For more than five decades now, fear of migration from Bangladesh (and earlier Pakistan’s East Bengal province) has influenced the politics...
For more than five decades now, fear of migration from Bangladesh (and earlier Pakistan’s East Bengal province) has influenced the politics of Assam. To justify this, very high estimates of numbers of Bangladeshi migrants have been put out in the public domain in India.
In 1997, Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta stated in Parliament that there were 10 million illegal Bangladeshi migrants residing in India. In 2016, the Modi government declared in Parliament that there were as many as 20 million Bangladeshis living in India illegally (which would mean nearly 2% of India’s population was actually Bangladeshi).
India’s Supreme Court, which has been a strong driver of nativist sentiment on this issue, went on to assume that the number of illegal migrants “runs into millions” and “is in fact an ‘aggression’ on the State of Assam”.
One part of this nativist sentiment is ethnic – with Assamese nationalists opposing the migration of both Hindus and Muslims from Bangladesh. The other part of this is communal – with Hindu nationalist parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party painting this as an influx of Muslims.
Adding to this is the pan-Indian stereotype of Bangladesh being much poorer than India, which drives Bangladeshis to across the border to find work.
This politics led to the Supreme Court...
