Religion

An editorial selection for comparing processes, events, and lives. The interval and counts describe selected records, not the historical boundaries or importance of the subject.

Canonical records: 381
Events: 212
People: 9
Processes and periods: 160

Compare in the atlas Selection criteria and limits

Topics represented

Religion (351) · Buddhist traditions (97) · Hindu traditions (62) · Chinese traditions (61) · Judaism (43) · Islam (42) · Christianity (34) · Empire and state (20) · Daoist traditions (19) · Catholic Christianity (17) · Sunni (16) · Roman Empire (14)

View distribution by region and period

Canonical records by regional label and start date. These are numerical analysis bins, not universal historical periods. A multi-region record appears in multiple rows; do not add rows as a unique-record total.
Region	Before 3000 BCE	3000–1 BCE	1–1499	1500–1799	1800–1899	1900–1999	Since 2000
Africa	2	1	18	1	2	3	0
Americas	0	2	1	3	3	7	0
Asia	2	55	154	12	15	39	25
Europe	1	5	32	17	5	16	2
Oceania	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Global / no specific region	0	0	2	1	4	14	14

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1924
Abolition of the Ottoman caliphate
The Republic of Turkey abolished the caliphal institution; the event had transnational symbolic and political consequences, not one Muslim response.
1925
Founding of RSS
RSS emerged as a Hindu nationalist organization: a specific sociopolitical actor, not a synonym for the tradition.
1928–1929
Nationalist campaigns against “superstition”
John Williams documents Nationalist campaigns in the lower Yangzi in 1928–1929 that sought to weaken religious authorities and capture revenues for the Nanjing regime. Superstition was a political category used by reformers, not a neutral description of local practices.
1928
Founding of the Muslim Brotherhood
An organization founded in Egypt by Ḥasan al-Bannā; included as a specific modern movement, not as a synonym for Islam.
1933
Beginning of state Nazi persecution
After Hitler came to power, the regime progressively excluded Jews from civic life, employment, and rights.
1935
Nuremberg Laws
The Nazi regime turned racial antisemitism into law; its categories do not equal Jewish religious categories.
1936
Travancore Temple Entry Proclamation
It opened public temples to excluded communities; preceding Dalit and anti-caste struggles must also be recognized.
1938
November Pogrom (Kristallnacht)
Coordinated state violence against synagogues, homes, businesses, and Jewish people in Germany and annexed territories.
1939–1944
Ghettos under Nazi occupation
Nazis and collaborators confined millions of Jews; ghettos were segregation, exploitation, and murder, not a Jewish institution.
1942
Deportations and systematic mass murder
Nazi genocidal policy intensified through deportation to killing centers and mass murder; approximately six million Jews were murdered.
1943
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Jewish organizations resisted the ghetto’s liquidation; it is one landmark among many civil, cultural, and armed forms of resistance.
1945
Liberation, survivors, and displaced persons
Nazi defeat left survivors, destroyed families, and a displaced-persons crisis that reshaped communities and migration.
1947
Indian independence and Partition
Partition caused mass violence and displacement; it should not be coded as only religious conflict.
1947
Independence of Pakistan
Pakistan’s creation introduced a new constitutional and political relationship between a state and its Muslim identity, debated by multiple internal currents.
1947
UN Resolution 181 (II)
The General Assembly recommended partition with an Arab state, a Jewish state, and an international regime for Jerusalem; it was not implemented as envisioned.
1948
Founding of the World Council of Churches
147 churches formally constituted the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam. It is a milestone in Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox ecumenism; the Catholic Church is not a member, though it collaborates.
1948
Declaration of the State of Israel
The People’s Council proclaimed the State of Israel at the end of the British Mandate. It should be compared with the world/political line for the 1948 war and Palestinian displacement.
1949
Founding of the PRC
The founding of the People’s Republic introduced a new state framework for religious institutions, associations and heritage in mainland China. Taiwan, Hong Kong and diaspora communities followed different trajectories.
1949–1950
Constitution: religious freedom and administration
The Constitution took effect in 1950; its legal definitions do not settle theological boundaries.
1950–1959
Tibetan political reconfiguration
The Dalai Lama’s office links his 1959 exile to the suppression of the Lhasa uprising following China’s 1950 military entry. China’s 2015 state white paper frames the 1951–1959 process as peaceful liberation and democratic reform. These are competing interpretations by involved actors.
1950
World Fellowship of Buddhists founded
The World Fellowship of Buddhists is founded in Sri Lanka as an international organization; it documents a transnational platform, not a single representation of all Buddhist communities.
1953–1957
National Buddhist and Daoist associations
The Buddhist Association of China was founded in 1953 and the Chinese Taoist Association in 1957 within a new institutional relationship with the state. They did not encompass all communities, lineages, temples or practices.
1955–1956
Codification of Hindu personal law
Marriage and succession laws reformed personal law; their legal categories include distinct identities.
Oct 14, 1956
Ambedkar conversion and Navayana
B. R. Ambedkar and many followers convert in Nagpur, articulating caste critique and a modern Buddhist form.
c. 1960–c. 1969
Engaged Buddhism
Networks linked, among others, to Thich Nhat Hanh connect practice with peace, justice, and care; they are not one school.
1962
San Francisco Zen Center founded
Shunryu Suzuki and his students founded San Francisco Zen Center in 1962. This is a documented case of Zen institutionalization in the United States, not the beginning of all Western communities.
1962–1965
Second Vatican Council
The Catholic council renewed liturgy, articulated a collegial ecclesiology, and addressed ecumenism, religious liberty, and the contemporary world. Its documents and subsequent reception should be distinguished.
1964
Founding of Vishwa Hindu Parishad
VHP is a contemporary transnational Hindu mobilization organization, not a sole religious spokesperson.
1965
Asian migration and Buddhist communities
The 1965 U.S. law ends national-origin quotas and changes migration conditions; it does not itself count Buddhists.
1965
Mutual lifting of the 1054 excommunications
Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I declared the removal from memory and from the Church of the 1054 excommunications. It opened a dialogue phase but did not restore full sacramental communion.