The question isn't how many people of a certain faith suffer, but rather how many people suffer because of the faith. And yes, when it comes to this Hinduism is pretty high on the list.you mean to say other religious societies do not have suffer from that curse. Christianinity is afar most ahead of the list as in Africa and Latin America.
Tell me that single religious group or society under which majority does not suffer.
you mean they brought up the standards of the majority of the lot.. or they simple put balm to the pain...
Hinduism is a very vast canvass with multiplicity, pluralist ideas, freedom and freedom of choice of method of following a life style. Social prcatice, like in England or in USA can be ascribed to a religion. Socio economic practices like slavery or caste emanate from the economic stricture and needs for continuation of a particular economic system.
Do not blame a religious stem for it. For example nothing has changed in the economic system of Pakistan by adoption of Islam. The remain as opressed, as hungry and as deprived as they were earlier.
If you've noticed Hindu nationalists keep harping upon how India is losing its Hindu identity and the need to make the country reflect its Hindu roots, however they conveniently overlook the fact that India does in fact overwhelmingly reflect its Hindu roots and a big chunk of it is extremely unsavory. The oft counter argument is "look, Muslims and Christians also practice variants of caste system so clearly it has nothing to do with Hinduism"... umm no, what these converts are doing is mimicking the dogmas of Hinduism that were drilled into them first.
I also see people go on and on about how Hinduism is more so a "way of life" than a "religion" (in the Abrahamic sense) yet these comments are followed by attempts to de link the caste system from Hinduism by designating it a social issue or a byproduct of economic philosophy. This is utter hogwash. The foundation of the caste system is very much forged in Hinduism, this was the chosen "way of life" and retroactive arguments to deny this leads to mental gymnastics and then you end up with comments like 'varna system is merit based'. Don't get me wrong I'm not denying that caste has become a social problem particularly defined by geography (there is virtually no trace of casteism in urban India whereas rural India runs entirely upon the caste system) nor am I saying that caste plays into the economic structure of the society. Both of these are true, what I am saying however is that caste originated from Hinduism and then became a socioeconomic phenomenon, not the other way round; and hence now pretending that caste has nothing to do with Hinduism is wrong. You cannot absolve the religious stem that created the phenomenon and instead pass off all the responsibility to modern social mechanisms like the legal framework. Hinduism gave birth to the caste system and now ought to take the responsibility to extinguish it. Structural mechanisms like legislation and policy are undoubtedly great tools and ought to be used to augment the process, but the drive must come from within Hinduism first.
All societies have social hierarchies, however the caste system is by far one of the most organized and indurated system of social stratification and this is the central cause of India's problems. Pakistan and Islam or the instability in South America or Africa has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. Just because other nations have severe problems doesn't absolve the nefarious aspects of Hinduism.