Amit Shah’s 'Demographic Change' Claim Oversimplifies a Far More Complex Reality
Narrative of illegal migrants flooding the country, especially in the border areas, is highly exaggerated, writes SK Sood.
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in his speech on 10 October at a function of Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran, implied that the demographic profile of India is changing and the population of Muslims is increasing.
This, he claimed, is mainly because of illegal migration from neighbouring countries.
It is a common saying that the same set of statistics can be used to highlight facts convenient to the proponent while obfuscating those which are inconvenient.
While the basic fact stated by Shah—that the population of Muslims in India has arisen to 14.2 percent as per the 2011 census from 9.8 percent as per the 1951 census—cannot be disputed, it is still necessary to analyse the census data and put things in perspective.
The Pew Research Centre has analysed the census data from 1951 to 2011 in detail and brought out several other facets.
Author's summary: Amit Shah oversimplifies demographic change in India.