For every 100,000 people of a religion, how many are in prison. Allows fair comparison across communities of different size.
lower is better
vs all communities: +18.7 behind
Explore the interactive chart, with breakdowns by undertrials and state →
| Community | Latest value |
|---|---|
| Muslim | 63.3 |
| Hindu | 39.8 |
| Sikh | 124.5 |
| Christian | 56.5 |
| All communities | 44.6 |
Undertrial prisoners are in jail awaiting trial, not convicted of anything. For every 100,000 Muslims, 48.8 were undertrials in 2022, against 29.3 per 100,000 Hindus and 33.2 all-India. Relative to the all-India rate the Muslim over-representation is sharper among undertrials than among prisoners overall (1.5x vs 1.4x), so the disproportion is largest before any conviction. Same Maharashtra religion-reporting caveat as the incarceration chart.
| Community | Per 100,000 |
|---|---|
| Muslim | 48.8 |
| Sikh | 97.5 |
| Christian | 39.1 |
| Hindu | 29.3 |
| All communities | 33.2 |
Computed Reproduce this view. This figure is computed from the linked published tables. Source: NCRB PSI (2018-2023) · Census 2011 · C-series. Each value is computed from the data file · transform code; every row records its own source and method.
| State / UT | Muslim | Hindu |
|---|---|---|
| Punjab | 84.2 | |
| Mizoram | 33.2 | |
| NCT of Delhi | 90.9 | |
| Haryana | 91.3 | |
| Chandigarh | 118.6 | |
| Chhattisgarh | 79.1 | |
| Odisha | 41.6 | |
| Uttarakhand | 52.4 | |
| Madhya Pradesh | 63.9 | |
| Nagaland | 52.6 | |
| Sikkim | 66.6 | |
| Goa | 43.2 | |
| Himachal Pradesh | 39.3 | |
| Uttar Pradesh | 53.9 | |
| Meghalaya | 51.7 | |
| Tripura | 27.9 | |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 25.9 | |
| Manipur | 26.5 | |
| Andaman & Nicobar Islands | 45.0 | |
| Rajasthan | 30.1 | |
| Jharkhand | 62.1 | |
| Tamil Nadu | 21.4 | |
| Gujarat | 24.3 | |
| Assam | 23.1 | |
| West Bengal | 24.9 | |
| Bihar | 65.3 | |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 35.5 | |
| Karnataka | 24.5 | |
| Kerala | 25.9 | |
| Puducherry | 27.0 | |
| Maharashtra | 5.1 | |
| Andhra Pradesh | 8.1 | |
| Lakshadweep | n/a |
Computed Reproduce this view. This figure is computed from the linked published tables. Source: NCRB PSI (2018-2023) · Census 2011 · C-series. Each value is computed from the data file · transform code; every row records its own source and method.
Muslims are imprisoned at about 63 per 100,000 of their population, against 40 for Hindus and 45 nationally, so a Muslim is around one and a half times as likely to be in jail as the average Indian. Most of this is not about conviction: a large majority of all prisoners are undertrials, awaiting trial rather than found guilty, and Muslims are over-represented among them.
The chart compares the incarceration rate, prisoners per 100,000 of each community's own population, so it is not distorted by community size. The Undertrials tab is the one to read closely: it shows how much of the gap is people held awaiting trial, not convicts. By state shows how sharply this varies across India.
Who is in prison, and who waits there untried, is one of the clearest tests of equal justice. Over-incarceration, especially of the unconvicted, falls hardest on poor families who lose an earner and cannot afford bail or a lawyer.
Behind
Muslim 63.3 vs Hindu 39.8 in 2022, 23.5 behind. The gap is driven less by convictions than by pre-trial detention: most Muslim prisoners are undertrials, where poverty, the cost of bail and slow courts weigh heaviest.