Childhood Exposure to Communal Violence and Long-Run Religious Inequality in Psychological and Economic Well-Being

Can childhood exposure to intergroup violence widen long-run inequality between majority and minority groups? We link the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India to historical records of Hindu–Muslim riot fatalities to investigate this question. Identification comes from whether Muslim–Hindu gaps differ across childhood district–birth cohorts with different riot exposure, after absorbing district-cohort conditions and allowing religious gaps to vary across districts and cohorts. More than three decades later, greater exposure is associated with worse psychological well-being among Muslims relative to Hindus: depressive symptoms rise, while life satisfaction, perceived social position, and sleep deteriorate. Exposure is also associated with lower household consumption, durable asset ownership, and property ownership. These disparities are accompanied by lower educational progression and a labour-market pattern of higher participation but lower earnings and lower salaried employment, consistent with human-capital and labour-market pathways through which childhood violence may shape later-life inequality. Intergroup violence can therefore leave persistent minority-specific costs in both mental health and material well-being.