As the Bihar state elections approach, a quiet tension grips India’s eastern Seemanchal region — home to a large Bangla-speaking Muslim population. The community, known as the Shershahbadis, finds itself under scrutiny as political rhetoric intensifies, accusing them of being “Bangladeshi infiltrators.”
A Growing Divide Among Neighbours
For Mukhtar Alam*, a 30-year-old business graduate from Kishanganj, the political climate has turned personal. Once, he shared a close friendship with a Hindu classmate during his school days. They studied together, shared meals, and respected each other’s beliefs. But two years ago, that friendship fractured when former Bihar Chief Minister and BJP ally Jitanram Manjhi publicly referred to the Shershahbadi Muslims as “infiltrators from Bangladesh.”
When Alam condemned the remark on Facebook, his best friend replied with a stinging comment: “You people are Bangladeshi infiltrators.”
The words marked the end of their long friendship.
“Reading that comment sent a shiver down my spine,” Alam recalled, sitting under a thatched school roof he now runs. “We lost our brotherhood and trust.”
Who Are the Shershahbadi Muslims?
The Shershahbadis trace their roots to the historic Shershahbad region that once stretched across Bihar and West Bengal. Their name derives from Sher Shah Suri — the 16th-century Afghan ruler who briefly dethroned the Mughals.
Unlike the Hindi-Urdu-speaking majority in Bihar, Shershahbadis speak a Bangla dialect mixed with Urdu and Hindi words. Locally, they’re known as Badia or Bhatia, a term thought to come from bhato, meaning “against the river’s current,” symbolizing their ancestors’ migration upstream from West Bengal into Bihar’s Seemanchal.
Today, around 1.3 million Shershahbadis live mainly in Kishanganj and Katihar — two districts that have become the focus of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) campaign against alleged “Bangladeshi infiltrators.”
A Political Flashpoint Before Elections
Bihar, India’s third-most populous state, will vote in two phases on November 6 and November 11, with results on November 14. The stakes are high — not just for Bihar, but for India’s national political balance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has intensified his rhetoric, warning of an “infiltration crisis” in eastern India. During his Independence Day speech from New Delhi’s Red Fort, he announced a “demography mission” to identify and expel infiltrators.
“No country can hand itself over to infiltrators,” Modi declared. “How can India allow it?”
Although he didn’t name anyone, Hindu right-wing groups often use “Bangladeshi infiltrator” as a slur for Bangla-speaking Muslims in Bihar, Assam, and West Bengal.
In Assam — where the BJP has ruled since 2016 — authorities have long branded Muslim residents as “outsiders,” despite many families living there for generations. Critics say the campaign is politically motivated to polarize Hindu and Muslim voters.
A Familiar Strategy
The BJP’s narrative in Seemanchal mirrors its previous campaigns in other regions. The party claims unchecked migration from Bangladesh threatens India’s “demographic balance.”
“Those indulging in vote-bank politics have turned Seemanchal into a hub of illegal infiltration,” Modi said during a recent rally in Purnia, pledging to “throw every infiltrator out.”
Local residents, however, see it as an attempt to divide communities. “Whenever a major BJP leader visits Seemanchal, we fear what he’ll say about us,” said Alam.
‘Demons Have Come from Bangladesh’
BJP leaders have escalated their rhetoric. Federal Minister Giriraj Singh recently declared at a rally, “Many demons have come from Bangladesh; we have to kill those demons.”
Last year, Singh led a “Hindu Pride March” through Seemanchal, invoking slogans against Muslims and accusing them of “love jihad” — a debunked conspiracy theory alleging Muslim men marry Hindu women to convert them to Islam.
During another rally, Singh said, “If these infiltrators slap us once, we’ll slap them a thousand times.”
Such speeches have deepened mistrust between communities that once coexisted peacefully.
Crackdowns Beyond Bihar
Across India, several BJP-ruled states — including Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Delhi — have deported hundreds of Bangla-speaking Muslims, branding them “illegal Bangladeshis.” Many had valid Indian citizenship documents, say rights groups.
The Assam BJP recently released an AI-generated video titled “Assam Without BJP,” predicting a Muslim-majority takeover of public spaces — a narrative that critics call dangerous and Islamophobic.
Experts Say the ‘Infiltrator’ Issue Lacks Basis
Pushpendra, a former professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, believes the “infiltrator” issue has no factual foundation in Bihar.
“The BJP tried the same strategy in Jharkhand in 2024, but it failed because the claims lacked evidence,” he told Al Jazeera. “Seemanchal doesn’t even share a border with Bangladesh, so infiltration is impossible.”
A Decades-Old Political Tool
The campaign against Bangla-speaking Muslims isn’t new. It first gained momentum in Assam during the late 1970s, when student groups demanded the expulsion of “illegal migrants.” Thousands of Muslims were later labelled “doubtful citizens,” stripped of rights, or expelled.
In Bihar, the movement was revived by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the BJP. Founded in 1925, the RSS has long advocated turning India into an explicitly Hindu nation. Many of its members, including Prime Minister Modi, have risen to the BJP’s top ranks.
A Region on Edge
Today, Seemanchal — among India’s poorest regions — faces growing anxiety. Once known for its cultural harmony, the area now finds itself at the heart of a political storm.
Alam says the fear isn’t just about elections — it’s about identity.
“When our own neighbours start seeing us as outsiders, it hurts more than any speech,” he said.
As Bihar’s elections approach, that pain is shared across the narrow lanes of Seemanchal — where a centuries-old community now fights not just for votes, but for the right to belong.