Shias in India
India is a country in South Asia with a large number of Shia Muslims who benefit from Shia centers in India. The exact number of Shia Muslims in India is unknown. According to different sources the population of Shia Muslims in India is between thirty to fifty million people. Also, several sources mentioned Shia Muslims of India are the largest population of Shias in one country in the world after Iran.
Shia organizations in India
Shia Islam was brought to the Indian subcontinent during the final years of the Rashidun Caliphate. The Indian subcontinent also served as a refuge for some Shias escaping persecution from Umayyads, Abbasids, Ayyubis and Ottomans.
Shia Muslims of India were mostly living in Deccan in the south and Awadh and Kashmir in the north, for many years where they established many Shia centers in India. Today this population is scattered over different regions of this country, not particularly in historical Shia centers. Currently, Shias are mostly living in cities such as Lucknow, Hyderabad, Murshidabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Mysore, Bhopal, Chennai and Bangalore. Among the Shias of India, an overwhelming majority belongs to the Ithna Ashari (Twelver) division, particularly among the Khoja community, while the Shias among the Bohra community are Ismaili.
Shia organizations in India
There are notable Shia Muslims involved in many prominent Indian affairs, such as Arts, Business, Diplomates, Bureaucracies, Journalism, Sports, Science, Religion, Literature, Politics, etc. A large number of libraries exist in India which are affiliated with Shias or they played a role in building them. Shia Muslims play an important role in Indian politics as well.
Some Shia organizations in India include: