The Muslim population has risen sharply in other north-eastern states, most spectacularly in the hill states of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. These states reported a 135 per cent and 105 per cent increase in their small groups of Muslim resident between the 1981 and 1991 censuses. In the former, the numbers grew from 5,073 to 11,922 and in Mizoram from 2,205 to 4,538. Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur reported growth rates of between 34 per cent to nearly 75 per cent. Only one state, Sikkim, reported a growth rate of less than 20 per cent. It was also the only state in the whole country to record such a low rate for this religious group.

In 1978, the Chief Election Commissioner of India, S.L. Shakdher, a slight Kashmiri Pandit, announced at the meeting of state electoral officers that Assam’s alarming rise in population was ‘attributed to the influx of a very large number of persons from the neighbouring countries.’

In the first categorical and brutal assessment by a senior Indian public servant on the migration problem in many years, Shakhder sounded a wake-up call to the country.

‘The influx has become a regular feature. I think it may not be a wrong assessment to make, on the basis of the increase of 34.98 per cent between the two censuses, then increase that is likely to be recorded in the 1991 census would be more than 100 per cent over the 1961 census. In other words, a stage would be reached when the State would have to reckon with the foreign nationals who may constitute a sizeable percentage, if not the majority of the population of the state.’ Without mincing words, he added: ‘Another disturbing factor in this regard is the demand made by the political parties for the inclusion in the electoral rolls of the names of such migrants who are not Indian citizens, without even questioning and properly determining the citizenship status.’

The IMDT Figures

Here, again, it is important to refer to the failure of the IMDT. It is worth bringing the figures listed earlier up to date. According to an affidavit filed by the Assam government39 in September 1999, a total of 302,554 inquiries were initiated under the Act. Nearly all of them were completed and only 31,264 were referred to the tribunals for review and action. Half of these have been completed and only 9,625 were declared as illegal migrants. Of this figure, only 1,461 were physically deported. One would not be surprised if all 1,461 have since returned and are working industriously in different parts of India!