• Why do Muslims seek to increase their population through infiltration?
• What happens when Muslims become dominant in a region?

This article is extract from the essay ‘All you wanted to know about Bangladeshi Infiltration into India’. Part one covered why Bengali Muslims migrate to Assam. Part two covers West Bengal. Part two covered Bangladeshi infiltration into West Bengal.

Bangladeshis change demographics, are a dedicated vote bank and provide relatively cheap labour. 

Considering that Bangladeshis are found virtually all over India it would reasonable to assume that their entry and place of settlement is taking place in an organised manner just like the Rohingyas who since 2012, have reached Jammu, Mewat, Hyderabad and New Delhi from the West Bengal border.  

Sunanda K Datta-Ray shared insights in the Business Standard in 2015, “My sister, a qualified gynaecologist, who used to head the Red Cross in Hyderabad, told me several decades ago of Muslim women in bustees and villages rejecting her family planning campaign with the blunt retort that she should address only the more numerous Hindu community until the two groups had reached numerical parity. Perhaps illegal immigration from Bangladesh helps!”

Some argue that if Nepalis are allowed why not Bangladeshis. The 1950 Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty allows Nepalis to work and stay in India. India has no similar treaty with Bangladesh.

But why do Muslims wish to increase their population in India this way? 

The answer lies in what former foreign secretary J N Dixit wrote in Anatomy of a Flawed Inheritance, “The partition of the sub-continent, in a manner, has its roots in Islamic ethos. It goes back to the Prophet’s journey from Mecca to Madina in 622 A.D. in the face of persecution and harassment, known as Hezira. The concept of Hezira is generally acknowledged as a norm, to the effect that Muslims do not live in tyranny or oppression from peoples of other faiths. They must remake their lives in order to practice their faith. Where Islam is not dominant, it is Dar-ul-Harb. It is necessary to move to Dar-ul-Islam. This was the sub-conscious logic underpinning the demand for Pakistan by Chaudhury Rahmat Ali of Cambridge, later on endorsed by Allama Iqbal and concretized by Jinnah.”

It is because Dr Ambedkar understood this that he said the only way make Hindustan a composite state is to arrange for exchange of population.

Therefore, is the intent to make Assam and West Bengal Dar-ul-Islam or are high fertility rate of Muslims due to high illiteracy rates as claimed by former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in 2012.

Note that in Buddhist majority countries of Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, Muslims are in conflict with the Buddhists.

India is a secular country, so what if population of Muslims in India increases?

Let us look at Afghanistan-NWFP-Pakistan-Bangladesh-Kashmir Valley-West Bengal where Muslims dominate today.

Raghavendra Singh wrote in India’s Lost Frontier, “In the 7^th century kingdoms of Kabul and Zabul were politically and culturally part of India, being Indian in language, literature and religion. It was not until 870 A.D. that both Kabul and Zabul were conquered by Yakub-ibn-Layth, founder of the Saffarid dynasty who ultimately became the ruler of Persia. Kabul may have regained independence to form part of the Hindu Shahaiya kingdom. The two kingdoms carried out a heroic resistance against the Arab for more than two hundred years before they ceased to belong to India either politically or culturally.”

The region became Muslim majority. See the condition of Afghanistan today!

Another example is the North West Frontier Province period before 1947. Since Muslims were in majority Hindus were expelled or there was a voluntary exodus from tribal territory without parallel.

Dr Ambedkar wrote in Thoughts on Pakistan about Hindus of Khyber Paktunwala. In Kohat, Khyber Paktunwala, Hindus had to evacuate the city during the riots of 1924 (Pg160). In 1927, the Afridis and Shinwaris were called upon to expel all the Hindus living in the neighborhood of the Khyber Pass (Pg166). The Muslim League used Islam to arouse fears in the tribal people such that the referendum in North West Frontier Province in 1947 went in their favour.  

Post Afghanistan, another part of India became Muslim majority Pakistan. Be it 9/11/ or 26/11 it is the source. It “provides home to 130 UN-designated terrorists and 25 terror entities listed by the United Nations.”

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien story tells you the state of non-Muslims in Pakistan. He visited his cousins in Karachi in 1984 only to find they had converted to Islam because the pressure of being a non-Muslim in Pakistan was too much. Source India Today.

Let us now move to Muslim majority Bangladesh. The population followers of Indian religions has continuously fallen and symbolises their plight. It was 23% in 1951, 14% in 1974, 11% in 1991, 10% in 2001 and 9.3% in 2011. Due to continued discrimination and harassment, very large numbers of Bengali Hindus and Buddhist Chakmas have fled to India.

Atrocities against Hindus and attacks on temples in Bangladesh are common. This, for example is a 2016 New York Times report. In smaller cities and towns (not so much in Dhaka), harassment is part of daily life. Married Hindu women take care not to wear sindoor in their hair or wear the mangalsutra or shakha (a bracelet that is the Bengali symbol of marriage) in public.

Hindus and Buddhists in India’s Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir are victims of discrimination and violence that does not need elaboration.

Last month an India Today report said in its headline, “300 Hindu families unable to perform Durga puja in Bengal's Kanglapahari village after opposition by 25 Muslim families.” 

The conclusion points in one direction: When Muslims become dominant in an area or region, it becomes difficult for non-Hindus to live normal lives. This is not about all Muslims, but we cannot ignore the larger realities.

When Muslims become dominant in an area or region, it becomes difficult for non-Hindus to live normal lives.

Maharshi Aurobindo said in 1940, “The Mahomedans, they want to rule India”. (6) Noted geo strategist Brahma Chellaney wrote in Hindustan Times, “Pakistan will not stop nurturing terrorists as a force multiplier in its low-intensity asymmetric war, whose ultimate goal supposedly is Ghazwa-e-Hind, or the holy conquest of India.”

Another aspect that has got missed is that Northeast India is central to India’s security. It’s States share borders with Myanmar, China, Bhutan and Bangladesh and are India’s gateway to Southeast Asia. Region is fertile and rich in natural resources like oil. It is an amazing combination of culture, language and dress and an example of ‘unity in diversity’. Changed demographics because of Immigration from Bangladesh will affect India adversely. 

Why must India prevent illegal infiltration of Muslims?

India is the only home of Indic religions and faith systems consisting of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh traditions. These traditions survive because India continues to be dominated by them in most areas. Increase in Muslim population due to infiltration will change this because of the inherent nature of Islam as outlined by J N Dixit above.

Maharishi Aurobindo said 1909, “When it is said that India shall be great, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall be great.” (6)

India was divided on the basis of religion in 1947. Muslims who chose to stay in Pakistan (East and West) cannot return to India just because it offers better opportunities than their home country their forefathers chose to live in.

Bangladeshi infiltration, is a national problem that successive governments have contributed to and let accumulate for decades. It has numerous dimensions and requires an integrated approach that can only be taken by a democratically elected government. Courts should not add to its complexity by getting involved. They have done so by allowing Rohingyas to stay in India.

A NRC in any one State is of little consequence because Bangladeshis are present virtually all across India. 

In its obsession with Pakistan and need to secure support of a Muslim majority nation in this fight, India has ignored the dangers from non-stop illegal immigration from Bangladesh.  

First published in Swarajyamag.com and here 

Also read

1. Khilafat Movement

2. How Azaan is increasing the Hindu Muslim divide

3. Dr Ambedkar on Islam and Indian Muslims

4. Understanding the Muslim mind through Ambedkar

5. Citizenship Act - India is the only home of Hindus, Buddhist, Jains and Sikhs