Indian Home minister Amit Shah has said in a programme organised by Dainik Jagran on Saturday, 10th October that influx of illegal migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh is fuelling disparity in population growth in India. He threatened that the government will pursue a policy to detect, delete and deport the alleged illegal migrants from the two neighbouring Muslim countries. To explain his point Amit Shah quoted the Indian census data in detail. The gist of the data is given below:
Year Hindus% Muslims%
1951 84 9.8
1971 82 11
1991 81 12.12
2011 79 14.2
Amit Shah added, “I am talking about the populations of only two religions because I want to talk about infiltration. He concluded that in the above quoted period of 60 years, the Muslim population increased by 4.6 percent, whereas the Hindu population decreased by 4.5 percent. He further said, “I am telling this to you because it has not happened because of fertility rate. It has happened because of infiltration from Pakistan and Bangladesh.” He concluded that this infiltration poses a threat to the safety of our country, its culture, languages and our independence.” He also claimed that this illegal infiltration affects our religious and social fabric, population trends and border security.
This twisting of facts has come from Amit Shah because he is worried about BJP’s very bleak prospects in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Bihar and Assam. This has prompted him to create fear among the Hindutva lovers.
Let us examine what the objective analysis of facts reveals. Is the nominal increase in the percentage of Muslim population is a real threat to India? Is it possible for the Muslim minority to outgrow the dominant Hindu majority of about 79 percent population?
Measuring growth of population in terms of percentage does not give the real picture. Now let us examinein total numbers how Hindu and Muslim populationsgrowth took place.
Period Hindu Growth Muslim Growth (in numbers)
1951–61 6.3cr. 1.2cr.
1961–71 8.6cr. 1.4cr.
1971–81 10.9cr. 1.9cr.
1981–91 13.8cr. 2.7cr.
Consequent census figures also confirm almost the same trend in the growth of populations of the two communities.
Census data indicates that every year, on an average, Hindus grow by 7.7 crore, whereas Muslims grow by 2.3 crore. Therefore Amit Shah’s fear of Muslims overtaking the Hindu population is baseless, and misleading. It may be used to frighten the Hindu majority but is impossible in the realm of reality.
These figures presented by Amit Shah were posted on Xalso. It appear that the falsehood of the figures was soon realised and the post was deleted. Let us hope that our Home Minister will take care in future and desist from falsely denigrating Muslims and communalising the atmosphere of the country.