Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s repeated claims of a decline in the number of Hindus in Bangladesh since Partition have been fact-checked by AltNews fact-checker Abhishek, who found Shah’s claims to be unfounded according to records available with the Indian government.
Speaking at an event in Gujarat, where he distributed citizenship certificates to 188 Hindu refugees, Shah asserted that the Hindu population in Bangladesh had dropped from 27% at the time of Partition to just 9% today, attributing this reduction to forced religious conversions
According to the 1951 census data, the combined Hindu and other non-Muslim populations in East Pakistan were recorded at 12.86%. When the data for East Pakistan is excluded, the Hindu and other non-Muslim populations in present-day Pakistan amounted to approximately 7.5%.
Shah praised the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) introduced by his government in 2019, which excludes Muslims from the Indian citizenship scheme, arguing that it was necessary to protect persecuted minorities.
Shah’s comments come at a time of heightened tensions between India and Bangladesh. Recently, Bangladesh has denied reports of widespread attacks on its Hindu minority, claiming that such reports were “exaggerated.”
These reports emerged after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India following protests over quota reforms. In a conversation with Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus on 16 August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the protection of Hindus and other minorities, highlighting the fragile situation of religious minorities in the region.
Shah’s statements are not new; he made similar claims about Bangladesh’s Hindu population earlier this year. In an interview, he argued that the Hindu population in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was 22% in 1951 but had reduced to 10% by 2011, suggesting this decline was due to religious persecution and conversion. He linked this to the broader justification for the CAA, which seeks to provide refuge to non-Muslims fleeing persecution in neighbouring countries.