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Minorities and the uncertain fate of a secular West Bengal
(Translated from Bengali)
A community cannot be conferred the status of a minority merely on the basis of its reduced share in
population. The fundamental cause for poverty and backwardness of Muslims is not religious persecution but
the abysmal failure of secular, public welfare programmes. Religious dogmatism and bigotry is also largely
responsible for the backwardness of an orthodox Islamic society. In Muslim majority countries, intolerance of
its religious minorities is an expression of this bigotry. Author Mohit Ray has used a statistical/numerological
analysis to study the religious character of the population in West Bengal and conclude that in the near future,
Muslims will become the majority, following which the very existence of West Bengal will be futile.
Consequently, this religious community poses a predicament to the secular future of West Bengal.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While acknowledging that the title is sensitive and
proscribed in the political and cultural climate of
West Bengal, its usage is deliberate to arrive
directly to the crux of the problem. It goes without
saying that in West Bengal, minority indicates the
Muslim community and as a consequence,
practically no other religious or linguistic
community has gained prominence. In other words,
phrases like Santhal minority or Nepali
minority is non-existent in Bengal. The Islamic
minority in West Bengal has enormous problems,
the most pressing of which is acute poverty
afflicting the majority share of these groups. To
compound the problem, they are also getting piled
everyday into a deeper state of religious orthodoxy.
This article will not dwell on these contentious
issues surrounding the community, even though
such discussions are extremely necessary. And
discussions on this theme do take place. The goal of
this prose is to probe if the Muslim community is
growing as a threat to the secular fabric of West
Bengal, and why.

1. Special Minority
An attempt to ask whether the Muslims in
West Bengal can truly be accorded the minority
status will probably impel the reader to question the
arithmetic skills of the author. But one needs to
understand that merely being less in absolute
numbers does not warrant conferring the minority
status to any community. In a society, thieves,
dacoits or priests happen to be small in numbers,
but we dont call them a minority, nor do we accord
the minority status to the local street ruffian. In the
past, the whites in South Africa, Sunni Muslims in
Iraq or many of the Muslims in the subcontinent
have enjoyed maximum power that a state can
afford and has not been declared as minority, even
though they occupied a numerically smaller fraction
of the population. Hence, a numerically
disadvantaged community is accorded the status of
a (protected) minority, if due to their smaller
population they have suffered persecution by the
majority population or the state itself; the
oppression being economic, political, cultural,
religious or linguistic.
Years before the partition in 1940 during a
debate on the proposal to form Pakistan, Dr
Babasaheb Ambedkar opined That the transfer of
minorities is the only lasting remedy for communal
peace is beyond doubt.
1
He also added without
Pakistan the communal problem in India involves
6.5 crores of Muslims, with the creation of Pakistan
it will involve only 2 crores of Muslims. To me, it
seems that if Pakistan does not solve the communal
problem within Hindustan, it substantially reduces
its proportion .
2
During partition, there was an
effective exchange of minorities in the Punjab
province and consequently, the Muslim population
in East Punjab (Indian part) came down from 33.1%
to 1.8%. Hence, as per the prediction of Dr.
Ambedkar, there has been lasting peace with almost
on incidence of Hindu-Muslim or Sikh-Muslim
rioting or continuing refugee transfer from Pakistan

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to India. West Bengal did not listen to this advice of
Dr. Ambedkar and continues to suffer from illegal
immigration, increasing refugee burden as well as
worsening communal conflagrations while a
minority populace of 19% in 1951 has reached
about 30% today.
The extent to which the state is responsible
for the economic backwardness of the Muslims, as
opposed to the orthodoxy and fundamentalism
inherent in the Islamic society, may be
controversial. The state government has completely
failed to eradicate poverty across every section of
the Bengali society, affecting the impoverished
from the Muslim as well as the non-Muslim
communities equally. The poverty alleviation
programmes that should have been undertaken on
the basis of economic distress of the impoverished
population, irrespective of religious affiliation, have
not been implemented for any section of the society.
Hence it is misleading to state that the Muslim
society has been especially distressed due to
government apathy to public welfare programmes.
The tribal as well as other Hindu marginalized
sections have equally suffered the results of state
inaction. And no one can blame any discriminatory
economic, political, cultural, religious or linguistic
state policy specifically directed against the
Muslims to have resulted into the current retrograde
condition of the Islamic society in Bengal. In
retrospect, one must also remember that the
Muslims have actually been the rulers of undivided
India as well as Bengal for the centuries and is
historically unlikely to be at the receiving end of
oppressive state policies. After that, during two
hundred years of British rule, the Muslim society
was not under the direct control of the majority
Hindus. In contrast, it was the Muslim League who
was in power in pre-partition era undivided Bengal.
Hence, there cannot be a realistic comparison
between the regressive conditions of once-ruling
minority Muslims with the historically marginalized
population of the Hindu society. And in post-
partition West Bengal, none of the economic,
political, cultural, religious or linguistic state
programmes have been specifically discriminatory
to the Muslims in any way. It cannot however be
denied that social segregation, often discrimination,
did not exist between the majority Hindus and the
minority Muslims in private employment to renting
property, leading to significant hardships to the
Muslims. However incidents of physical or
religious persecution, rape of womenfolk, usurping
and destruction of property or ostracizing the
Muslim society is unheard of in West Bengal
whereas such these atrocities are common
experience for the minority Hindus in the eastern
Bengal or Bangladesh. Consequently, Muslims
from erstwhile East-Pakistan and later Bangladesh
have kept migrating to West Bengal because of the
relative safety and security present in West Bengal
(and has been discussed in details later).
As a result, even though the Muslim society
has not been able to improve its conditions
economically, they have been quite successful in
rallying power in religious as well as political
spheres in West Bengal. The result of this Muslim
domineering can now be easily felt across the
cultural sphere of West Bengal and has started to
significantly alter the cultural and moral landscape
of the same. Due to this power projection of the
minority, author Ms. Taslima Nasreen was
forcibly exiled from West Bengal and has lead to
the establishment of Alia University where
compulsory training in Arabic and Islamic
curriculum is enforced. Unofficially, their women
teachers and students alike are being forced to don
the Islamic veil (burkha). Due to this bolstering of
Islamic authority, an Islamic seminary or madrassa-
based education system is gradually being ushered
in for the Bengali Muslims whereas no other
religious minorities in either West Bengal or in
India have an education system segregated from the
rest of the society. In the name of minority welfare,
the Muslim society is being handed into the laps of
ultra-orthodox Ulemas and Imans. As a
consequence of pampering to this minority by
over-indulgent Communist, Congress and
Trinamool Congress, a secular, democratic and

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pluralistic state of West Bengal is dying a slow
death. Hence, it would be more appropriate to
denote the Islamic minority in West Bengal as a
special minority community.

2. Where the minority is a majority
International scenario.
One has to remember that the concept of universal
brotherhood prominently exists in the Muslim
society. In the Muslim psyche, there is this concept
of a universal Muslim community under Islam or
Ummah; something that gets even more ingrained
with Islamic seminary (madrassa)-based education.
No other religion has an equivalent concept of a
universal, religious society as in Islam wherein it is
repeatedly stressed that the Muslims are superior to
the rest of humanity. In demographic terms, Islam is
the worlds second largest religion while many
Islamic nations wield significant economic power.
An Indian or an American Muslim has to undertake
pilgrimage to far away Arabia to fulfill his or her
religious obligations. While on Hajj to Saudi
Arabia, ordinary Muslims come in contact with
their international co-religionists and even though
some of them may be minorities in their homeland,
Hajj makes the traveling Muslims develop a sense
of brotherhood with its international community.
This sense of a global Islamic brotherhood was
manifested in the protest by Indian Muslims against
the abolition of Caliphate during Khilafat
movement and its most prominent patron was
Mohandas Gandhi. Even though the centre of the
movement was in far away Turkey, progressive
Muslims fought to uphold the Caliphate.
Today the Islamic world is a continuous
stretch from Indonesia in East Asia to Algeria in
West Africa, with only India as the major
impediment to its continuity. In contemporary
global Islamic community, concepts of democracy
and secularism are extremely weak and Islamic
Shariah is the dominant force in governance. Even
a near-European secular democracy like Turkey is
sliding towards an Islamist revival. In general, most
minorities worldwide tend to be somewhat
conservative out of a perceived threat of oppression
from the majority community. And they often look
up to nation-states for ideology and inspiration
where their compatriots are the majority and in
power. Over the last three decades (Islamic
revolution of Iran can be marked as a start) Islamic
states worldwide are gradually walking in a
backward direction. Neighbouring Bangladesh or
Pakistan has not made any progress towards
modernization. As a result, progressive thought
processes among Muslims in India and within it, in
West Bengal, have been dangerously stymied. This
has caused significant negative impact on the
Muslim society in West Bengal that has chosen
orthodoxy and religious bigotry over liberalization.
Let us look at the condition of minorities in
some of the Muslim majority states worldwide. In
Iran, after the Islamic revolution, the local
Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian minorities have
gradually moved towards extinction.
3
In Egypt,
minority Coptic Christians have been facing major
crisis even though they occupy a significant
proportion (10%) of the population. Significantly,
over the last 50 years under oppression of the
Islamic state, the minority Christians have silently
suffered atrocities from prohibition to build
churches and various other forms of persecution.
Consequently, the Christians have slowly emigrated
out of Egypt. Moreover, Egypt does not accept any
other religion other than the Abrahamic faiths
(Judaism, Christianity and Islam), as legitimate.
Hence, anyone seeking Egyptian citizenship must
either convert into an Abrahamic faith or abandon
religion altogether.
4
The source of all Islamic
fanaticism is Saudi Arabia, where it is unacceptable
to practice any other religion other than Islam. All
national laws strictly conform to the Shariah laws.
This means one cannot construct a church or a
temple. This is practically the situation with almost
all of the Arabian monarchies. While South Africa
had to face global condemnation and alienation for
its racial apartheid, why the international
proponents of liberal democracy forgot to proscribe
this fountainhead of religious persecution is indeed

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a seventh wonder. Beginning with the astute
leadership of Kemal Ataturk and following his
inspiration, the military and the middle class of
Turkey has long ensured its continuity as a secular
state although not always a democracy. However,
the recent victory of its Islamist party is dragging
Turkey into an orthodox and intolerant statehood.
The radical Islam is also spreading to
Europe where, in spite of its small Muslim
population (Britain 3%, France 8%), the society is
facing its effects. Tube rail public transport in
London, railways in Spain, a cinematographer in
Holland (Theo van Gogh) and a writer (Ayan Hirsi
Ali) are all victims of radical Islam. Such is the
enormity and reach of the Ummah that a call by an
American Pastor to burn a Koran has lead to riots in
faraway Afghanistan and Kashmir; even in Indian
Punjab with a tiny Muslim community, a church
was burned down. In sharp contrast, after the
destruction of the historic Bamiyan Buddha statues,
hardly any Muslim was attacked in any Buddhist
majority nation or after the attack on the
Akshardham temple in Gujarat, hardly any mosque
was attacked in West Bengal or Tamil Nadu.
Let us now reflect on two developing
Muslim countries of the east, even though their
effect on global Islamic psyche is insignificant.
Since the Islamic ideology is strongly Arab-centric,
many consider the Islamic Ummah as Arab
imperialism. Muslims now account for 60% of
Malaysian population even though they were not
the majority just three decades back. Even though
40% of the population is non-Muslim, Islam is the
official religion in Malaysia. In addition to this,
article 160 of the Malaysian constitution explicitly
states that all indigenous population are, by
definition, Muslims and are subject to mandatory
Shariah laws. Adherents of non-Muslims faith
cannot proselytize a Muslim but Muslims are
legally permitted to convert non-Muslims.
5

Eventually the minorities are forced to emigrate out.
In comparison, neighbouring Indonesia with 90%
Muslim population is significantly more
democratic;
6
however with only 3% of the
population, hapless Hindus in Bali faced copious
attacks on their temples in 2005 and 2006. The main
attraction of Indonesian tourism is the enriched
cultural heritage in the island of Bali, where its
Indian as well as Hindu legacy is largely preserved
along with its unique, indigenous Hindu population.
In summary, one can safely conclude that
there is no ray of hope of a free, pluralistic
democracy in the contemporary Islamic world. On
the contrary in the name of multiculturalism, radical
Islam has steadily spread its tentacles across the
length and breadth of US and the European Union
and their biggest supporters so far have been its
leftists and socialist leaders. On one hand,
liberalism in these societies allows publication of
novel like The Gospel according to Jesus Christ by
Nobel prize-winning author Jose Saramago or
complete freedom to conduct opera like Jesus
Christ superstar. But on the other hand, staunch
opposition of the same liberal intelligentsia to any
caricature of the Islamic prophet or their abject
silence to the murder of a cinematographer who
made a film critical of Islam, defies all logic.

Neighbouring countries.
Let us now look at our adjacent countries which
primarily include the seven countries of SAARC
(South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation) surrounding India namely, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan
and Afghanistan. Of these, four are Muslim
majority nations and let us analyze the condition of
minorities in these countries.
In Afghanistan, an Islamic, authoritarian
form of governance prevails with strict Islamic
jurisprudence. Once a Buddhist state, over 99% of
its current population follow Islam. Nevertheless, a
handful of surviving Sikh families face extinction as
have the historical Bamiyan Buddhist statues.
Significant parts of the country lie under control of
the Islamist Taliban.
Maldives, a tourist hotspot, is a totalitarian
Islamic country. Practice of any other religion is
prohibited in this country. It is even illegal for a

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Maldives citizen to follow any other religion.
7
This
year (in 2010) the government of Maldives started
an inquiry into the alleged proclamation by one
Ismail Mohamed Didi of being an atheist. At first he
sought asylum from London and then committed
suicide.
Pakistan is a declared Islamic republic
where Islam is the national religion. The
foundational basis of Pakistan was to seek a
separate Islamic nation by the undivided Indias
Muslims. Current demography of Pakistan includes
96% Muslims, 1.5% Christians and 1% Hindus.
General Ziaul Haq in 1978 initiated steps to further
Islamize Pakistan. Muslims were first brought under
the ultra-orthodox Shariah jurisprudence using the
Hudood ordinance, which was also used to bring
some non-Muslims under its purview. In 1980, a set
of Blasphemy Laws were enacted wherein any
criticism of Islam or its Prophet was declared
illegal. In addition, the state itself engaged in
propagation of Islam in many ways. As a result of
these measures and its effects, Pakistan is
considered as the epicentre of global terrorism. In
spite of their overwhelming majority, Muslims have
continued to persecute its miniscule Christian and
near-extinct Hindu population. In 1992, after the
demolition of Babri structure, the handful of
remaining temples was attacked.
Bangladesh is democratic republic but
Islam is her national religion. According to their
national census of 2001, 90% of its population is
Muslim with 9% Hindu. In spite of brief spells of
military rule, democracy has been eventually
restored in all previous cases. Although there are no
direct laws that persecute its minority population, its
minorities have deeply suffered the devastating
consequences of its stringent and discriminatory
Enemy Property Act from the Pakistan era. After
the birth of Bangladesh, these laws were modified
into Vested Property Act that has been
subsequently used to usurp properties belonging to
its Hindu population. Large swathes of land and
property belonging have been forcibly appropriated
from the Hindu community. In-depth studies have
been performed by the head of the Department of
Economics in Dhaka University, Professor Abul
Barkat, for which he attained international
recognition.
8
In addition to this, systematic
persecution including physical aggression and
assault, desecration of temples, rape of women and
looting of land of property belonging to the Hindus
that started during the pre-liberation Pakistan era,
continue unabatedly till this day. In 1990 during an
attack on the Babri mosque (the structure was not
demolished at that time), communal attacks ensued
on fellow Hindus across the length and breadth of
the country. Bengali Muslims not only destroyed
Hindu temples, but also went on to destroy homes,
shops and other properties belonging to the Hindu
community, which included the destruction of the
famous Dhakeshwari temple in Dhaka and
Kaibalya-dham in Chittagong. Then after the
destruction of Babri mosque in India (the reader
should note that this was not a mosque in West
Bengal), Hindus were hit by carnage of extreme
proportions wherein 28,000 homes, 3,600 temples,
2,500 shops were destroyed and 13 people were
killed.
9
After the electoral victory of Begum
Khaledia Zia in 2001 parliamentary elections,
systematic persecution of the minority populace
took place.
10
As a result, Hindus that were 22 % of
the East Pakistani population in 1951 came down, at
first to 13.5 % in 1974, then 9.2 % in 2001; one
might guess that it will hit a low of 7 8 % in 2011
census. Professor Barkat showed in his book that
between 1971 and 2001 approximately 63 lakh
Hindus vanished from the face of Bangladesh.
From 1964 to 1971, the rate of vanishing Hindus in
Bangladesh clocked some 705 people per day. This
was followed by similar disappearance of some 529
people per day in 1971-1981, 438 people in 1981-
1991, and it increased to 767 people in 1991-2001.
11

Immigration of Hindus from Bangladesh to India
continues unabated till this day. In a research work
undertaken by a researcher in a non-governmental
organization named BRAC in Bangladesh, this
phenomenon has been aptly put, The persecution

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of minorities in Bangladesh is an institutional
mechanism.
12

This discussion will be incomplete without a
comparative analysis of the status of minorities in
the four non-Muslim countries in south Asia.
13

Sri Lanka is a democratic, socialist country.
It does not have a national religion. About 70 % of
its population is Buddhist, 15 % is Hindu and 8 % is
Muslim. There is no discriminatory jurisprudence
targeting any religion. With exception to the
existence of separate personal laws for all religions
(marriage, property), its laws are secular without
recognition to any particular religion. Minorities are
not forced to emigrate of this country.
Nepal is a multi-state democracy without a
national religion. 80 % of its population is Hindu,
11 % are Buddhists and 7 % are Muslims. There are
no discriminatory laws against any religion. Article
23 of the Nepalese constitution grants freedom of
religion to all but proselytizing by anyone is
prohibited. Minorities are not leaving this nation out
of religious insecurity.
Bhutan is a monarchy although it has taken
significant steps towards gradual transformation to a
democracy and electoral polity. About 90 % of its
population adheres to Buddhism with 10 % being
Hindu. It has no national religion and provides
equal status to all religions. However, the
government of Bhutan has a strict attitude towards
conversions. However, minorities are not
emigrating out of this nation.
India by its constitution is a socialist,
secular, democratic nation. It does not have a
national religion. According to 2001 census, 80.6 %
of its population is Hindu and 13.8 % Muslim.
There is no legal prohibition to the following of any
religion. The proportion of Muslims as a share of
the total population increased from 10.4 % in 1951
to 13.4 % in 2001. The growth of Islam is much
higher across some states in India. In several states,
affirmative action and other protective measures by
the respective government have been undertaken
with a goal to uplift the underdeveloped sections of
the Muslim society. As a result, members of the
minority community are not leaving the country. In
conclusion, it is quite obvious that out of the 8
neighbouring countries including India, all the four
Muslim majority nations have Islam as the state
religion, state laws are based on Islamic
jurisprudence and their minority population has
diminished rapidly. In their immediate vicinity are
two Hindu and two Buddhist majority states where
there is no effect of religion in their legislation. This
should make the difference between a Muslim
majority and Muslim minority state more than
obvious.

Muslim majority neighbouring countries
Country State religion Legal proscriptions Specially applicable rules
Afghanistan Islam Islamic jurisprudence
Maldives Islam Shariah Law
Illegal for Maldives citizens to accept any
other religion other than Islam
Pakistan Islam
Muslims under shariah
Law due to Hudood
ordinance
Strict blasphemy law makes critique of
Islam and Islamic prophet illegal.
Bangladesh Islam
Vested properties act,
Confiscation of property
belonging to Hindus.
Sharp decline of minority Hindu
population due to religious persecution
Non-Muslim majority states

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Country National religion Legal proscriptions Specially applicable rules
Sri Lanka None No bias or proscriptions
India None -do-
Nepal None -do- Illegal to proselytize
Bhutan None -do- Illegal to proselytize
-do-

3. Destiny of a secular West Bengal
Given that it is virtually impossible to find a
secular, pluralistic society within the Islamic world
or among Muslim majority states in our vicinity, it
is not reasonable to expect a vastly divergent
standard of morality from their counterparts in West
Bengal. In light of our recent discussion on the
widespread intolerance and bigotry present
throughout the Muslim world, let us now analyze
the character of Muslim society in West Bengal.
Education
There is no second opinion in the authors mind on
the comprehensive failure of the minority Muslim
community in West Bengal and that they require
extensive development programmes to emerge out
of their affliction. However, social developmental
programmes that work for distressed Hindus or
Christians should also work for Muslims and there
is no reason to believe otherwise. Education, rather
the lack of it, is the foremost reason for the
backwardness of any society and educational
institutions are a must for its propagation across any
society. While schools work for children belonging
to most religious communities, Muslims apparently
require Islamic seminaries or madrassas for them
and that too with the patronage of a state
government lead by communists.
14
The communist
government considers the 100 times multiplication
of Islamic seminaries, from 4,388 in 1977 to
450,000 in 2010 a matter of great success and
publicizes the same with full vigor. This was
concomitant with the rise of public expenditure
from Rs 4.6 lakhs to Rs 610 crores! A handful of
liberal Muslims like Mr. Giyasuddin of the
Dharmamukto Manabbadi Mancha (DMM or
Secular Humanist Forum) have protested, It is the
Islamic seminary based education system and
madrassa culture that is largely responsible for the
most regressive state of Muslim society.
15
This
madrassa system have the support of the political
parties from the CPI(M), Trinamool Congress,
Congress to the nondescript naxalite organization
and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) while
the intelligentsia offer silent patronage. These days,
there is a virtual competition ensuing between
Mamata Banerjee and CPI(M) in establishing
madrassas even though liberal Muslims in Pakistan
and Bangladesh are known to oppose the same in
their countries.
Of course, one may ask, what exactly is the
harm with a madrassa? Well, given that no other
religion has a government-sponsored religion based
education system, why should Muslims have a
separate system? Students at the Ramakrishna
Mission or St. Xaviers schools are not offered
Hindu or Christian-faith based education but they
follow the common and secular, central or state
government sponsored academic curricula. Then
why do the CPI(M), Trinamool and the naxalites
stand united to condemn the Muslim students to an
education system from the medieval ages? But, this
is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg of an all-
encompassing problem. What exactly is taught in
these madrassas? In addition to common academic
courses, students from class I to X must study
courses in Arabic language, Islamic history, Quran,
Hadith, Akayid, Islamic Laws or fiqh, Faraizi,
history of Islamic leaders, etc. And they will have to
study these for ten long years.
16
That the website of
West Bengal governments Madrassa board is
deliberately silent on these courses being taught in

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its Islamic seminaries only reveals the extent and
depth of communist hypocrisy and dishonesty. The
goal of this seminary based education system is to
make Muslims follow Islam with highest rigour and
instill a sense of Islamic orthodoxy through a
seminary-based education system. And, after
considering the effect of Islamic education system
in Muslim majority countries in our neighbourhood
and beyond, is it reasonable to expect virtues of
secularism, pluralism, democracy and tolerance
from students of these madrassas? Certainly not!
Just as the communist leaders, consisting primarily
of higher caste Hindus, have brought about a class
division by sending their children to English-
medium schools while forcing the working class
majority Bengalis to shun English a similar class
distinction has evolved into the Bengali society
between those going to madrassas to learn Arabic
and those who are not. Moreover, there is absolutely
no reason why a Bengali Muslim has to learn
Arabic, since the Islamic scriptures are all present in
the Bengali language.
The spread of seminary-based education
system has reached alarming proportions with the
establishment of the Alia University, where Arabic
and Islamic education is mandatory just like in the
madrassas. After forcing the students to cover up
with the Islamic veil, the students union has gone on
to force the university teachers to do the same or
face dire consequences. University teacher Shirin
Middya had to face the ire of the students and
forced to stop performing her academic duties for
violating their fatwa. The shocking part of this
entire episode is that after the publication of this
news, practically all of the womens rights
organizations, major political students unions,
human rights organizations or the talk-show
intellectuals who regularly line up before TV
stations to give their enlightened opinions have
maintained a stoic silence.
Leadership
Muslims in West Bengal do not have an
exclusive political party to represent them. Even
though the Muslim demography is equally large in
Kerala and West Bengal, Muslims in Bengal do not
have Muslim League-type political party to
represent their interests due to many factors like the
stigma of partition, absence of a large Muslim
middle or privileged class. The Islamic clergy has
felt compelled to make up for this deficiency by
manipulating the Congress and the CPI-(M).
Consequently, the Congress and the CPI-(M)
(which includes all shades of communists) have
never made any attempt to extricate the hapless
Muslim society from the clutches of Islamic clergy
and reform it. The dominant factor in this is, of
course, votes. Hence, after 32 years of contiguous
rule by the communists, the Muslim society has
remained under the grapple of its clergy. Deprived
of even a hope of reformation, they are now moving
away from the grasp of the CPI-(M) to that of the
Trinamool Congress under the manipulative
leadership of a few Imams. The Imams of Kolkatas
Tipu Sultan mosque or the Furfura Sharif mosque
are now the Islamic face of the Mamata Banerjee
lead political party. These also happen to the same
fire-breathing Imams who engineered copious
fatwas against the poet and human rights activist,
Taslima Nasreen, with the tacit approval of both the
CPI-(M) and the Trinamool Congress. When the
Kolkata High court was hearing the petition on
Taslima Nasreen, a group of madrassa students with
full Arabic attire used to vociferously protest on the
streets of Kolkata. These were also the same
forceful and vocal Muslims who prohibited Ms.
Nasreen from reading poetry in Midnapore and
stopped her from inaugurating book fair in Siliguri.
And while the show by Islamic fanatics was going
on in the streets of Kolkata, the culturally enriched
intellectuals, feminists and human rights activists
were watching it from the sidelines with gleeful
ecstasy. One must not forget here that the current
aura of a change in political dispensation prevalent
in contemporary West Bengal was first raised by
another Muslim of an extremist Islamic group,
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, whose name is Siddiqulla

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9

Chowdhury. At that time of land acquisition
agitation in Singur, a peaceful 26-day fast by Ms.
Mamata Banerjee failed to break any ice with the
state government. On 29
th
December 2006, when
Ms. Banerjee relented after some 25 days of fasting,
following requests by the Prime Minister and the
President, hardly anyone had heard about the call
for change. About 5 days after the end of all
protests, followers of Jamiat-e-Ulema-Hind started
a violent agitation in Nandigram and attacked
government officials against its order to acquire
farmlands. Police vehicles were put on fire and
roads were destroyed at places. For the first time,
land acquisition protest turned violent and was lead
by none other than Mr. Siddiqulla Chowdhury. This
turnaround was concomitant with the murder of
police officials and members of the ruling CPI-(M)
party were driven out of their homes. The
movement then changed hands into the Trinamool
Congress party which forced Mr. Chowdhury to
step aside from the agitation and form his own
faction separate from the Trinamool. Eventually,
under the cunning leadership of Mr. Idris Ali of the
Trinamool Congress (previously of the Congress
party) on 21
st
November 2007, extremist Muslims
demonstrated on the streets of Kolkata demanding
the expulsion of Ms. Taslima Nasreen while
politicians cutting across party lines remained
unanimously silent in an apparent show of unity that
is normally unheard of. The ruling dispensation did
its bidding by forcing Ms. Nasreen out of Bengal
and she has not been able to return till now. This
single act of defiance of rule of law solidified the
grasp of Islamic fanatics over the cultural landscape
of Bengal, something that will only be reinforced by
madrassa based education systems. The
establishment of a communal institution like the
Alia University has only paved the way for the
generation of a fundamentalist political party along
the lines of Muslim League in Kerala and it is only
a matter of time when the political landscape of
West Bengal will nosedive. The current political
scenario only leads us to the path of the middle-
eastern states of the world and the extent of
deterioration will be obvious as events unfold;
however, there should not be any doubt on the
direction we are moving.

Islamic demography and West Bengal
West Bengal was a non-Muslim majority
state since 1947. On 20
th
June 1947, the Bengal
legislative assembly voted to divide itself and form
the West Bengal legislative assembly and East
Bengal legislative assembly. Most non-Muslim
members of Bengal legislative assembly, including
the communists, supported the West Bengal
assembly. Representatives from non-Muslim
majority areas voted 58-21 for the division of
Bengal and against the proposal to join Pakistan,
thereby sealing the eventual formation of West
Bengal.
17
It is worthwhile to note here that one of
the communist members who voted was Jyoti Basu.
It became obvious that the major condition for
bifurcation and eventual carving out of West Bengal
was the dominance of non-Muslims. During a 10
year span from 1937 till 1947, severe mis-
governance by the Muslim majority Bengal
legislative assembly which followed some three
decades of communal violence and rioting,
including the ghastly and horrifying pogrom at
Noakhali, disillusioned the ordinary Hindu Bengalis
into joining Pakistan.
18
It is worth remembering
here that West Bengal was formed not to join some
Hindu religious state, but to be part of a secular,
pluralistic and democratic country. That it was a
decent step should be evident from the condition of
our neighbouring as well as other, faraway Muslim
majority nations.
It is virtually prohibited to discuss the
religious dimension of our population distribution in
West Bengal. Consequently, over the last 60 odd
years, especially during the last three decades, the
demographic landscape of West Bengal underwent
a sea change that has eluded our attention even
within academic circles. (the interested reader is
hereby directed to a previous publication - Illegal

5
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10

Migration and Undeclared Refugees Idea of West
Bengal at Stake, Mohit Roy, Anustup, Sharadiya
2009).
19
Even though over half the Hindu
population in erstwhile East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh) migrated into India (primarily West
Bengal), the proportion of Muslims within West
Bengal is on the rise ever since. A brief glance on
the population statistics makes the case obvious: -

Religious distribution of population in West
Bengal (%)
1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001
Hindu 78.45 78.80 78.11 76.96 74.72 72.47
Muslim 19.85 20.00 20.46 21.51 23.61 25.25

Given the increasing share of Muslim
population, one begs to ask what does the future
prediction of the population distribution looks like?
Without debating this further, one can simply
extrapolate the population trajectory numerically. If
the decline in share of Hindu population remains
consistent with past trends, the future distribution of
populace on the basis of religion can be predicted as
shown below.
According to this extrapolation, the Hindu
population is likely to drop below 50% by year
2053. This, however, is a conservative estimate
because when the share of total Muslim population
in 2010 is 25.2%, the share of the youngest
Muslims in 0-6 yr age group is 33.17 %! This
makes it obvious that the rate of increase of Muslim
populace is only going to get higher as compared to
the Hindus.

The increase in Muslim population across
the state not only increased the absolute numbers of
voters, the increasing share of Muslim population
was rewarded with higher number of electoral
constituencies in Muslim majority areas. After the
delimitation of constituencies based after the 2000
census and its subsequent reorganization, the
number of assembly seats in Kolkata decreased
from 21 to 11. Assembly seats in Hindu majority
districts like West Midnapur and Purulia reduced by
2 whereas the same in Bankura, Birbhum, Burdwan
and Hooghly decreased by 1 each. In sharp contrast,
the opposite situation prevailed in Muslim majority
districts bordering Bangladesh, where the seats
increased in Murshidabad (3 seats), North Dinajpur
and Nadia (2 each), Malda and South Dinajpur (1
each). The effect of increasing Muslim population
on electoral politics in the border areas is more than
obvious now.
Muslim majority West Bengal
Once Muslims become the majority religion
in West Bengal, the need to have a separate state of
West Bengal ceases to exist. East Germany ceased
to exist as a separate nation after the downfall of
communism, or for that matter, once communism
collapses in North Korea it is most likely that both
the Koreas will merge to form one country. The
results of Islamization of a state are more than
obvious with several examples at hand. Practically,
all Hindus have been driven out of Pakistan whereas
Predicted population distribution of Hindus
Year Population (%)
2011 69.28
2021 65.66
2051 51.44
2053 49.74

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11

in Bangladesh (previously East Pakistan), the
population of its Hindu community has collapsed
from 30% to 9% today. Even within India, most
Hindus from Kashmir valley have been driven out.
In this respect, let us look into the condition
of an extremely popular leader of Hindu backward
community, who decided to
stay back in (East) Pakistan
after partition. Mr.
Jogendranath was probably
the most popular leader
representing the interests of
the scheduled-caste
community in Bengal and
believed in its solidarity with
the Muslim community. He
not only believed in the
formation of Pakistan, he
even urged the backward
communities to settle in
Pakistan. On 5
th
November,
1946, in a public rally he
stated that the members of
the scheduled caste
community preferred to live a
free and respectful life under
the Muslims or any other
communities rather than
living a life of oppression under the control of
Hindus.
20
After the formation of Pakistan, he was
honourably offered ministerial position in the
Pakistani government. However, when anti-Hindu
riots ensued in 1950 and did not spare the members
of the scheduled caste communities, this darling of
Muslim League party had to flee his dreamland
state of Pakistan and into brahminical Hindustan,
barely three years after joining the ministry. It was
from India that he sent his resignation letter from
the ministry of Pakistani government. So on 8
th

October 1950, the first law and labour minister of
the Liaquat Ali Khan-led government of Pakistan
resigned from the ministry. In his letter of
resignation, he wrote
I shall not be unjustified in stating that Hindus of
Pakistan have to all intents and purposes been
rendered "Stateless" in their own houses. They have
no other fault than that they profess the Hindu
religion. After anxious and prolonged struggle
I have come to the conclusion that Pakistan is no
place for Hindus to live in and
that their future is darkened by
the ominous shadow of
conversion or liquidation. The
bulk of the upper class Hindus
and politically conscious
scheduled castes have left East
Bengal. Those Hindus who will
continue to stay accursed in
Pakistan will, I am afraid, by
gradual stages and in a planned
manner be either converted to
Islam or completely
exterminated.
21

Recently, contemporary
press has often discussed the
condition of the refugee Matua
community. A major fraction of
the scheduled caste community
is affiliated to this particular
religious denomination. Late Sri
Pramatharanjan Thakur (whose
wife is now popularly known as Boroma), a highly
revered leader of this community, was forced to
migrate out of Bangladesh and took refuge in
Thakurnagar near Bongaon, West Bengal. Before
departing Bangladesh, he held his last public
meeting in the backyard of the house belonging to
the zamindar of Narail. In his valedictory speech to
the followers of the Matua community he remarked
After the acceptance of the Mountbatten plan by
the Congress and the Muslim League, the pre-
partitioned nation has moved closer to partition.
The country will face communal rioting. Our
survival has become uncertain in the future. What
should be our duty now? There is no question that
we are an inseparable part of the greater Hindu
Following on the footsteps of the
Islamic world, the minority
Muslim society has become the
driving force in contemporary
West Bengal. Till now, the
ideological framework for this
force lies in the religious
orthodoxy imported from the
medieval era. This Islamic force
can take full control of the
Bengali society purely by brute
force and ferocious exhibition of
power. It is now up to the reader
to decide what they have to do to
secure the future of a secular,
pluralistic West Bengal.

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12

society. In this time of distress, the backward castes
in their own interest must forget all disagreements
and stand united with the greater Hindu society. We
must remember that upon separation from the main
trunk of a tree, a branch invariably withers away
after a while. Dismembering ourselves from crores
of fellow Hindus while cozying up to the League
will bring us grave danger in no time. Being lured
by momentary gains and relying solely on the
verbal assurances of Mr. Jinnah, who belongs to
another faith, will cause us unimaginable
destruction. In a few days, the country will be
partitioned. If after the division of our country, we
find our motherland within Pakistan, then we must
remain united and not get deluded by the
assurances of either the federation or the League.
We should all migrate together into the land of
India. In our absence, you must remain in solidarity
and work according to the prevailing conditions as
I have mentioned to you before.
22

A society whose tallest leader had to migrate
out of his ancestral home because of Islamic
persecution and who has left very clear instructions
for his followers today, a few leaders of that same
Matua community preaches solidarity between the
Matuas and the Muslims without even uttering the
torment and torture by the Muslims in Bangladesh.
Those who blame the Left Front for the persecution
of refugees at Marijhapi do not mention, even by
mistake, as to why they became refugees to begin
with.
Throughout Muslim majority areas in West
Bengal, the writ of religious order holds tight. The
infamous Shariah laws are regularly practiced in
Murshidabad. The Islamic fervor is so strong there
that in 2008, a Hindu youth was sentenced to death
by the Shariah court and the order was executed by
beheading him. Previously, this young man was
introduced to a local Muslim woman in Mumbai.
The Muslim woman went to Mumbai for
employment, where they met, got married and had a
male child. When the couple came to visit the
brides village, the Shariah court upon knowing the
grooms faith, killed him.
23
This is not a story from
faraway Saudi Arabia or neighbouring Pakistan, but
from our progressive state of West Bengal.

4. The deafening silence on Deganga
Population explosion, Islamic seminaries,
plight of Hindus in Bangladesh, over one crore
refugees without citizenship, Aliya University,
Shirin Middya these are topics that are best kept
silent in the considered and unanimous judgment of
the press, media and publication houses of all
shades, and even the Ramakrishna Mission, Bharat
Sevashrama, Lokenath Ashrama and other
prominent Hindu organizations. Not only silence is
to be maintained, any attempt to break the same is
considered offensive. Consequently, the populace
remains completely ignorant of these issues. And, if
these issues crop up in some commonplace
conversation, even a daily pilgrim-devotee to the
Kalighat shrine would consider them to be isolated
incidents or communally coloured Hindutva
propaganda. Let me exemplify this with a recent
narrative.
Deganga is a place barely 45 km from
Kolkata and 15 km from Barasat. For three
continuous days from 6
th
to 8
th
September, 2010,
this area suffered from intermittent but grave
communal strife. On 8
th
September, Anandabazar
Patrika reported, 50 houses and shops burnt down
300 shops and houses were looted.
24
The Army
was immobilized. On 8
th
September, looting
continued under Army patrol.
25,26
And this was
followed by a long silence. Who were attacked?
Whose houses-shops were attacked? No, none of
the Bengali newspapers reported anything further.
A communal assault of this magnitude and in such
close proximity to Kolkata, where the military had
to be deployed no none of the eminent citizens
or intellectuals, the usually fire-breathing human
rights activist or NGOs made a sound. Sections of
the audio-visual media who would virtually live-
telecast familial altercations between two brothers
in absence of better reportage, did not dare to report

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13

any of this destruction in spite of Degangas close
proximity and its landscape scattered with copious
burnt shops and destroyed houses. About a month
later on 5
th
October, Anandabazar Patrika reported
that about 167 victimized families were handed
over 1 crore as compensation.
27
One crore rupees!
Who got this money? No, no one reported this. Why
this silence, one begs to ask? Because, all the
victims are Hindus and all the attackers were
Muslims.
However, this was no riot but a one-sided
communal carnage by Muslims in a manner similar
to Pakistan and Bangladesh. However, this
destruction of temples, Deities, shops and homes
belonging to the Hindu community by the Muslim
populace was indeed reported by a handful of
English media houses published exclusively outside
of West Bengal (although a couple of them have
Kolkata editions). In fact, the news of this rampage
is now known worldwide largely due to the efforts
of the internet based extremely reliable site,
Wikipedia, that now has an entry on the Deganga
riots.
28
This was followed by an even bigger event
where over 18 festival committees spread across
Deganga area stopped performing the festival of
Durga Puja. A massively popular event and
sensation like the Durga Puja was being stopped at
one corner of West Bengal (albeit this is
commonplace in Bangladesh) and yet this was
completely censored by the entire Bengali press;
only Indian Express
29
reported this (by another
account, this number is 31). On 14
th
October,
aggrieved members of the Puja committee
demonstrated right in front of the metro channel in
Kolkata, yet every news outlet chose to censor it.
This implies that from now on for reportage of news
within West Bengal, one has to rely on media
outside West Bengal just like once upon a time the
sub-continent used to depend on BBC for news
coverage. Islamic West Bengal is no more a
gossip from the border areas of Bengal but
incidents like forcing Taslima Nasreen out of
Kolkata on 21
st
November 2007 followed by the
recent communal rampage in Deganga near Kolkata
show us who are the real minority and how they
will live in future. One should remember that
according to 1991 census report Deganga block has
67.5% Muslim and it goes without saying that the
share will only increase in 2011.
Silence is not golden anymore; silence only
means offering muted welcome to a catastrophe.

5. What can you do?
Following the footsteps of the Islamic world, the
minority Muslims is fast becoming the driving force
of West Bengal. Till now, the ideological
contribution of this force has been a culture that
remains in the middle ages. And they can take
control of West Bengal in the near future by sheer
demographic force and muscle power. It is now up
to the readers to decide how to ascertain the future
of a secular, pluralistic West Bengal
Can they come out in open support of
Giyasuddin (the liberal Muslim and secular
humanist opposing madrassas) or support his
opponents?
Will they join in vocal support of Shariyar Kabir
who informs the public on the plight of the minority
Hindu-Buddhist-Christian-tribals of Bangladesh or
remain silent?
Should they come out in open protest against
madrassa system or join the chorus of Mamata-
Buddha in promoting more madrassas? Stand up in
support of Shirin Middya and her colleagues and
help them to come out of the darkness of the veil or
let Aliya University become an epicentre of
religious fanaticism?
Do they prefer to support bringing Taslima
Nasrin back to Kolkata or become engaged in
savoring fine literature after handing over the reins
of censoring art and literature to the hands of the
Imams?
The cipher to preserve the secular future of
West Bengal is still in the hands of the readers, will
they choose to throw it away?


5
th
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14

Reference and bibliography.

1. B. R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or Partition of India, p 116, Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches Vol 8,
Education Department, Government of Maharashtra, 1990.
2. ibid, p 118
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Iran
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia
6. http://www.indonesiamatters.com/326/religious-freedom-report/
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives
8. Abdul Barkat et. al. Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh Living with Vested Property, Pathak
Samabesh, Dhaka, 2008.
9. Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council Communal Discrimination in Bangladesh: Facts and
Documents, p 431 435, Dhaka, 1993.
10. Ekattorer ghatak dalal nirmul committee 1500 diner sonkhyaloghu niryatoer biboron White paper,
Production Shariyar Kabir, 3
rd
Vol, Dhaka, 2005.
11. Abdul Barkat et. al. Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh Living with Vested Property, p 66
68, Pathak Samabesh, Dhaka, 2008
12. Mohammed Rafi, Can We Get Along, p 201, Panjeree Publications, Dhaka 2005
13. Wikipedia was used as a source to compile information for the relevant countries.
14. Poschimbonger madrassa sikkha aj desher gorbo Ministry of Culture and Information, Government of
West Bengal, August, 2010.
15. Giyasuddin Madrassa sikkhar poschadgamita noy, chai muldharar adhunik uccosikkha Hijab : nari
dasotter protik, p 127, March, 2010, Kolkata.
16. Madrassa dorpon 6
th
year West Bengal Madrassa education board, August 2007.
17. (http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/P_0101.htm)
18. Hiranmoy Karlekar, Bangladesh The Next Afghanistan, p 38, Sage Publications 2005
19. Onuprobesh, oswikrito udbastu o poschimbonger onischit ostitwo Mohit Roy, Anustup, Sharadiya 2009
20. Mohapran Jogendranath Jagadish Mandal, 1
st
Vol, p 221 (Bharot bibhajon Jogendranath o Ambedkar
Sri Bipadbhanjan Biswas, p 15, Vivekananda Sahitya Kendra, Kolkata, 2003)
21. Bharot bibhajon Yogendranath o Ambedkar Sri Bipadbhanjan Biswas, p 127-132, Vivekananda Sahitya
Kendra, Kolkata, 2003. The original resignation letter of Jogendranath Mandal and its Bengali translation
can be obtained from the book Muslim rajneeti o Jogendranath Mandaler padatyag by Sri Debajyoti Roy.
It can be obtained from Vivekananda Sahitya Kendra, 6 Bankim Chandra Street, Kolkata, 73.
22. Mohapran Jogendranath Sadananda Biswas, p 160 161, Dipali Book House, Kolkata 2004
23. The Telegraph Sunday, August 3, 2008
24. Anandabazar Patrika, 8 September, 2010
25. Anandabazar Patrika, 9 September, 2010
26. Times of India, Kolkata, 9 September, 2010
27. Anandabazar Patrika, 5 October 2010
28. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Deganga_riots
29. Indian Express, 10 October, 2010