Amid the ongoing politics over changing demographics in Jharkhand’s Santhal Pargana region ahead of the Assembly polls, the Union government has now told a Bench of the Jharkhand High Court that “infiltration is assessed to have taken place” in the region through Sahibganj and Pakur districts and that the Jharkhand government’s support to check this has “been less than expected”.
The Union government was responding to a 2022 public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a BJP worker in Jharkhand, which alleged that the Scheduled Tribe population in Santhal Pargana was reducing because “illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh” were settling in the area and marrying into ST families to gain land and influence.
In its affidavit, filed on September 12 through an under secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Centre supported population data on Scheduled Tribes submitted by some of the petitioners, saying that data from the Office of the Registrar General of India showed that the share of STs in Santhal Pargana’s population was 44.67% in 1951 and 28.11% in 2011. However, it added: “Quantum of decrease in tribal population due to outward migration, low child-birth rate among tribal, conversion to Christianity and other reasons needs also [sic] to be assessed.”
The Centre also said there had been instances where “loopholes” in existing laws have been “misused” to get land transferred from tribals to non-tribals — such as gifting of land (danpatra) through affidavit. It cited one example of an altercation between tribals and Muslims in Pakur district on July 18, 2024, that allegedly took place because of this issue. But it added, “Linkages to Bangladesh immigrants in any of these land related cases have not been established, so far.”
Nowhere in the affidavit has the MHA linked the demographic changes in the Santhal Pargana region to the “infiltration” it has assessed. The Jharkhand High Court has now mulled forming a fact-finding committee to study the demographic changes and asked the Centre and State to recommend names for it.
However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday used the Centre’s affidavit to continue linking the demographic changes in Santhal Pargana to “infiltration” from Bangladesh, with prominent leaders like Godda MP Nishikant Dubey tweeting it, Jharkhand’s Leader of the Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri (BJP) making a statement on it, and recent BJP inductee and former JMM loyalist Champai Soren too tweeting about it.
On the other hand, JMM Central Committee member and spokesperson Manoj Pandey told The Hindu that Union Home Minister Amit Shah should resign if there is Bangladeshi Infiltration as they can only enter through the international border which falls under the Centre’s purview. The party also tweeted out portions of the affidavit, calling it an example of the Centre “admitting” to its “failures” and “blaming others” for it.
While admitting that all matters requiring dealings with a foreign country were part of the Union List in the Constitution, the Centre said in the affidavit: “Implementation of the said laws is conducted through the aid of the State governments”, which it said was “in line with the principles of cooperative federalism”.
It said: “The State government of Jharkhand is duty bound and fully empowered to tackle the problems related to illegal immigrants, as power to deal with such cases has been delegated to them in accordance with provisions of the Constitution.”
In the affidavit, the Centre said it had intimated the Jharkhand government about 145 overstaying foreigners with their addresses, and flagged 205 other potential cases in 2021, expecting the State government to probe the citizenship of these individuals.
According to affidavits filed by the district authorities of all six districts in Santhal Pargana region last month, Sahibganj district reported registering four cases related to four illegal immigrants from 2016 to 2024, one of whom has been convicted. No other district reported any complaints of “illegal immigrants”.
In its affidavit, the MHA went on to cite several other data sets from the Census tables to allude to significant demographic changes taking place in the Santhal Pargana region. It said that from Independence till 2011, the share of the Hindu population in the Santhal Pargana region “decreased by 22.42%”; the “Christian population growth rate” was “more 67.48%”; the Muslim population’s share had “increased by 13.3%”; and that the 2011 Census recorded “5857 Muslim tribes registered in Santhal Pargana”.
According to official Census tables made public by the Office of the RGI, the 2011 Census showed a total of 5,857 persons who are ST and are Muslim by religion in the six districts (Sahibganj, Deoghar, Godda, Pakur, Jamtara, Dumka) that the Centre has counted as Santhal Pargana region of Jharkhand.
As for the changes in the shares of populations, the data provided by the Centre further down in the same affidavit showed it had used different ways of calculating shares. For instance, Census data cited in the affidavit showed that the Hindu population’s share in Santhal Pargana was 90.37% in 1951 and 67.95% in 2011 — a difference of 22.42%.
Similarly, for Muslims, the Centre has expressed an increase of 13.3%.
In the case of Christians, the Centre has expressed the change as the percentage change in the absolute population of Christians in the Santhal Pargana region, when data provided further down showed that the share of Christians was 0.18% in 1951 and 4.21% in 2011. Applying the Centre’s method, the Hindu population would have “grown 125%” between 1951 and 2011, and the ST population would have “grown 88%”.
Further, the Centre’s affidavit does not account for the fact that the ST population across Jharkhand professes multiple religions including Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and their indigenous faith often known as Sarna and that there has been a marked change in the religious preferences of ST populations across the State, according to available Census data from 2001 and 2011.
(With inputs from Amit Bhelari in Patna)
Published – September 14, 2024 03:51 am IST
