Inside India's Crackdown on Bengali-Speaking Muslims

Across India, Bengali-speaking Muslims are being rounded up, detained, and pushed out in a sweeping crackdown. What began as a security measure has turned into a campaign of fear, uprooting families and forcing them to abandon the lives they built.

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India has seen a steady rise in Hindu nationalist policies that critics say marginalise its 200-million Muslim population. Measures like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which fast-tracks citizenship for non-Muslim migrants, and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) have deepened fears that millions of Muslims could be rendered stateless. Coupled with inflammatory rhetoric from BJP leaders, a surge in mob violence, the demolition of Muslim homes, and laws targeting interfaith marriage and religious conversions, these developments have created a climate in which Muslims increasingly feel compelled to prove their loyalty to the nation. 

The latest crackdown has intensified concerns of a humanitarian crisis. Its timing is particularly sensitive: it comes just months before key state elections and ahead of the 2026 West Bengal polls, a state where the BJP has struggled to gain power and where anti-immigrant rhetoric has become one of its most potent political tools.

In a nationwide crackdown, thousands of Bengali-speaking migrants - many of them Muslims - are being targeted and asked to prove their Indian citizenship. With many suspected of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, these individuals have been rounded up and forcefully pushed across the border. For decades, young people from West Bengal, an eastern Indian state, have migrated to India's major cities in search of work. Government data shows that "work/employment" is the top reason for this interstate migration.

Khatoon was treated like an illegal immigrant in her country. Among those detained in the slum adjacent to a posh Gurugram neighbourhood were Katbano Khatoon’s brother, son, and six other men. Held in what authorities call "holding centres," their experience ignited a wave of fear that left Katbano with no choice but to go home. 

She had all the documents to prove her Indian citizenship, but when the police came, they refused to check them. Instead, they detained her relatives. Although her family members were eventually released after their documents were verified, Katbano remains terrified. 

"They don't check our Aadhaar card, voter ID, or address, even though everything is linked to where we live," she told FairPlanet. "They just tell us to leave. They took my brother and his son. My family is scared; we don't want to be harassed anymore, so we have no option but to return to the village."

For these migrants, their identity has become a threat. They speak Bengali, the same language spoken in neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Because of this and their Muslim faith, they face double suspicion amid Modi’s anti-Muslim policies. Their work as domestic workers and in other low-paying jobs makes these migrants easy targets for police harassment. They are forced to prove they are Indian citizens. Many of these migrants are poor, daily wage earners from rural areas. Getting updated documents can be a costly and time-consuming process. It often involves travelling back to their home villages and navigating a bureaucratic system not designed to be migrant-friendly. This task is difficult, and authorities usually fail to make that distinction.

For these migrants, their identity has become a threat. They speak Bengali, the same language spoken in neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Because of this and their Muslim faith, they face double suspicion amid Modi’s anti-Muslim policies. Their work as domestic labourers and in other low-paying jobs makes them easy targets for police harassment, forcing them to prove they are Indian citizens constantly. Many are poor, daily-wage earners from rural areas, and getting updated documents is costly and time-consuming. It often requires travelling back to their home villages and navigating a bureaucratic system not designed to be migrant-friendly. While India has a nationally recognised ID system (Aadhaar), it does not prove citizenship. For these drives, authorities often demand older documents such as birth certificates, land records, or voter IDs linking a person to their home village. Migrants sometimes travel long distances to access these records, often missing, outdated, or difficult to obtain. Even those with Aadhaar and other IDs can face harassment if they cannot immediately produce the required documents, making the process especially burdensome and intimidating for Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants.

This recent crackdown follows a May directive from the Ministry of Home Affairs, which ordered states to identify and deport "suspected" undocumented immigrants. The notice reportedly mandated a 30-day timeframe for the process and called for the creation of new detention centres across the country. Critics highlight that what began as a security response following a terrorist attack in Kashmir has now become a campaign of fear, as authorities arbitrarily target Muslims across India.

Bangladeshi officials said more than 1500 people were pushed into the country from May to July. However, the exact number of people expelled from India remains unconfirmed, as Indian authorities have not released a figure. 

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, India's detention and expulsion of anyone without due process violates fundamental human rights. "India’s ruling BJP is fueling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country, including Indian citizens," stated Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in the report. This fear has also gripped other BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Maharashtra. In Assam, where the issue of Bengali-speaking identity has stirred decades of conflict, BJP Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has repeatedly referred to Bengali Muslims as "infiltrators" and "termites." The issue will likely be a key focus in West Bengal, where the state’s legislative assembly elections are due in 2026.

In a migrant workers’ camp in Vasant Kunj, a southern neighbourhood of the capital, a different kind of fear has taken hold. In July, authorities cut power to the camp, leaving hundreds of Bengali-speaking families, many of whom work as rag pickers, in fear that their slum dwellings would be demolished. Authorities point to encroachment on disputed land, which is still under judicial review. Still, residents insist they are being targeted because of their Bengali identity. In the State of Odisha, a recent crackdown has led to the detention of over 400 Bengali-speaking people on ‘suspicion’ of being illegal immigrants.

Human rights activist Asif Mujtaba believes the Gurugram incident is not isolated. He argues the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is targeting the already marginalised Muslim community and that these attacks will intensify as state elections approach. “In the coming months, you will see this oppressive communal profiling across many states; they won't say where the order came from, but you will find a Muslim name at every end, enough to be persecuted," Mujtaba told FairPlanet.

Migrant families interviewed by Fair Planet on the ground say they live in constant fear of detention and forced eviction. Meena Khatoon, a 35-year-old domestic worker in a high-rise building, hasn't been to work in over a month. Trapped by debt and unable to afford a ticket home, she is one of the few who stayed behind, desperate for the situation to return to normal.

She told FairPlanet, "We're daily wage workers, we earn each day to eat. We live here on rent, but they keep saying we're Bangladeshi without checking any ID. They call us Bangladeshi and take us away."

Asad Ul Shaikh, a scrap dealer who came to Gurugram in 2000, can now barely survive. He recalls a time when they lived peacefully, but in recent years, local police have threatened them constantly. He plans to leave Gurugram forever, explaining, "This is not happening for the first time. The police raid our shanties in the middle of the night. Even though we have all the documents, including a police clearance certificate from our village, they just won’t listen. I can’t even cover my own expenses. Rent, food, nothing. I haven’t stepped outside because there’s fear everywhere. We’ll try in some other state, but we don’t want to come back here."

For Asif Mujtaba, the fundamental question remains: When a state sponsors terror, fails to protect its citizens, and its courts do not deliver justice, where are people supposed to turn?

Image by Jakaria Hussain Adnan.