It is an evident fact that the essence of all religions is “Peace and Harmony”. Only the path and methods are different. This is natural and understandable. Only in past few decades, the communication system became more advanced and the due to the invention of aircrafts, the time of travel between the countries diminished. Before that, people in one region were totally ignorant of the other regions. So they developed doctrines what they felt right for them and followed what was acceptable to them for their circumstances. So there evolved numerous religions, those were initially confined to particular area alone. Later due to invasions, development of trade connections etc. religions spread to the other regions.
In countries like India, there are numerous religions existing between the populations. India, in the past had encountered many religious riots. Likewise, conflicts between the different sects of the same religion have also become inevitable. The key reason for this condition is that people failed to understand and realize the essence of the religions, instead stuck to the mere formalities of the religion.