CapCut, a video editor for PC developed by ByteDance, is now the favorite among amateur and professional editors. Born as a mobile editor, CapCut has transcended the mobile platform as a desktop editor, presenting the user with an extensive library of editing tools that will simplify their video editing process. Whether you are creating social media content, movie-style videos, or editing your project, CapCut's powerful editing features are guaranteed to take your work to the next level.
This article delves into some of the most powerful and least explored advanced editing features of CapCut Desktop Video Editor, providing you with the information you need to unlock the maximum potential of this do-it-all software.
1. Multitrack Editing
One of the most powerful aspects of CapCut is its multitrack editing feature, where you can edit different layers of video and audio on different tracks. This is essential when making more complicated videos, like those with overlays, split screens, or concurrent video and audio effects.
2. Keyframe Animation
CapCut's keyframe animation function provides advanced control of clip, image, text, and video effect movement and change. Keyframing is realized through dropping designated points along a timeline whenever specific properties (size, position, or opacity, say) shift, resulting in smooth, personalized animations.
How It Works:
Set Initial and Final States: Position the playhead at some point in time, and then move the property of your clip. CapCut will create keyframes for you automatically to record the transition between the two points in time.
Personalize Movement: For instance, you can make the position of a video clip move along the screen with the progression of time, or change the opacity so a clip is faded in and out over time.
Use with Text and Effects:
The keyframes also interact with text and effects and can be used to animate the appearance, scale, rotation, etc., of the text.
This feature proves useful when you are making high-quality animations, transitions, or intricate visual effects to enhance your footage.
3. Advanced Color Grading
Color grading is a core aspect of video editing that allows you to change the visual style and tone of your videos. CapCut provides you with professional color correction and color grading tools to allow you to personalize how your videos are going to look.
Key Features:
Filters and LUTs: CapCut boasts an incredible library of filters and lookup tables (LUTs), which allow you to apply a range of color effects and gain a specific mood or look for your video. Would you like a retro movie look, cinematic look, or high-contrast look? All of this is possible with the CapCut filters in one click.
Manual Adjustments: For added control, CapCut lets you manually adjust settings such as exposure, contrast, saturation, and highlights. You can also adjust the shadows and whites to make color balance adjustments so your video appears exactly as you want it to.
Split Tone: Split tone enables you to adjust the color of highlights and shadows individually, ideal for a more stylized or cinematic look.
Color grading in CapCut is strong enough to create a dramatic impact on the reception of your footage, enabling you to achieve everything from subtle tweaking to striking, cutting-edge looks.
4. Artificial Intelligence
CapCut can generate free AI videos and even generate captions using its very own AI caption generator.
5. Chroma Key (Green Screen)
CapCut's Chroma Key feature, or green screen editing, is a powerful feature for background replacement in your videos. The feature is widely used in film, television, and social media production to overlay subjects on different backgrounds.
6. Motion Tracking
CapCut Desktop Video Editor also features a motion tracking option where you can track the movement of objects within a clip and apply effects or text that you can get to follow along. It is great for incorporating dynamic text, graphics, or effects that track along with your subject.
How It Works:
Choose the Object to Track: You then choose the object or region of the video you wish to track. CapCut will examine the object's motion throughout the clip.
Add Effects or Text: Once motion has been tracked, you can apply text, an image, or an effect over the tracked subject. For example, you might track a traveling car and attach text that traverses with the car on screen, or put a special effect that creates a trail behind the person or an object in a video.
Adjust Tracking Settings: You can modify the speed and the way the tracking effect moves, allowing it to move smoothly and follow the moving object accurately.
Motion tracking is a great means of incorporating professional effects that trail the action within your video, which can enhance the viewer's experience through dynamic, interactive elements.
7. Audio Editing and Enhancements
Audio is just as crucial as video when creating a professional output. With CapCut Desktop Video Editor, you do have some tools that you can utilize to edit your audio so you can adjust and make the sound in your videos personalized.
Key Features:
Sound Effects and Voiceovers: CapCut AI video maker has a sound effect library that you can simply add to your project. You can also sync your voice-overs or sound recordings with the video.
Volume Control: You can control the volume of individual audio tracks and add keyframes to modify the volume over time, for example, fading in or out.
Noise Reduction: CapCut also has a noise reduction feature that eliminates unwanted background noises, making your voiceovers and music cleaner and more professional.
Equalizer and Audio Effects: CapCut also comes with an equalizer to adjust bass, midrange, and treble frequencies for more audio control. Audio effects like reverb, echo, and pitch shifting can also be applied to give a creative touch to your sound.
8. Masking and Layering Effects:
The masking aspect of CapCut allows you to create your shapes and employ them to conceal or expose segments of your video. This is particularly useful while creating intricate effects like picture-in-picture, video on multiple layers, or bringing the audience's attention to sections of the frame.
Conclusion
CapCut is a robust video editor that offers you a wealth of professional editing features that give you full control over your content. From multitrack editing and keyframe animation to green screen effects, motion tracking, and color grading, CapCut Desktop Video Editor gives you everything you need to create professional-level videos.
Admitting to your team that you're feeling stuck at work is harder than you think. There are projects with missed deadlines, consistent meetings that don't go anywhere, and important updates that get lost in too many locations. The challenge often isn't that we haven't put in the effort; it's that we don't have a single system to rally the collective efforts of everyone on a project.
That's where Lark comes in. Rather than a mix of many apps that don't connect, Lark gives teams everything they need in one amazing place that they can work from. Messaging, docs, meetings, approvals, and workflows are all housed in a single workspace, and teams can spend more time making progress and less time chasing down updates. Lark centralizes how information flows and decisions are made while removing unnecessary roadblocks to make it less painful to work together every day. In turn, work feels easier, collaboration feels seamless, and teams can spend time thinking about momentum rather than chaos.
Lark Base helps projects stay on track
One of the biggest reasons teams feel stuck is project sprawl. Tasks are buried in spreadsheets, updates happen in long email chains, and no one knows which version is the latest. Lark Base clears that bottleneck by turning scattered information into a structured, easy-to-use hub.
With Base, teams can:
Organize work visually in table, Kanban, or calendar views
Set up automated rules so updates flow without manual reminders
Assign tasks and track status in one shared panel
Instead of chasing updates, your team sees a single source of truth. That clarity keeps projects moving at pace and prevents the endless delays that usually come from version confusion. No wonder many teams now consider Lark among the best project management tools for centralizing both tasks and data in one place.
Lark Approval removes decision bottlenecks
Another way work slows down is decision fatigue. Accommodation approvals for budgets, leave requests, or project milestones seem to linger in email threads where they have little to no visibility into what was approved or what still needs approvals. Lark Approval removes the guesswork.
This is how Lark Approval keeps teams moving:
Employees create and submit requests in minutes
Managers receive notifications to review instantly on mobile or desktop
All decisions are tracked automatically, thereby minimizing back and forth.
With this flow, sign-offs happen faster and more transparently. Your team doesn't waste days waiting on green lights—they know exactly where things stand. And with automated workflow inside Lark, these requests can even route to multiple decision-makers without manual intervention, ensuring that nothing gets stuck in someone's inbox.
Lark Approval
Lark Calendar makes meetings smoother
One more overlooked reason for missed momentum is poorly run meetings. Setting up meetings can be a headache , especially for distributed teams. Forgotten invitations, overlapping events, and vague agendas waste hours of valuable time. The Lark Calendar solves all these issues.
You can in Calendar:
View availability across team members instantly
Turn Messenger chats into calendar invites without leaving your chat
Directly attach Lark Docs to events for agendas and notes
With this technology, you eliminate the never-ending email and make sure meetings maintain structure before they begin. Instead of wasting time on logistical figuring, teams step into meetings with the intent to decide and act. Just this switch can reclaim hours of time each week.
Lark Calendar
Lark Docs and Wiki keep knowledge accessible
Another frustration that holds teams back is knowledge loss. Important files end up buried in personal drives, emails, or old chat histories. Team members waste precious time hunting for "that one document" instead of moving ahead with their work. Lark solves this with Docs and Wiki.
Docs allow you to draft, collaborate, and refine content in real time. Once finalized, those documents can be marked, shared, and regulated by the manager on Wiki, which acts as a permanent knowledge base. Together they provide:
A clear split between working drafts and final reference material
Easy linking so related content stays connected
Centralized access so new team members can get up to speed faster
This means teams never stall because of missing context. The information they need is precisely where it should be, reducing confusion and keeping everyone aligned.
Lark Wiki
Lark Messenger drives conversations into action
Ultimately, teams often become stuck when communication remain talk, with no action. Traditional chat tools have mechanisms for supporting communication, but rarely for executing ideas. Lark Messenger not only communicates, but it executes.
Here's how:
Pin high-priority updates so they won't be lost in the scroll,
Find past conversations quickly with smart search,
Convert a chat into a task or calendar item immediately.
Your team can take the extra second to reconvene conversations repeatedly or actually put words into action with a few clicks of a button. It keeps collaboration moving and the conversation as a means to an end.
Lark Messager
Conclusion
Feeling stuck isn't about effort—it's about friction. When processes rely on outdated spreadsheets, endless email chains, and disconnected apps, momentum slows down. Lark tackles these bottlenecks head-on.
With Base acting as a project hub, Approval providing faster sign-offs, Calendar streamlining schedules, Docs and Wiki organizing knowledge, and Messenger turning discussions into action, teams can finally work at the speed they intend.
And here's the bigger picture: these aren't just handy features. Together, they form the backbone of how modern companies operate. By removing delays and reducing manual work, Lark positions itself as the business process management software that helps organizations run smarter.
When your team starts using Lark fully, progress stops being a struggle and becomes a habit. That's when you realize you're not stuck—you're finally moving again.
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Over the last few years, British South Asian participation in football has increased
The FA has launched a new initiative to address the longstanding underrepresentation of British South Asians in English football. The three-year plan titled Build, Connect, Support marks the first time the FA has created a strategy focused exclusively on improving accessibility and opportunities for the UK’s largest minority ethnic group within the sport.
The plan targets five key areas: grassroots football, the National League and women’s pyramid, coaching and talent ID, refereeing, and education. Each is aimed at removing barriers to entry and promoting sustained engagement. By embedding South Asian inclusion into regional structures and providing more mentoring, leadership programmes, and faith-based community events, the FA hopes to raise awareness and create more accessible pathways into football.
Positive Steps Forward
Over the last few years, British South Asian participation in football has increased. Nowhere is this more evident than in east London, where Sporting Bengal United has emerged as a trailblazer. The Mile End-based club has rapidly progressed from Sunday league level to step four of the non-league pyramid, also making appearances in the FA Cup.
Their success reflects both a shift in attitudes and the power of community-led football, with east London’s significant South Asian population creating a strong foundation for growth. Sporting Bengal United’s progress is indicative of an emerging trend: recent figures show that over 11% of South Asian adult men and 15% of women are now involved in football activities.
2024 marked one of the strongest years to date for grassroots engagement. According to FA data, participation has risen across multiple demographics, with a notable increase in female involvement. This has been fuelled by the inspirational impact of national team success, that’s been bolstered by huge media coverage.
For example, Lioness and World Cup finalist Alessia Russo got her own BBC Sounds show in 2024. Fellow players like England captain Leah Williamson and Chloe Kelly have collected millions of followers on their social channels. From lucrative television deals that put more games on TV screens to the celebrity status of both male and female players, and better engagement with fans through social media, the game’s accessibility has grown.
Indeed, the ubiquitous nature of the sport in media and entertainment is further exemplified by the likes of the football-themed special edition of comedy gameshow I Literally Just Told You with Jimmy Carr, and the new Football Roulette live casino online game that offers an alternative to more traditional versions of the gambling favourite. In iGaming, this roulette variation is a continuation of the success of slots like Football LuckyTap, which have together reinvented the sport in new ways.
As football’s reach continues to expand across media, grassroots, and professional levels, the conditions are ripe for long-overdue change in representation. The increasing visibility of the sport - and those who play it - has the power to inspire young British South Asians to believe there is a place for them in the game.
Initiatives like the FA’s Build, Connect, Support plan are vital in turning that belief into opportunity, removing structural barriers and building lasting pathways into football. If the progress seen in east London can be replicated across the country, the sport will not only better reflect the rich diversity of modern Britain, but it will be stronger and more inclusive because of it.
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By the end of this year, the report predicts the UK to have overtaken Germany as Europe’s largest entertainment and media market
On the heels of reports relaying superb market growth, as well as a potential roadblock that might just be on the horizon, the UK has pledged £380 million in the form of a Creative Industries Sector Plan. The funding is to be targeted at supporting innovation, research and development, skill development, access to finance, and regional growth.
Further, the plan aims to encourage double the amount of business investment to over £30 billion by 2035. With this, some 2,000 new film and TV apprenticeships will be delivered, further propelling the UK creative industries into the future. The investment packages look to ride a wave of momentum that sees the UK closing in on Europe’s leading market.
Even before this latest investment announcement from the UK government, key creative industries were rolling high. Data from the Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2024-2028 report by PwC indicates that, last year, UK revenue in the market eclipsed £100 billion. Over the next few years, revenue is expected to hit £121 billion, with cinema and streaming services earmarked as the key drivers of this growth.
By the end of this year, the report predicts the UK to have overtaken Germany as Europe’s largest entertainment and media market. The growth is also being reflected in an increase in consumer spending at home. The latest figures, reflecting spending last year, saw spending breach £5 billion for the first time to clock in at £5.1 billion. This plays into the importance of streaming, but also other forms of home entertainment.
Digital and physical sales of media, as well as rentals, also contributed. Then, there’s also the corner of iGaming entertainment and its place in the UK’s sector. A £2.6 billion increase from 2025 to 2029 is expected, buoyed by the competitive landscape that incentivises innovation. This is clear to see in the bingo offers that span multiple facets of the entertainment medium. Covering in-house bingo, online bingo, and free spins on slots, the £80 welcome bonus can be attained for £20. Clearly, competition is creating excellent conditions for players.
Being such a colossal market, the United States is coveted as a landing spot for entertainment productions. If you can stick in the US, especially as a UK-based creation, you look set to potentially quintuple your audience. Further, the UK has benefited from being inviting to big-money productions based out of Hollywood, with incentives offered that certainly don’t overshadow the economic impact of a major production coming to these shores.
Now, there’s trouble on the horizon. As one of many areas hit by strays in the government’s scattershot approach to tearing down globalisation, the White House has mused a foreign film tariff. UK film unions have warned that a tariff in the region of 100 per cent, which has been touted by the US president, would be a “knockout blow” for the industry. The idea of the tariff is apparently targeting films “produced in foreign lands,” aiming to bring filming back to the US.
Entertainment, media, and the creative sector as a whole are riding high in the UK right now, and will receive further investment from the government. Unfortunately, decisions made overseas may have more of an impact than millions of pounds.
Bharatiya or Indian civilisation is the oldest and living civilisation. Over the course of history, numerous civilisations came and triumphed for some time and then disappeared without a trace. The Bharatiya or Hindu civilisation, in spite of its antiquity and centuries of oppression, is as radiant and as dynamic as a young horse which is powerful, energetic, strong and has an unyielding spirit.
It has deep roots with an unmatched heritage of learning, culture, languages, food, history, science, spirituality, arts, architecture, mathematics, philosophy, doctrines of war and peace and much more. More than all this, Hindu civilisation has the concept of Ahimsa and Compassion. Compassion towards all living beings. Animals share this planet with us. A practising Hindu will not harm even an ant. This position is unique to the Dharmic faiths, namely Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism.
Killing of animals for food or for fun is an anathema to practising Hindus. Civilisations survive on sacred principles. However, in a world where trade agreements are important, protecting sacred values is almost impossible.
This is the dilemma the Hindu majority India is facing. The cow is a sacred animal for Hindus. However, India has become a big exporter of beef. While cow and calf meat exports are prohibited, the water buffalo meat, also known as Cara meat, is legal. India has the distinction of being the world's biggest exporter of buffalo meat.
The biggest producer of buffalo meat in India is the company called 'Al-Kabeer', owned by Satish and Atul Sabharwal. It has invested £27 million (₹230 crore) on plant and machinery to have the most efficient way of killing the buffaloes and poultry. It is based in Andhra Pradesh, near Hyderabad, covering acres of land. The state of Andhra Pradesh is a leading contributor of cattle to Al-Kabeer, followed by Karnataka and Telangana.
At least 8 million to 10 million (80 lakh to 1 crore) heads of cattle are slaughtered every year to generate 950,000 (9.5 lakh) metric tonnes of beef. The Hindu holy site of Tirupati Balaji is also in Andhra Pradesh. The Sri Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati is dedicated to Lord Venkateswara, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
43% of buffalo meat is produced in Chief Minister Yogiji's Uttar Pradesh. There are at least four major meat companies whose owners are Hindu. Apart from Al-Kabeer owned by the Sabharwal brothers, Arabian Export is owned by Sunil Kapoor, MKR Frozen Food is owned by Madan Abbot. Though it has been claimed that there are even Jain owners of slaughterhouses, I could not find any. However, many Jains outside India own grocery shops and franchises selling meat, fish and eggs.
To their great credit, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance food stores in India have stopped selling any meat products. No Hindu should ever do business involving meat, fish or eggs. The negative karma hits hard in this very lifetime.
Buffalo meat is marketed in different forms. Buffaloes are de-boned, that is, the bones are removed, and de-glanded, meaning the glands are removed from the carcass. A concept called 'Nose to Tail' means that every part of the animal is eaten. The animal's liver, heart, kidneys, tongue, pancreas and even the genitalia are consumed.
The frozen Halal buffalo meat has an array of cuts like the Shank (meaning meat from below the knee), Thick Flank (cut on upper portion of hind leg), Striplon (meat from lower back of animal along the spine from ribs to rump), Brisket (from the breast or lower chest of the cow), Knuckle (top side of the leg). Animal casings are the edible outer layers of sausage made from the intestines of animals like pigs, sheep and cattle. The faeces of these animals are in the intestines.
Apart from buffalo meat, India exports poultry and live goats and sheep. According to the 2023–24 statistics, India exported poultry worth £143.5 million (₹1,200 crore) and more than 7,000 metric tonnes of live exports of goats and sheep. The meat is exported to UAE, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia and many other countries, including China.
Between October 2023 to September 2024, 31,275 shipments of frozen buffalo meat were exported to China. A meat company called Fair Export, which is part of a Lulu conglomerate, has a presence in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
India's rise as a major player in meat exports is known as the Pink Revolution. It is a term coined by Durgesh Patel, who is also known as the father of the Pink Revolution in India. Started in 2014, Pink Revolution aims to modernise and optimise meat production. Durgesh Patel is obviously Hindu and Gujarati.
The blood of slaughtered buffaloes and poultry mostly ends up in the ground and rivers. The pollution renders the ground infertile and the rivers dead. The faeces and discarded animal parts further pollute the waterways. Small flecks of faeces can spread to meat in the slaughter process as hides and intestines are removed.
Meanwhile, PM Modi has chaired a high-powered meeting to improve the fishing industry. Nicknamed the Blue Revolution, £300 million (₹3,000 crore) has been allocated to focus on increasing fish production. Another scheme called PM-MISSY has been allocated £600 million (₹6,000 crore) to support fishing enterprises between the years 2023 and 2027.
As the world fish stock is running out, fish farms have started. Fish swim in their own faeces and cause great pollution.
Violence against defenceless animals rebounds on human society and it snatches away something humans crave for, which is peace, happiness and tranquillity. As India marches ahead in pursuit of material happiness, the violence towards animals will not give the country peace and happiness which should come with it.
The violence perpetrated on animals becomes like an unmovable cloud of despair, anxiety and uneasiness. It creates a nightmare situation of dystopia and negativity amongst human beings. This is especially true for India which has always lived by the principles of Ahimsa. In fact, Ahimsa is the secret to the immortality of Hindu civilisation.
This is an issue which spiritual leaders must speak out about. Their silence on the issue of condemning meat consumption and meat exports is putting the Sanatan Dharma into real danger. Hindu gurus hardly ever condemn meat eating openly and boldly.
Every Hindu child must be brought up on a plant-based diet. No Hindu home should have meat, fish and eggs. This is the bare minimum, but to cut out the immense cruelty involved in the milk industry, one should take that extra step and go vegan. I cannot emphasise enough the urgency of this matter.
I call upon the following gurus and spiritual organisations to speak up about meat eating and slaughterhouses at every event and at every lecture to protect our heritage:
Swami Avdheshanand Giri (Acharya of Juna Akhara), Ganapathi Sachchidananda, Sri, Sri, Mata Amritananda (Amma), Swami Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sadhguru Jaggi Maharaj, Mohanji (Mohanji Foundation), Sant Trilochan Darshan Das Ji (Sachkhand Nanak Dham), Baba Gurinder Singh (Radha Saomi), Namra Muni, Dalai Lama, Swami Chidanandji (Parmarth Niketan Ashram), Supreme Master Ching Hai, Lokesh Muni, Satguru Uday Singh (Namdhari Sangat), Acharyashree Ratnasundarsurishvarji, Acharyashree Hemchandrasurishvarji, Radhanath Swami (ISKCON).
Organisations: BAPS, ISKCON, RSS, Arya Samaj, Chinmaya Mission, Brahma Kumaris, all the Kathakars and all the four Shankaracharya.
(Nitin Mehta is a writer and commentator on Indian culture and philosophy. He has contributed extensively to discussions on Hinduism, spirituality, and the role of Gurus in modern society. You can find more of his work at www.nitinmehta.co.uk.)
(The views of the author need not represent the views of Eastern Eye)
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Map showing global distribution of major world religions by region
Every few years, the media boldly announces the state of world religions. However, the final messages remain the same: that the first position is held by Christianity, followed by Islam. The organisation that gathers these statistics is the US-based Centre for the Study of Global Christianity, with its headquarters at the Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts. The statistics provided by this organisation—which, as the name suggests, is very much Christian—are widely circulated by global media.
The 2025 statistics place Christianity as the biggest religion in the world, followed by Islam. Backing up the Centre is Pew Research. Pew, too, is a Christian organisation. The word “pew” refers to the benches on which people sit in a church. Pew is also financially supported by the John Templeton Foundation, which is a Christian organisation.
The Centre for the Study of Global Christianity claims there are 2.6 billion Christians in the world. The World Christian Database contends that Catholics are the biggest denomination, with 1.27 billion followers. According to Vatican News, the global Catholic population increased by 1.15% between 2022 and 2023, rising from approximately 1.39 billion to 1.406 billion.
Not to be outdone, a Bible Society report suggests that the “hostility” and “apathy” to Christianity recorded among older generations are being replaced by “openness”, particularly among Generation Z (those born between the mid-1990s and 2010s), who “show above-average levels of warmth to spirituality”. The fact, however, is that a significant portion of Generation Z are religiously unaffiliated (“nones”). They are more likely to explore spirituality outside traditional religious institutions and may even blend elements of different faiths.
There are several dangers with Church-based statistics. There can be a self-reporting bias. The methodology employed and the context in which data is collected could involve potential bias. These are not independent surveys—they are Christian stats. Churches may highlight statistics that support their narratives while downplaying or ignoring data that contradicts their message. The way statistics are presented and interpreted can significantly influence public perception. For example, focusing on the number of people who identify as Christian can create a perception of religious strength, while ignoring the growing number of those who are religiously unaffiliated.
While this “good news” (pardon the pun) of Christianity being the biggest religion was lapped up by global media, on the ground, the situation is very different. The proportion of people in England and Wales identifying as Christian has fallen below 50% for the first time, according to census data. Some 46.2% of the population described themselves as Christian in the 2021 census.
In every country surveyed—except the Netherlands and Norway, where the religiously unaffiliated are the largest religious group—non-practising Christians make up the majority of Europe’s Christians. In many European countries, less than 5% of the population attend church. For every 100 new Catholics, more than 800 people leave the Church. In the US, 50 million people who call themselves Catholics do not do the minimum to be considered Catholic.
According to Pew Research, Hinduism is the third biggest religion, with approximately 1.2 billion adherents representing 14.9% of the world population. However, unlike Christianity, Hinduism is practised by the masses enthusiastically. And unlike Christianity, Hinduism—until now—was not a proselytising religion. The horrors perpetrated by the Catholic Church on non-Christians and the forced conversions are acts that Christ would never have approved of.
Regarding Buddhism, Pew Research calls it a major world religion with approximately 320 million followers. China, with the world’s second-largest population, has been Buddhist for thousands of years. Due to the Communist regime, Buddhism is not practised as openly as it should be. Pew Research claims that the true number of Buddhists in China cannot be ascertained because Buddhism there is mixed up with Taoism, Confucianism, and Folk Religion.
It can give a figure of Christians in Africa even though the Church has been obliged to accommodate African traditional religious practices. Christian missionaries often viewed ATRs (African Traditional Religions) as pagan and demonic, leading to the suppression and condemnation of traditional practices. African churches have dancing, playing of drums, ancestral worship, traditional healing, and spiritual healing. Christian missionaries have had to accommodate the African Church. It has yet to find a solution to the dichotomy it finds itself in. It is a matter of cognitive dissonance for the Church.
According to Pew Research, 90% of China’s population is religiously unaffiliated. This figure is ambiguous, as under the Communist regime people would be wary of being seen as affiliated to Buddhism. China’s spiritual heritage is guided by the three pillars of religion—Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. All three have incorporated each other’s ideas and blended into a Buddhist way of life, which has deeply permeated Chinese society, even if it is not formally identified as Buddhism.
I would contend that there are at least 700 million Buddhists in China. There are Buddhist-majority countries like Cambodia, Mongolia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Mongolia. Chinese Buddhism is a major religion in Hong Kong, with a large number of followers and influence on the city’s culture. Buddhism has a large following in European countries too. The total number of Buddhists could be near the one billion mark.
Numbers alone, however, do not indicate the greatness of a religion. Hinduism is by far the oldest religion in the world. It is hundreds of thousands of years old. It has traditionally been non-proselytising. It believes all paths to God—if followed properly—can lead to salvation. Even though it is so old, Hinduism is very modern at the same time. The beginning of the 21st century has seen Hinduism actively taking its message to the world. Tens of thousands of people all over the world are taking up the faith.
Millions of people practise Yoga and have become vegetarians or vegans. Hindu gurus have millions of followers. From Cape Town to Copenhagen to Cincinnati to Kolkata, the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra can be heard. The moral of the article is: do not accept Pew Research and fellow travellers as messengers of truth.
During the recent Kumbh Mela, half a billion Hindus came together at the confluence of the three holy rivers—Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati. Which other religion can bring together such numbers of people? Only a dynamic faith can do that.
(Nitin Mehta is a writer and commentator on Indian culture and philosophy. He has contributed extensively to discussions on Hinduism, spirituality, and the role of Gurus in modern society. You can find more of his work at www.nitinmehta.co.uk.)