'Bangladeshi infiltrator' tag haunts Bihar's Shershahbadi Muslims ahead of polls

More than a decade ago, when Mukhtar Alam attended a government school in Kishanganj, the only Muslim-majority district in eastern India's Bihar state, he had Hindu friends. Alam shared a close bond with one of them, studying and working on projects together. To make his vegetarian friend comfortable, Alam would even avoid eating meat when they ate together, according to a report by Al-Jazeera.

However, two years ago, a political speech fractured that friendship.

During a rally in Kishanganj, Jitanram Manjhi, a former chief minister of Bihar and ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), called the Shershahbadi Muslim community "infiltrators" from Bangladesh. 

The term Shershahbadi originates from the historical Shershahbad region, which spans parts of modern-day Bihar and West Bengal, and is linked to Sher Shah Suri, the 16th-century Afghan ruler of the region.

Shershahbadi Muslims speak a dialect of Bangla mixed with Urdu and Hindi. Locally, they are also called "Badia" or "Bhatia", words associated with migration "against the river's stream" from Malda to Murshidabad in West Bengal, and later to Bihar's Seemanchal region.

"We felt threatened [by Manjhi's speech]," Alam, now a business graduate, told Al Jazeera.

When Alam posted a Facebook message condemning the remarks, a shocking comment appeared beneath it: "You people are Bangladeshi infiltrators." It came from his best friend.

"Reading that comment sent a shiver down my spine," said Alam, who now runs a small primary school. "It created a rift between us. We developed trust issues and lost our brotherhood, our friendship."

According to Bihar's 2023 caste census, the state has around 1.3 million Shershahbadi Muslims, mostly in Kishanganj and Katihar. As Bihar prepares for state elections on 6 and 11 November, with results due on 14 November, these districts have become central to the BJP's campaign focused on "Bangladeshi infiltrators".

Why Shershabadi Muslims?

During his Independence Day address on 15 August, India's Prime Minister Modi announced a "high-powered demography mission" to identify infiltrators. "No country can hand itself over to infiltrators," he said, warning of a "crisis looming" over the nation.

Hindu right-wing groups often use "Bangladeshi infiltrator" to target Bangla-speaking Muslims in Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam. In Assam, where the BJP has ruled since 2016, Bangla-speaking Muslims have been labelled "outsiders" accused of changing the region's demography.

Bihar, India's third most populous state, has approximately 17 million Muslims, accounting for about 17% of its total population. Around 28% of them live in Seemanchal, which borders West Bengal and lies close to Bangladesh. Critics say the BJP is using the infiltration narrative to divide voters along religious and linguistic lines.

In recent years, Alam's fear has deepened as Modi himself has accused Seemanchal of being a "hub of illegal infiltration". At rallies in Purnia and other districts, he warned of a "demographic crisis" caused by infiltrators and promised to "throw every single infiltrator out".

Similar drives have already led to detentions and deportations of Bengali-speaking Muslims in BJP-ruled states such as Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and New Delhi, often despite valid citizenship documents.

In Purnia last month, BJP minister Giriraj Singh declared at a rally: "Many demons have come from Bangladesh; we have to kill those demons." Last year, Singh led a "Hindu Pride March" targeting Shershahbadi Muslims and spreading conspiracy theories about "love jihad" and Rohingya refugees.

"If these infiltrators and Muslims slap us once, we will unite and slap them a thousand times," Singh had told his supporters.

BJP legislator Haribhushan Thakur defended the campaign, saying, "It has nothing to do with polarisation or elections. The Muslim population is rising in Seemanchal due to infiltration, so necessary steps must be taken. If infiltration is not stopped, Seemanchal will become Bangladesh in 20–25 years."

However, academic Pushpendra from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences said the BJP's tactic will have little effect. "Bangladeshi infiltration is not there in Seemanchal. And how will it even be? Seemanchal does not share a border with Bangladesh," he told Al Jazeera.

Decades-old campaign

The campaign against Bangla-speaking Muslims began in the late 1970s in Assam and spread to Bihar in the 1980s. The RSS-linked Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) claimed thousands of Bangladeshis were added to Bihar's voter list. Nearly 6,000 Muslims were served notices to prove their citizenship, but none were found to be illegal.

Now, BJP leaders are demanding an Assam-style National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Seemanchal. In Assam, the 2019 NRC excluded nearly two million people, labelling them non-citizens.

Meanwhile, Bihar's recent voter list revision, known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), has led to 6% of 80 million voters being removed statewide. Kishanganj, with its 70% Muslim population, saw the second-highest deletion rate at 9.7%. Critics call the process a ploy to exclude Muslims.

For many Shershahbadi Muslims, the political campaign has strained everyday life. "Today, hardly any Hindu family sends their children to Muslim-managed schools," said Tafheem Rahman, who runs a private school in Kishanganj. The share of Hindu students dropped from 16% a decade ago to 2% now.

In hospitals too, "Hindu patients are hesitant to visit Muslim-run facilities," said Azad Alam, who owns a hospital in the district.

Sociologist Adil Hossain from Azim Premji University said, "Seemanchal has a development problem, but it is being framed as a security issue. This is pushing people into a state of anxiety and uncertainty."

Back in Kishanganj, Alam remains anxious. "Every time politicians make comments on Shershahbadi Muslims, we must clarify that we are not infiltrators," he said.

"Being a Shershahbadi Muslim, those comments keep playing on my mind like a disease … like a ghost," he added.