MUSLIMS IN WEST BENGAL

There are many of my friends who shared with me in private the post on The Muslim Takeover Of West Bengal by Janet Levy who concluded that the Muslims may overtake West Bengal Hindu population as the way Muslims are increasing in numbers. 

"While the situation for Hindus in Bangladesh is certainly dire, life has become increasingly difficult for Hindus in West Bengal, home to a Muslim-appeasing government and a breeding ground and safe haven for terrorists". – Janet Levy

My answer to Jenet Levy follows…

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India is a multi-religious and multi-cultural country. Religion plays a central and definitive role in the life of many of its people. Although India is a secular Hindu-majority country with 79.8% Hindus, it has a large Muslim population of 14.23%. 

India has a big population. It is true that unrestricted growth of the population affects the equitable and just distribution of national resources in a developing economy like India.

For many Hindus the population growth among the Muslims is a matter of concern. The belief that the Islamic doctrine is responsible for growth in the Muslim population seems to dominate the public imagination. It is unfortunate that our social media members are blindly dependent on misguided troll material, crafty and scheming communal agenda of political class, many print and television media etc etc -- all of which serving their own vested interest and portray Muslim community as an unsolvable national problem with their threatening numbers!!!! 

It is widely circulated that Quran and Hadith do not allow Muslim to be truly modern. As a result, an inward-looking Islamic culture of 'having four wives and 16 children' is legitimised. To get rid of this old Islamist mindset, Muslims are advised to embrace modern education in the true sense so that they can understand the significance of birth control. 

This notion is wrong as it is based on anti-Muslim propaganda. It is rejected by professional demographers on the basis of factual inaccuracies.

To get into the facts one need not require to tirelessly hunt for population reports in libraries for factual analysis. Google has made it easy for everyone to fact check with reference to the census analytics uploaded by professional institutions and demographers. What is required is an evidence-based narrative for an informed debate on religious support for population increase in India. One can also browse through the Sachar Committee Report on internet to get at the facts.

Scientifically the growth rate of the Muslim population is compared with factors such as median age, average fertility and infant mortality rate by professional demographers and sociologists.

So what is Median age? Median age is a midpoint age of a population, ie, there are the same number of people who are older than the median age and the same number are younger than the Median age.

Muslims relatively have high fertility among the major religious groups in India. In 2010, the median age of Indian Muslims was 22, compared with 26 for Hindus and 28 for Christians. Muslim women bear an average 3.1 children per head, compared with 2.7 for Hindus and 2.3 for Christians. And kindly bear in mind not every Muslim husband has more than one wife.

The total national population declined to 17.7% in 2011 from 21.5% in 2001. Hindu's growth rate declined to 3.5%, ie, from 80.5% in 2001 to 79.8% in 2011.

On the other hand Muslims, who had a decadal growth rate of 29.5% in 2001 declined steeply to 24.6% in 2012. This decline works out to be a high 4.9%.

Logically keeping the higher fertility rate and lower Meridian age of Muslim the national growth rate of their population is expected to be higher whereas as per fact and data presented above the Muslim population growth rate has declined.

Yes, as per data, the rate of growth of Muslim population has been higher than the national average in the border districts of states like Assam, West Bengal and Bihar. But then it is not due to reluctance to adopt birth control measures or religious indoctrination of Quran or Hadith than unabated infiltration and illegal migrants from Bangladesh radically altering the state demographics. This is the major problem that needs to be addressed to set the record straight. 

Also a new kind of wave of jihad is being witnessed in the region of West Bengal that infiltrated from Bangladesh. In several incidents entire families of jihadis in Bangladesh have blown themselves when confronted with the security forces. There is no phenomenon such as local jihadi groups. All jihadi groups are global in their orientation. But the worrisome part for India is that vote-bank politics by all parties in West Bengal enabled global jihadi groups and the affiliates of Al-Qaeda and Islamic State to make inroad into West Bengal through the 2216.7 km of porous and unmanned borders to infiltrate into India — sometimes by paying as less as Rs 100. So who are guarding the borders? It is the central paramilitary force which is unable to contain the infiltration. 

Therefore once these illegal migrants are in India, the demography of the local area does the rest of the work. They travel to the area where they  are most likely to blend in, get a local source of income (usually a rickshaw at first) and then scourge for documents to regularise their stay, or procure fake Aadhaar cards.

This unabated infiltration has now become a national problem. The Bangladesh-India corridor last year emerged as the second-most frequently used corridor for migration according to the World Migration Report 2018.

Along with the poor lots of Bangladeshis there are many associated with terrorist groups also infiltrating into India due to improper filtration process or checks of some kind. As it happens with unchecked processes, the basket is getting filled with bad apples too.

The communal clashes in Basirhat in 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, bomb making and distribution of fake currency notes in Kaliachak of Malda in West Bengal are not the least spontaneous, but  clearly orchestrated. 

Bengal led the list at the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), both in 2015 and 2016, in the category of crimes committed by foreigners, where it was acknowledged that Bengal is a hotbed of criminal activities by Bangladeshi elements who commit a crime and then quickly seek refuge in Bangladesh. The 2015 report said that Bengal accounts for more than half of such crimes (57.6% in the category of foreigners committing crimes) in the country.

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has issued an alert in 2019, stating that the ISIS Bangladesh is planning a major terrorist attack in West Bengal with the help of Islamist extremist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). The alert issued by the IB said that the ISIS may carry out attacks in Siliguri, Darjeeling, Cooch Behar and other West Bengal districts adjoining Bangladesh border. 

The involvement of external powers for destabilizing the region cannot be ruled out. China has the pressing imperative of linking Chumbi Valley through Sikkim, Darjeeling and Bay of Bengal as part of the land component and maritime component of the ‘One Belt One Road’ project. Reportedly, China was behind the latest upheaval in Darjeeling and has spread its tentacles in the highest level of political hierarchy in Sikkim. It has also tried to bribe top Bhutanese decision-makers, only to be spurned.

It is a hard fact that till we do not put our house in order; till we do not increase vigilance on border to catch, punish and send back the infiltrators, the Bangladeshi migrants as it has been will have been used by all political parties not only in West Bengal but anywhere in India as vote banks for electoral politics. It is also a hard fact that the parties opposing illegal migrants today are also using them as vote bank in the similar way as they are using their own tainted party leaders, Corporates, MLAs and MPs who are having serious criminal charges on them. Securing the border and increasing the vigilance activities are in the domain of the center. It is not fair to lay all blame on the state governments of adjoining border for the security lapse of the center.