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The majority of people in Haryana follow
Hinduism and observe traditional Hindu beliefs. The people of Haryana
consider themselves to be the descendants of the Aryans and Haryana as the
inaugural site of the Aryan's experimentation of an agrarian society. The
main gods worshipped are Shiva, Vishnu, Rama, Krishna, Hanuman and Kali,
apart from others. Most of the temples are built for Vishnu and Shiva,
with the former being more popular as Rama and Narayan.
Haryana
was a part of Punjab till 1966, and so was home to the Sikh Gurus and a
part of the Sikh empire founded by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. With the passage
of time, the Jats and Sikhs intermingled and gave birth to the Jat
Sikh clan, which is a more urbanised and enterprising than the
simplistic Punjab Sikhs. Today, the largest concentration of Sikhs is in
the northern district of Ambala.
Muslims make up about 5% of the total population. Although Islam does not
preach casteism, there are three categories of Muslims in Haryana. The
'Asharf' or 'Sharaf' (noble) form the higher caste, and the 'Ajlaf' (base
or mean) is the middle with 'Arzal' (lowest of all) coming at the end.
There are Muslim Rajputs as well as converted Muslims. Christians, Jains
and Buddhists are few and scattered across the state, while Sikhs are in
large numbers in central and west Haryana.