Bangladeshis in India

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Bangladeshis in India
भारत में बांग्लादेशी
Total population
(2020) 1,000,000
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Bengali
Religion
Hinduism, Buddhism
Related ethnic groups
Bangladeshi diaspora

Bangladeshis in India are members of the Bangladesh diaspora who currently reside in India. The mass migration into India since Bangladesh independence has led to the creation of anti-foreigner movements, instances of mass violence and political tension between Bangladesh and India, but it has also created measurable economic benefits for both nations. [1]

Contents

Estimates of the number of Bangladeshis in India vary widely. According to the 2001 Census of India, there were in India 3.1 million Bangladeshis based on place of last residence, and 3.7 million Bangladeshis based on place of birth. [2] A different 2009 estimate claimed that there were 15 million Bangladeshis who had taken residence in the country. [3] In 2007 the Indian government stated that there were up to 30,000 Bangladeshis living in India illegally, [1] though Samir Guha Roy of the Indian Statistical Institute called these estimates "motivatedly exaggerated". After examining the population growth and demographic statistics, Roy instead states that many of the presumed illegal Bangladeshis are actually Indian citizens migrating from neighbouring states. [4]

Pre partition – 1970s

Before the Partition of India internal migration was commonplace between the region which is now Bangladesh and the regions of Assam and West Bengal. While under colonial rule Assam was sparsely populated and the British, who wanted to exploit the resources from the region, wished to see it settled. Through internal migration labour was brought from the northern regions of India, West Bengal and the region which now comprises Bangladesh. [5]

During the Bangladesh liberation war it is estimated that up to 10 million people fled from East Pakistan to India so as to escape the genocidal actions being carried out by the West Pakistan armed forces. [6] There were outbreaks of cholera throughout the refugee camps, the World Health Organization estimated 51,000 cases and it is estimated that 3000 people died from the disease. [7]

Anti-immigrant reaction

In 1978, observers noticed the names of an estimated 45,000 Bengali illegal immigrants on the electoral rolls in Assam. This led to a popular movement against undocumented immigrants known as the Assam Movement, [8] which insisted on striking the names of illegal immigrants from the electoral register and advocated for their deportation from the state. The movement demanded that anyone who had entered the state illegally since 1951 be deported, though the central government insisted on a cutoff date of 1971. There was widespread support for the movement, though it tapered off between 1981 and 1982. [9]

Toward the end of 1982 the central government called elections, and the Assam Movement called for people to boycott them. [9] This resulted in the 1983 Nellie massacre, described by Antara Datta, as one of the largest and most severe pogroms since the Second World War. Previously, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) had emphasised economic reasons for the protests and had employed only nonviolent methods. The Nellie massacre, a result of a buildup of resentment over immigration, [10] claimed the lives of at least 2,191 people, though unofficial figures run to more than 5,000. [11] [12] No investigation of the incident has ever been launched. [13] The AASU denied any involvement in the massacre, and since then there have been no instances of communal violence in Upper Assam. [14]

Estimates of Bangladeshis in India

Samir Guha Roy of the Indian Statistical Institute called the government estimates of illegal Bangladeshis "motivatedly exaggerated". After examining the population growth and demographic statistics, Roy instead states that a significant numbers of internal migration is sometimes falsely thought to be illegal immigrants. An analysis of the numbers by Roy revealed that on average around 91000 Bangladeshi nationals might have crossed over to India every year during the years 1981–1991, but how many of them were identified and pushed back is not known. It is possible that a large portion of these immigrants returned on their own to their place of origin. [4]

Most of the Bengali speaking people deported from Maharashtra as illegal immigrants are originally Indian citizens from West Bengal. [4] In Assam, Muslims are usually targeted by the protesters, being branded as illegal immigrants, "though many have lived in the region for generations". There were also reports of harassment of Muslims in the char areas by policemen despite submitting proof of citizenship. [15]

In 2004, Sriprakash Jaiswal, India's minister of state for home affairs, stated in the Indian parliament that, there were 12 million illegal Bangladeshis in the country, of whom 5 million were in Assam, as of 31 December 2001. However, according to Prateek Hajela, the NRC's coordinator in Assam, the number of identified illegal immigrants in the state were "in thousands" after covering a third of the total population in 2016. According to Prodyut Bora, a former Bharatiya Janata Party leader, "Bangladeshis would have very little, if any motivation to migrate to Assam, since all indicators of development in Bangladesh are better than Assam." [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

Asom Gana Parishad is a political party in the state of Assam, India. The AGP was formed following the historic Assam Accord of 1985 and formally launched at the Golaghat Convention held from 13 to 14 October 1985 in Golaghat, which also allowed Prafulla Kumar Mahanta who was the youngest chief minister of the state to be elected. The AGP has formed government twice from 1985 to 1989 and from 1996 to 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian nationality law</span> History and regulations of Indian citizenship

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assam Movement</span> Indian civil disobedience campaign

The Assam Movement (1979–1985) was a popular uprising in Assam, India, that demanded the Government of India detect, disenfranchise and deport illegal aliens. Led by All Assam Students Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) the movement defined a six-year period of sustained civil disobedience campaigns, political instability and widespread ethnic violence. The movement ended in 1985 with the Assam Accord.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All Assam Students' Union</span> Students organisation in Assam, India

All Assam Students' Union or AASU is an Assamese nationalist student's organisation in Assam, India. It is best known for leading the six-year Assam Movement against Bengalis of both Indian and Bangladeshi origin living in Assam. The original leadership of the organisation, after the historic Assam Accord of 1985, became part of the newly formed Asom Gana Parishad which formed a state government in Assam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refugees in India</span> Overview of legally registered refugees residing in India

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East Bengali Refugees are people who left East Bengal following the Partition of Bengal, which was part of the Independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. An overwhelming majority of these refugees and immigrants were Bengali Hindus. During the Bangladesh liberation war with West Pakistan, an estimated ten million people of East Pakistan fled the country and took refuge in India particularly in the Indian states of West Bengal and Indian North East region, especially Tripura and Assam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assam Accord</span> 1985 agreement between the Indian government and the Assam Movement

The Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement. It was signed in the presence of the then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi on 15 August 1985. Later, the Citizenship Act was amended for the first time the following year, in 1986. It followed a six-year agitation that started in 1979. Led by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), the protestors demanded the identification and deportation of all illegal foreigners – predominantly Bangladeshi immigrants. They feared that past and continuing large scale migration was overwhelming the native population, impacting their political rights, culture, language and land rights. The Assam Movement caused the estimated death of over 855 people. The movement ended with the signing of the Assam Accord.

Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, from poorer to richer countries. Illegal residence in another country creates the risk of detention, deportation, and/or other sanctions.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bengali Hindus</span> Ethno-linguistic and religious population from India and Bangladesh

Bengali Hindus are an ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand, and Assam's Barak Valley region. In Bangladesh, they form the largest minority. They are adherents of Hinduism and are native to the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Comprising about one-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ethnic group among Hindus after Hindustani Hindus. Bengali Hindus speak Bengali, which belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family and adhere to Shaktism or Vaishnavism of their native religion Hinduism with some regional deities. There are significant numbers of Bengali-speaking Hindus in different Indian states. According to the census in 1881, 12.81 per cent of Bengali Hindus belonged to the three upper castes while the rest belonged to the Shudra and Dalit castes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Bangladesh</span> Theory about an expanded Bangladesh

Greater Bangladesh, or Greater Bengal is the irredentist ideology of Bangladesh to inevitably expand her territory to include the Indian states that currently has, or historically had, large populations of ethnic Bengali people. These include West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, and Jharkand to the west, Sikkim to the north, and the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland to the east. Greater Bangladesh would naturally therefore take on the more inclusive title of Greater Bengal, as her people would be united under a common ethnicity and heritage based on language rather than one based on religion.

The Bengali Hindu diaspora is the worldwide population of the Bengali Hindus of Indian and Bangladeshi origin.

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References

  1. 1 2 Gupta, Charu; Mukul Sharma (2007). Contested Coastlines: Fisherfolk, Nations and Borders in South Asia. Routledge. p. 148. ISBN   978-0415449052.
  2. ↑ Chhabra, Amit Pal Singh; Meenakshi Rishi; Nicholas Harkiolakis; Sylva Caracatsanis (2011). "India: Female Immigrant Entrepreneurship in New Delhi". In Daphne Halkias; Paul Thurman; et al. (eds.). Female Immigrant Entrepreneurs: The Economic and Social Impact of a Global Phenomenon. Gower. p. 25. ISBN   978-0-566-08913-8.
  3. ↑ Rudnick, Anja (2009). Working Gendered Boundaries: Temporary Migration Experiences of Bangladeshi Women in the Malaysian Export Industry from a Multi-Sited Perspective. Amsterdam University Press. pp. 49–51. ISBN   978-9056295608.
  4. 1 2 3 Hans Günter Brauch; John Grin; Úrsula Oswald (2009). Facing Global Environmental Change: Environmental, Human, Energy, Food, Health and Water Security Concepts. Springer. p. 304. ISBN   978-3540684886.
  5. ↑ Sadiq, Irvine Kamal (2010). Paper Citizens: How Illegal Immigrants Acquire Citizenship in Developing Countries (Reprint ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 38–39. ISBN   978-0199764631.
  6. ↑ Mitra, Subrata K. (2010). Politics in India: Structure, Process and Policy. Routledge. p. 191. ISBN   978-0415585880.
  7. ↑ Scully, Mary-Louise (2007). George C. Kohn (ed.). Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present (3rd Revised ed.). Facts on File. p. 170. ISBN   978-0816069354.
  8. ↑ Rudolph, Christopher (2010). Rogers M. Smith (ed.). Citizenship, Borders, and Human Needs. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 241. ISBN   978-0812242836. About forty-five thousand Bengali illegal immigrants on the electoral rolls. By voting and behaving as full citizens, these illegal immigrants had clearly breached the conceptual wall separating immigrants and citizens. Further, because they had obtained the "proper" documentation no-one questioned their claim to citizenship and thus these "documentary citizens" were able to access the national franchise. Without naturalisation and authentication from the state, illegal Bangladeshi immigrants had gained Indian citizenship
  9. 1 2 Chatterji, Joya (2013). Meghna Guhathakurta; Willem van Schende (eds.). The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke University Press. p. 418. ISBN   978-0822353188.
  10. ↑ Datta, Antara (2012). Refugees and Borders in South Asia: The Great Exodus of 1971. Routledge. p. 183. ISBN   978-0415524728.
  11. ↑ Ghosh, Partha S. (2004). Ranabir Samaddar (ed.). Peace Studies: An Introduction To the Concept, Scope, and Themes. SAGE. p. 312. ISBN   978-0761996606.
  12. ↑ Hussain, Monirul (1 February 2009). Sibaji Pratim Basu (ed.). The Fleeing People of South Asia: Selections from Refugee Watch. Anthem. p. 261. ISBN   978-8190583572.
  13. ↑ Saikia, Yasmin (2011). Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971. Duke University Press. pp. 262–263. ISBN   978-0-8223-5038-5.
  14. ↑ Saikia, Yasmin (2005). Fragmented Memories: Struggling to be Tai-Ahom in India. Duke University Press. p. 65. ISBN   978-0822333739.
  15. ↑ Kaushik, Krishn, Politicians play on the fear of immigrants in Assam , retrieved 20 October 2018
  16. ↑ Kaushik, Krishn (1 April 2016), "Politicians play on the fear of immigrants in Assam", The Caravan , retrieved 20 October 2018
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