses. To name a few, there is Ganesh, who has an elephant's head and he is also a son of Shiva and Parvati; Hanuman, who is an ape; Surya Lord of sun; Ganga Ma, Goddess of river Ganges; Samundra, Lord of the sea; Indra, king of the Gods; Prithvi, Goddess of earth; Shakti, Goddess of strength. Some gods have more than one name. Shiva is also known as Shankar, Mahadev, Natraj, Mahesh amongst others. His worshippers also worship images of bull called Nandi, who was Shiva's carrier and a unique stone design connected to Shiva called the Shiva-Lingham. Ganesh is also called Ganpati. Lord Vishnu went about preserving the world by incarnating 10 times in human forms in times of crisis, and in his every appearance he had a different form which are also worshipped as Gods. Among his appearances, he appeared as Rama, Krishna, Narsimha, Parsuram and Buddha. Krishna also has different names, Gopal; Kishan; Shyam and other names. There are also Gods who can change their forms, such as Parvati who can change into Kali or Durga. Not all of these Gods are worshipped by all Hindus, with some Hindus worshipping specific Gods or Goddesses, and some of these have predominance in some regions. Hindus also worship Gods according to their personal needs; those engaged in wrestling, body building and other physical sports worship Hanuman, who in Hindu legends was an ape with lot of physical strength; and those in business worship Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth. Though these Hindus worship different idols, there are many Hindus who believe in one God and perceive in these different Gods and Goddesses as different images of the same one God. According to their beliefs, idolatry is the wrong interpretation of Hinduism. A unique and all-encompassing characteristic of Hinduism is that one devotee may be worshipping Ganesha while a friend worships Siva or Vishnu or Kali, yet both honor the other's choice and feel no sense of conflict. The Hindu religion brings us the gift of tolerance that allows for different stages of worship, different and personal expressions of devotion and even different Gods to guide our life on this earth. You will thus find Hindu temples for different Gods and Goddesses in near proximity to each other. Indeed, you will find places of worship for many different faiths in close proximity to each other. About 80% of the population are Hindus, thus by far the most common religion in India.

Buddhism: Buddhism came into being in northeastern India, during the period from the late 6th century to the early 4th century BC, a period of great social change and intense religious activity. There is disagreement among scholars about the dates of the Buddha's birth and death. Most scholars in Europe, the United States, and India believe that the historical Buddha lived from about 563 to about 483 BC. Many others, especially in Japan, believe that he lived about 100 years later (from about 448 to 368 BC).It was Siddhartha Gautama who, nearly 2,500 years ago as a young man, sat under a tree in northern India, determined to find a way to transcend the sufferings that he recognized as being endemic to the world. Born a prince in a small kingdom in what is today southern Nepal, he renounced his royal heritage in order to escape the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that inevitably leads to suffering, loss, and pain. As he sat under the tree, he recognized that all of the world's problems begin with a fundamental ignorance that causes beings to misunderstand the true nature of reality. Because of this, they engage in actions that lead to their own suffering and fail to recognize what leads to happiness. It was in Kusinara (the modern Kasia, known in Sanskrit as Kushinagara) toward evening, and, on a couch between two sal trees in the park Upavattana of the Mallas, that he "laid himself down on his right side, with one leg resting on the other, mindful and self-possessed." This was the full-moon day of the month of Vesakha (May). A week later, his body was cremated by the Mallas in Kusinara. A dispute over the remains of the Buddha arose between the delegates of rulers of several kingdoms, such as Magadha, Vesali, and Kapilavatthu. It was settled by a venerable old Brahman named Dona on the basis that they should not quarrel over the relics of one who preached peace. With common consent, the relics were then divided into eight portions to the satisfaction of all and stupas were built over these relics.The first Mauryan emperor, Chander Gupta (c. 321-c. 297 BC), patronized Jainism and finally became a Jaina monk. His grandson, Ashoka the Great (c 304 - 232 BC), who ruled over the greater part of the subcontinent from about 270 to 232 BC, became the archetypal Buddhist king. It was he, who promulgated Buddhism into Sri Lanka, China, Japan and the Far East.

After the destruction of numerous Buddhist monasteries in the 6th century AD by the Huns, Buddhism revived, especially in the northeast, where it flourished for a time under the Buddhist Pala kings (8th-12th century AD). With the collapse of the Pala dynasty in the 12th century, Buddhism suffered another defeat, and this time it did not recover.Scholars do not know all the factors that contributed to the demise of Buddhism in its original homeland. Some have maintained that Buddhism was so tolerant of other faiths that it was simply reabsorbed by a revitalized Hindu tradition. However, there was another factor that was very important as well: Buddhism in India, having become mainly a monastic movement, probably paid little heed to the laity. Some monasteries became wealthy enough to have slaves and hired laborers to care for the monks and tend the lands they owned. Thus, after the Muslim invaders sacked the Indian monasteries in the 12th century AD, Buddhists had little basis for recovery. After the destruction of the monasteries, the Buddhist laity showed little interest in restoring the "Way", and now number about 0.7% of India's population.

Sikhism: Sikhism is based on the teachings of ten Gurus (teachers or learned ones), the first of whom was Guru Nanak (1469-1539) and the last, in a human form, was Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708). Today, the Guru Granth Sahib is the current Guru. It is a book in verse compiled by Guru Arjun Dev (1563 - 1606) the fifth Guru, containing the writings of the preceding Sikh Gurus, and Farid, Kabir, Ram Das, Jaidev and Bhikham, all Hindu Saints and Muslim Fakirs, and given its final rendering by the tenth Guru. Guru Nanak started his discourses, which ended up as a formidable and singular religion, which included the good beliefs of the two dominant religions in the region at that time, Hinduism and Islam. From Islam it adopted the belief in the existence of one invisible God, and from Hinduism it adopted the belief of reincarnation. He was of the view that man must have a vocation, and thus must work hard, and share his earnings with those less fortunate. To reach attainment, he did not have to go to the mountains to pray or do pennance, but could reach God by service to his fellow beings, living a life of love, devotion, prayers and good deeds. The last Guru, guru Gobind Singh, defined Sikhism as a race and a religion with the ensuing moral code: 

That they should add "Singh" (lion) to their name and be baptized by taking "Amrit" (holy, or "communion" water). Further, he gave them a uniform consisting of five "Ks": (1) Kesh (uncut hair) to represent a complete natural person as made by God, thus showing non-attachment to vanity, (2) Kanga, a comb to keep the hair tidy, (3) Kachha (underpants) rather than the loose "dhoti" (a type of a sarong for males) worn by all at that time to signify an active person who had self-control and continence, (4) Kirpan (a short sword) to symbolize freedom from oppression, but useful for self defense or to defend the weak, and, (5) Kara (a steel bangle) to signify a strong and unbreakable link to the religion, together with continuity of life, without beginning, without end, and an awareness of immortality and of timelessness.About 2% of India's population are Sikhs, and yet play an important role in the defense forces (with thirty percent of it made up by the Sikhs), agriculture and commerce.

Lesser Known Religions: Indians are steeped in religion and spirituality, about which there is an abundance of written and oral knowledge. However, many individuals lose touch with spirituality and religion, and seek the support this offers, thus seeking to be reminded. Eloquent individuals with a grasp of the subject, and an ability to explain the un-manifest attract listeners, and a growing number of listeners proclaim the speaker as a teacher, a learned one, or as a guru. Much of what the speaker does is all but explain, consolidate and encapsulate other teachings and religions, and express them in modern thought. However the eager listener grasps out for a teacher, a guru, and soon, this guru heads the group, which becomes a following. Sometimes, his words spread across boundaries, attracting people from other lands. Some of the followers observe each and every word of the speaker, and unknowingly help develop a faith. A combination of a better teacher, a better organization and the right environment helps develop such organizations to become more well know, and eventually into a sect, and finally, a religion.It is the fertility and welcoming of the Indian mind that allows the seed of age-old understanding and good sense to grow into a garden, nurturing it to its vivacious color and smell. This garden attracts others from within the land and from outside. Passage of time and nourishment provided by the land and people transforms this garden to a forest, eventually finding its own presence in the landscape of religion and spirituality in India, and the rest of the world. Indeed, many of the now established religions started this way.

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