Islam in West Bengal

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Muslims in West Bengal
Nakhoda Masjid Courtyard Top View.jpg
Nakhoda Masjid, Kolkata
Total population
24,654,825 (2011 census)
(27% of the state population)Increase2.svg [1] [2] [3]
Regions with significant populations
Majority
Murshidabad (66.3%) • Maldah (51.3%) • Uttar Dinajpur (50%)
Significant minority
Birbhum (37.1%) • South 24 Parganas (35.6%) • Nadia (26.76%) • Howrah (26.20%) • North 24 Parganas (25.82%)
Religions
Star and Crescent.svg Sunni Islam
Languages
Majority Bengali, Minority Urdu, Surjapuri, and others
Motijheel Mosque, the oldest mosque of West Bengal, located in Murshidabad district Motijheel Masjid 1.jpg
Motijheel Mosque, the oldest mosque of West Bengal, located in Murshidabad district

According to the 2011 census, West Bengal has over 24.6 million Muslims, making up 27% of the state's population. The vast majority of Muslims in West Bengal are ethnic Bengali Muslims, numbering around over 22 million and comprising 24.1% of the state population (mostly they reside in Rural areas). There also exists an Urdu-speaking Muslim community numbering 2.6 million, constituting 2.9% of the state population and mostly resides in Urban areas of the state.

Contents

Muslims form the majority of the population in three districts: Murshidabad, Malda and Uttar Dinajpur. [4] Among these, Uttar Dinajpur is notable as ethnic Bengali Muslims comprise 28% of the district's population, with the remaining 22% being Urdu and Surjapuri speakers. [5]

History

The Gazi Dargah (gaajii drgaa) of Tribeni (tribenii) in West Bengal. This is one of the oldest Islamic heritage structures of Bengal Zafar Khan Ghazi Mosque And Dargah at Tribeni in West Bengal.jpg
The Gazi Dargah (গাজী দরগা) of Tribeni (ত্রিবেনী) in West Bengal. This is one of the oldest Islamic heritage structures of Bengal
The Bengal Sultanate, 16th century covering whole Western part of Bengal Bengal Sultanate.png
The Bengal Sultanate, 16th century covering whole Western part of Bengal

Islam first arrived in Bengal in the year 1204. [6] The establishment of the first Muslim state in Bengal, the Bengal Sultanate, in 1352 by Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah is credited to giving rise to a Bengali socio-linguistic identity. [7] The Sultanate's influence was expansive, with the Hindu-born sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah funding the construction of Islamic institutions as far as Makkah Al Mukarramah and Madinah Al Munawwarah, which came to be known as al-Madaris al-Banjaliyyah (Bengali madrasas). Sufis also became prominent in this period, such as Usman Serajuddin, also known as Akhi Siraj Bengali, who was a native of Gaur in western Bengal and became the Sultanate's court scholar during Ilyas Shah's reign. [8] [9] [10] Alongside Persian and Arabic, the Sultanate also used the Bengali language to gain patronage and support, contrary to previous states which exclusively favored liturgical languages such as Sanskrit and Pali. [11] [12] Islam became especially widespread when the region was under Mughal rule from 1576 to 1765 and was commonly known as Bengal Subah.[ citation needed ] The Mughal Emperors considered Bengal their most prized province. The Mughal emperor Akbar is credited with developing the modern Bengali calendar. [13]

Population

Historical Muslim Population in West Bengal
YearPop.±%
1901 3,954,776—    
1911 2,955,098−25.3%
1921 4,101,516+38.8%
1931 4,521,313+10.2%
1941 5,506,442+21.8%
1951 4,402,330−20.1%
1961 5,515,348+25.3%
1971 7,983,963+44.8%
1981 9,743,209+22.0%
1991 12,050,000+23.7%
2001 18,240,543+51.4%
2011 24,654,825+35.2%
Source: [14]

As per as Indian Census figures, The Muslim population in West Bengal has increased from 19.85 per cent in 1951 to 27 per cent in 2011. [15]

Partition and immigration

The Muslim population in West Bengal before 1947 partition was around 33%. [16] After partition of Bengal in 1947, some Muslims from West Bengal left for East Pakistan, (Present-Day-Bangladesh). Estimates show that 1,634,718 Muslim refugees from West Bengal settling permanently in East Pakistan during 1947–1951. [17]

Population by district (2011)

Percentage share of Muslims in the districts of West Bengal, 2011 Census Percentage of Muslim population in West Bengal.svg
Percentage share of Muslims in the districts of West Bengal, 2011 Census
Muslims in West Bengal by district (2011) [18]
#DistrictTotal populationMuslim population%
1 Murshidabad 7,103,8074,707,57366.27%
2 South 24 Parganas 8,161,9612,903,07535.57%
3 North 24 Parganas 10,009,7812,584,68425.82%
4 Malda 3,988,8452,045,15151.27%
5 Bardhaman 7,717,5631,599,76420.73%
6 Uttar Dinajpur 3,007,1341,501,17049.92%
7 Nadia 5,167,6001,382,68226.76%
8 Birbhum 3,502,4041,298,05437.06%
9 Howrah 4,850,0291,270,64126.20%
10 Kolkata 4,496,694926,41420.60%
11 Hooghly 5,519,145870,20415.77%
12 Purba Medinipur 5,095,875743,43614.59%
13 Cooch Behar 2,819,086720,03325.54%
14 Paschim Medinipur 5,913,457620,55410.49%
15 Jalpaiguri 3,872,846445,81711.51%
16 Dakshin Dinajpur 1,676,276412,78824.63%
17 Bankura 3,596,674290,4508.08%
18 Purulia 2,930,115227,2497.76%
19 Darjeeling 1,846,823105,0865.69%

Linguistic groups

According to the census , there were around 24.6 million Muslims living in West Bengal, comprising 27% of the state's population. Nearly most of them , about 22 million are native Bengali Muslims, constituting around 90% of the total Muslim population in the state, and are mostly concentrated in rural and Semi Urban areas. The Urdu-speaking Muslims from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh constitute rest , numbering around 2.6 million and are mainly concentrated in Kolkata, Asansol, Islampur subdivision of West Bengal.

Notable Muslims from West Bengal

Kolkata

Malda

Murshidabad

Hooghly

Bardhaman

Birbhum

North 24 Parganas

South 24 Parganas

Howrah

Uttar Dinajpur

Midanapur

Cooch Behar

Jalpaiguri

Nadia

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Population of West Bengal - West Bengal Population 2021".
  2. ↑ "West Bengal Population 2022".
  3. ↑ Census of India - Religious Composition
  4. ↑ Saibal Sen (26 August 2015). "Bengal beats India in Muslim growth rate".
  5. ↑ hajarduar (22 October 2013). "The curious case of the Surjapuri people". আলাল ও দুলাল | ALAL O DULAL. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  6. ↑ Eaton, Richard M. (1993). The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760 (1 ed.). University of California Press. ISBN   978-0-520-20507-9.
  7. ↑ Ahmed, ABM Shamsuddin (2012). "Iliyas Shah". In Sirajul Islam; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir (eds.). Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN   984-32-0576-6. OCLC   52727562. OL   30677644M . Retrieved 23 October 2025.
  8. ↑ 'Abd al-Haqq al-Dehlawi. Akhbarul Akhyar.
  9. ↑ Abdul Karim (2012). "Shaikh Akhi Sirajuddin Usman (R)". In Sirajul Islam; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir (eds.). Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN   984-32-0576-6. OCLC   52727562. OL   30677644M . Retrieved 23 October 2025.
  10. ↑ Hanif, N (2000). Biographical Encyclopaedia of Sufis: South Asia. Prabhat Kumar Sharma, for Sarup & Sons. p. 35.
  11. ↑ "What is more significant, a contemporary Chinese traveler reported that although Persian was understood by some in the court, the language in universal use there was Bengali. This points to the waning, although certainly not yet the disappearance, of the sort of cosmopolitan mentality that the Muslim ruling class in Bengal had exhibited since its arrival over two centuries earlier. It also points to the survival and eventual dominance of parochial Bengali culture at the highest level of official society." ( Eaton 1993 :60)
  12. ↑ Rabbani, AKM Golam (7 November 2017). "Politics and Literary Activities in the Bengali Language during the Independent Sultanate of Bengal". Dhaka University Journal of Linguistics. 1 (1): 151–166. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017– via www.banglajol.info.
  13. ↑ Shoaib Daniyal (15 April 2015). "Bengali New Year: how Akbar invented the modern Bengali calendar". Scroll.in. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  14. ↑ Nahid Kamal. "The Population Trajectories of Bangladesh and West Bengal During the Twentieth Century: A Comparative Study" (PDF).
  15. ↑ Bhattacharya, Snigdhendu (12 May 2023). "The Politics of Demography in Assam and West Bengal". Outlook.
  16. ↑ "Muslims of West Bengal" (PDF). core.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  17. ↑ Chatterji, Joya (2007). The Spoils of Partition: Bengal and India, 1947–1967. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-139-46830-5.
  18. ↑ Population by religious community: West Bengal. 2011 Census of India.
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