Ground report | BJP’s hunt for ‘Bangladeshis’ in Jharkhand turns boon for 2.5 lakh people

For decades, Pranpur has existed on the map precariously, unsure of where it truly belongs. And its geo-administrative quandary would have been continued to be overlooked had the BJP, with its identity politics, not unwittingly deflected political attention to this back-of-the-beyond village in the run-up to the Jharkhand Assembly elections.

Alleging that “Bangladeshis” have infiltrated the tribal-dominated Santhal Pargana, especially in Sahibganj and Pakur districts, the BJP in its election manifesto released earlier this month promised a law to deal with the issue. It claimed that “infiltrators” were grabbing tribal land by marrying local women.

“The land that has been grabbed from tribal women will be returned to them by bringing in a law with retrospective effect,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah said during the manifesto release. Incidentally, it is his ministry that is responsible for securing India’s border and preventing infiltrations.

But then, how much truth is there to these claims?

Also read: BJP’s aggression over ‘infiltrators’ undercuts JMM in key tribal hubs

The Bengalis of Sahibganj and Pakur

The “infiltration” theory was first presented in Lok Sabha by BJP’s Godda MP Nishikant Dubey last year, when he claimed that migrants from Bangladesh were changing the demography of certain districts of Jharkhand and demanded that the National Registrar of Citizens (NRC) be implemented.

And as recently as on Monday (November 18), Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath thundered at an election rally in Rajmahal that the town, along with Sahibganj, had become “hubs of illegal activities of Bangladeshi infiltrators and Rohingyas”.

Ever since the issue was raked up last year, officials started visiting the villages comprising entirely of Bengali-speaking populations, dominated by Muslims, in Sahibganj and Pakur to assess the ground situation. Pranpur was one of them.

According to the 2011 census, the Bengali population of Sahibganj is 28.86 per cent and of Pakur is 39.42 per cent. The majority of them are Muslims.

Neither here nor there

“I have never seen the village getting so much attention in my lifetime,” Erphan Ali, a para-teacher (a term used for contractual government school teachers) told The Federal. “For us, the visits proved to be a blessing in disguise. It gave us the opportunity to highlight our peculiar residency issue. We neither completely belong to Jharkhand nor to West Bengal,” he pointed out.

About two to three months ago, even the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) landed in the village with a team and verified the citizenship of the residents going door-to-door, said Abdul Hannan, a panchayat member of West Pranpur. The panchayat has a population of about 12,000, most of whom are Muslims.

And, voila! Barring two cases in Sahibganj, not a single Bangladeshi was detected in the entire Santal Pargana division comprising the six districts of Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara, Sahibganj, and Pakur. The Jharkhand government recently informed the Supreme Court about this, based on the reports filed by the deputy commissioners of the six districts.

In fact, in one case in Rajmahal subdivision a few years ago, it was the local Muslim residents who caught the Bangladeshi national who had taken shelter in his relative’s home after committing a crime in Bangladesh. He was handed over to the police and an FIR was registered a few years ago.

Also read: Intel report claims Bangladeshi migrants given shelter in madrasas: Nadda

Who are the Bengali Muslims of Santhal Pargana?

The Bengali-speaking Muslims of Santhal Pargana are not Bangladeshi immigrants but Indians, concluded a recent field study jointly conducted by the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha and the Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan in Pakur and Sahibganj districts.

“A large section of the Muslim community living in Pakur and Sahibganj are Shershabadias. They have been living here for centuries. There are also Pasmanda and other Muslim communities who have settled here coming from nearby districts or states. Significantly, in most of the villages where the BJP has raised the issue of ‘illegal infiltration’, there is no history of communal violence,” said Praveer Peter, who was part of the study team.

The Bengali-speaking Shershabadias and many other Muslim sects residing in the area are recognised as “extremely backward classes.”

Peter said the study team spoke to local villagers from all communities, students, village heads, and local activists, and also analysed census data from 1901 to 2011 and other related reports, gazetteers and research papers on the demography of the area to arrive at the conclusion that the ground reality is far from what the BJP is claiming.

Historically part of Bengal

Historically, a large part of the modern Santhal Pargana was part of the early and medieval kingdoms — such as Anga and Pala, respectively — that ruled over what is now West Bengal, as it has been evident from stone idols and other relics found in the area.

The around 2.5 lakh Bengali-speaking population — including both Muslims and Hindus — of Pranpur and 20 other mouzas, covering around 300 sq km in Sahibganj district, have another unique story to tell about their identity.

These people are registered as voters in Jharkhand and are also issued Aadhaar and ration cards by the Jharkhand government. But their land belongs to West Bengal on paper.

Victims of the Ganga

During a field visit to the remote area along the western bank of the Ganga, The Federal found that to date, the registration of their land is done in West Bengal, as this area is recorded as part of Kaliachak II and Manikchak blocks of Malda district of West Bengal.

The West Bengal government, however, does not recognise the settlements on the newly emerged land (locally called char or chuar) along the western bank of the Ganga, which has been frequently changing course, moving towards West Bengal in the east.

The eastward shift intensified after the construction of the Farakka barrage commenced in 1961.

The Ganga has moved several kilometres eastward from the place where it used to flow in 1922–23. In some stretches, the drift is as far as 17 kilometres (see map below).

Two decade-long legal battle

“The Malda district administration does not consider these settlements as revenue villages. It considers these areas as no-man’s land,” said Mosarekul Anwar of the Ganga Bhangon Protirodh Nagarik Action Committee.

The committee has been fighting legal and administrative battles since the early 2000 to set the record straight, but in vain.

Hearing a special leave petition on the demarcation of the boundary between West Bengal and Jharkhand considering the Ganga’s change of course, the Supreme Court had, on September 5, 2013, directed the Committee (petitioner in the case) to file a “fresh representation” to the West Bengal chief secretary within four weeks.

“If such representation is made, the State of West Bengal is directed to dispose of the same in accordance with law,” the apex court had stated.

Caught in geo-administrative tangle

The committee, accordingly, submitted a fresh representation to the chief secretary on September 19, 2013, for the demarcation of the border. “But the state government did not take note until recently,” said Anwar.

Due to this geo-administrative tangle, residents of the 21 mouzas were denied several basic amenities and rights. “We got electricity only in 2019,” said Erphan Ali.

The Jharkhand government has given them voting rights and issued Aadhaar cards, but it considers them as “asthaayee niwasi (temporary residents). In Jharkhand, only a permanent resident can apply for a government job or quota benefits.

“We are not eligible for a government job in Jharkhand because we are not considered as permanent residents of the state. And the West Bengal government does not even recognise our existence,” said Ruhul Amin of Piyarpur village, which is also part of the 21 mouzas of Udhwa and Rajmahal blocks of Sahibganj district that have been enduring the duality for decades.

“The ‘temporary’ tag also makes us easy targets of those trying to brand all Bengali-speaking Muslims as Bangladeshis,” he rued.

Also read: Jharkhand: Shah promises panel to identify, evict infiltrators if BJP forms govt

How the BJP 'helped', albeit unwittingly

The good news is that their situation might soon change for the better, as both the West Bengal and Jharkhand governments have taken note of their plight that got highlighted during the citizenship verification done in the area.

“This issue has come to our notice. The Jharkhand government has decided to conduct a survey of the area to address the anomaly. After the elections, the survey work will begin,” JMM candidate from Rajmahal Assembly constituency, Md Tajuddin Raja, told The Federal.

The Malda district administration has also informed the Ganga Bhangon Protirodh Nagarik Action Committee that the state government has allocated the necessary funds in October to conduct the survey.

“Yes, the state government has finally agreed to conduct the survey. This has been verbally communicated to us by the district administration,” Anwar said.

The BJP’s hunt for Bangladeshis in Jharkhand might finally lead to some positive outcome for the victims of Ganga’s treacherous shift.

Clearly, every dark cloud has a silver lining.