Barhait/Rajmahal/Pakur/Dumka, Jharkhand: The muddy waters ran deep, disappearing into a blanket of smog hanging over the Ganga in Jharkhand’s Rajmahal. Men and women, many of whom travelled dozens of kilometres, took a dip in the cold waters on the occasion of Kartik Poornima.
Beyond the river lies West Bengal’s Malda, which shares a border with Bangladesh. It is this peripheral assembly constituency that is believed to be the “entry point” for Bangladeshi illegal immigrants whom the BJP pejoratively refers to as “infiltrators”, and has placed them at the centre of its election campaign in Jharkhand.
Standing on the banks of the Ganga, Vinod Kumar Verma, who works at a private company, said that the issue of alleged Bangladeshi infiltration is not new in Jharkhand.
“Forget Rajmahal, this issue has been raised since the formation of Bangladesh itself. Since the formation of the state of Jharkhand in 2000, the BJP has been in power for 17 years,” he said.
“If this was such a big issue, why didn’t they raise it all this time? Health and education are the big issues that need to be spoken about. If they are so invested in infiltration, then what have they done about it?”
Devotees take a dip in the Ganges on Kartik Poornima in Rajmahal. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta.
About 150 kilometres away, in Dumka, Union home minister Amit Shah – who is in charge of India’s border security – had an answer as he addressed a poll rally in the family bastion of chief minister Hemant Soren and his ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
“He [Soren] sees his vote bank in these infiltrators,” said Shah. “He asked, ‘what is the central government doing?’ I have come to answer this as well.
“Hemanti ji, have you seen Bangladesh’s border? Thousands of streams, long rivers, many areas where fencing could not be done. And that is why these infiltrators walk into villages. But does the local administration not know about it? Who makes their ration card? Who includes them in the voter list? Who lets them marry our daughters? The Jharkhand government is doing this and on your direction.”
The list
About 100 kilometres from Dumka, in Sahibganj district’s Barhait, where Soren is seeking re-election, Elijence Hansda, mukhiya of the Kadma panchayat, found out that her name was part of a list of Adivasi women mukhiyas who had allegedly married “Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators” as a part of a “conspiracy” when it was circulated on WhatsApp.
“They had spelt my name wrong and even got my husband’s surname wrong. They named me ‘Angeline Hansda’ and called my husband ‘Jainul Sheikh’. His name is Jaimul Ansari – there are no Sheikhs in this village. But they meant me, everybody knew it was me because I am the mukhiya of this village,” she said when The Wire met her on Friday (November 15).
Hansda pointed out that the constitution allows her to marry a person of her choice. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta.
Hansda, along with other Adivasi elected representatives in Sahibganj district who have married Muslims, are being cited by the BJP as examples of a “conspiracy” in which Bangladeshi illegal immigrants are marrying Adivasi women to take over their land, build families and usurp power in local governments in the Adivasi-dominated Santhal Pargana, resulting in a demographic change in Jharkhand.
Furthering their campaign of Jharkhand’s “roti, mati, beti” being under threat is a list being circulated on WhatsApp by the BJP titled “Ye hai shariyantra” (This is a conspiracy), that The Wire has seen.
It names nine elected Adivasi representatives in panchayats and zilla parishads in Sahibganj district who have married Muslims. Scroll has earlier reported how most of the claims in the list are wrong.
Hansda said to The Wire that she met her husband when she was tutoring children to earn more money.
“I wanted to study further, get a job. Do something of my own. My husband was my brother’s friend. He saw my struggles and wanted to help me, but I made it clear that we could only take anything further if he married me. So we got married. Besides, the constitution allows people to marry whoever they want.”
Not just Hansda, but Monika Kisku, chairperson of the Sahibganj zilla parishad, also found her name featured in the list. When The Wire went to meet her, she asked why other Adivasis who have married outside the community are not being named.
“There are many Adivasi women who have married Hindus. Why are their names not being circulated? The district commissioner has given an affidavit to state there has been no infiltration. But if there is, as they are claiming, why aren’t they finding the infiltrators? If an Adivasi woman becomes an elected representative, she will work for everyone. Not just for Adivasis and Muslims. They should focus on bettering people’s lives instead of making people fight with each other,” she said.
The infiltration bogey
Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Muslims at 26.2% and 14.5% respectively form about 41% of Jharkhand’s population. The spectre of infiltration is not just being raised in an attempt to divide the two groups that are known to have similar voting patterns, but to also woo the Hindu and non-Adivasi population in the state.
In the Adivasi-dominated Santhal Pargana, the BJP won only four of the 18 seats in 2019. Of the total 28 ST seats in the state, the BJP won only two that year, down from 11 in 2014. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, it lost all five tribal constituencies.
A month after the Lok Sabha election results were announced, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey from Godda first made the claim in parliament that women like Hansda, who were elected representatives, were marrying Muslims.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha in July, Dubey called for a National Register of Citizens in Jharkhand and said that the tribal population in the state had decreased by 10%.
Vinod Kumar Verma (left), standing on the banks of the Ganga in Rajmahal, wondered why the BJP did not raise the ‘infiltration’ issue all this while if it was so invested in it. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta.
The Indian Express has reported that when the first census was conducted in independent India in 1951, STs comprised 35.8% of Jharkhand, which was then a part of Bihar. As per the 1991 census – the last before the state was carved out of Bihar – the tribal population in the state stood at 27.66%. According to the 2001 census, ST population in Jharkhand was recorded at 26.3% and in the last census in 2011, it was at 26.2%.
A major factor behind Jharkhand’s demographic change and decrease in the Adivasi population is out-migration, the Express’s report said. It noted that the state had an out-state migration rate of 18.66%, while the neighbouring states of Odisha and Chhattisgarh had much lower rates at 8.07% and 8.41% respectively.
A fact-finding report by the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha that looked into cases of alleged violence by Bangladeshi infiltrators in villages in Pakur and Sahibganj found that all cases were local disputes in villages and communities. It added that while the issue of the declining Adivasi population was serious, it was primarily attributable to “inadequate nutrition, insufficient healthcare [and] economic hardship.”
“In Santhal Pargana region, Muslims and Hindus from Jharkhand, Bengal and Bihar have migrated and purchased land from Adivasis and settled down. Adivasis across the state, including in Santhal Pargana, have been forced to migrate in large numbers for decades, which directly affects their population growth rate,” it said.
Ignoring all these factors, Dubey in his Lok Sabha speech squarely alleged that Adivasi women were marrying Bangladeshi men, resulting in a demographic change.
“Tribal women are getting married to Bangladeshi men. It is not a question of Hindu-Muslim. A woman who contested a tribal-quota seat in the Lok Sabha polls is married to a Muslim man. A zilla parishad administrator’s husband is also Muslim,” he said.
Such claims are also part of a report authored by BJP leader and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes member Asha Lakra “confirming Bangladeshi infiltration” in Santhal Pargana, which has since been submitted to the Union home ministry.
A JMM bike rally in Udhwa, located between Pakur and Rajmahal. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta.
The rhetoric of infiltration has become central to the BJP’s campaign in Jharkhand and has been reiterated in campaign rallies by the party’s Jharkhand co-incharge and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, as well as by other top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In its manifesto for the state elections, the party has centred its promises around tribals. It has promised the return of tribal land allegedly occupied by “infiltrators” and no tribal status to children of alleged “infiltrators” who have married tribal people, among other things.
At the centre of the BJP’s allegations is an allusion to the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, which does not allow the transfer of Adivasi land to non-Adivasis. But matters of inheritance are governed by customary laws among Adivasis.
According to activist Priyasheela Besra, who had accompanied us to Hansda and Kisku’s houses and is an Adivasi herself, women in the community do not even have inheritance rights.
“Women don’t have inheritance rights to their father’s land. If there is no male heir, they tend to give their property to other male members, but never their daughters. It is not that Adivasis are not giving out their land or selling them because it is prohibited either,” she said.
“They sell them in the form of a daan patra or gift, which is then made into an affidavit and shown in court. But since it is a gift, the sale amount is never mentioned and Adivasis are often robbed off their true price of their land by middlemen. Besides, it is not just that they are only selling their land to Muslims; they sell their land to Hindus as well. But no one is talking about that.”
‘Don’t know of anyone’
Back in Rajmahal, Sulekha Devi, who lives about ten kilometres away from the Ganga ghat, said that she had not heard of any Bangladeshis living in the area.
“I know people in the next ten villages. There are no Bangladeshis here. At least I have not heard anything about it. Whoever lives here has been living here for generations. If there is a Hindu house, the next house is Muslim. We speak many languages including Bangla. But we are not Bangladeshis. Everyone lives peacefully here together,” she said.
Sulekha Devi said she did not know of any Bangladeshi infiltrators living in her area. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta.
In Rajmahal, where the BJP is looking to retain its seat, lanes are dotted with flags of both the saffron party and the JMM.
When asked if he had heard of any infiltration occurring in the area, Inder Kumar, who works in the market opposite the Rajmahal railway station, said that while he had not heard of such a thing, “it must be happening”.
“They must be coming from Bangladesh from Bengal and Bihar. They get married and settle here,” he said.
About 60 kilometres away in Pakur’s Hiranpur, Anil Kumar, who owns a transport business, said that the issue of infiltration, even if it exists, needs to be addressed by the government.
“Chunavi hawa banaya ja raha hai,” he said.
“In our population of about four lakh, maybe there are 200 or even 500. But it cannot be that out of four lakh, two lakh are infiltrators. This issue has just come up in the last few months. Have all these people suddenly come and made Aadhaar cards and voter cards in just a few months? We have heard that the Muslim population has increased near the borders, but the government has to identify them. These are not election issues,” he said.
‘Infiltration biggest issue’
Meanwhile in Rajmahal, the BJP is driving its campaign around “infiltration”, projecting it as the biggest issue in this election. It was Rajmahal MLA Anant Kumar Ojha, who is now seeking a straight third term, who first raised the issue in his constituency in the state assembly in February 2023.
“The issue of Bangladeshi infiltration started from Rajmahal. Our MLA raised it in the assembly first and now we are very happy that the top leadership, including the Union home minister, are taking it up,” said Ramanand Shah, the Sahibganj nagar panchayat’s deputy chairman.
“A family which had 11 voters in 2014 suddenly has 19 voters in 2019 and 44 voters in 2024. So how is this happening if not for infiltration? We have taken this issue to the Election Commission as well. It is the single biggest issue in the election in Rajmahal.”
In neighbouring Pakur, Vikas Dubey, a business owner who is campaigning for BJP’s ally All Jharkhand Students’ Union candidate Azhar Islam, explained how infiltration was gaining ground in Pakur, Rajmahal and other areas near the banks of the Ganga that share borders with West Bengal.
Also read: As Jharkhand Gears Up For Polls, the Battlelines in the Sand are Clear
“They [Bangladeshis] have relatives who live here. First they come and start living with them, then they start fights. A police case is lodged through which they get some form of an identity document and then use that to make Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards. This is how voter numbers are increasing in the lakhs,” he said.
When asked about how Jharkhand, a state that does not share any border with Bangladesh, can become prone to infiltration, Dubey said that the fault lay in neighbouring West Bengal and its Muslim-majority areas of Malda and Murshidabad.
“Why have our [the BJP’s] MPs been winning in Malda and Murshidabad? Because the infiltration issue is also huge there and even Muslims have realised it and are voting on it,” he said.
The Union government in an affidavit informed the Jharkhand high court that “infiltration has been assessed to have taken place” – a claim that has been challenged by the Jharkhand government, which said it is not backed by data.
A petition by the Jharkhand government challenging the formation of a fact-finding committee to look into allegations of illegal immigration is now in the Supreme Court.
Back in Barhait, Shamshul Ansari, who is the husband of Sunita Tudu, the mukhiya of Barhait’s Gopaldih village, said that the whole exercise was aimed at breaking Adivasi-muslim unity.
Tudu is also part of the list naming Adivasi elected representatives who have married Muslims.
“These areas are JMM strongholds. They are trying to break Muslim-adivasi unity because they know that in these areas, the two communities vote together,” Ansari said.
