Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net
Mumbai: Born in India, brought up in India, living in India – yet still treated as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The poor labourers who migrated to Mumbai for survival – after their villages in Burdwan, Birbhum, Hooghly and other districts of West Bengal were devastated by floods in 2000 – are struggling to prove their Indian identity.
They alleged they are frequently roughed up, interrogated and coerced into validating their Indian-ness by presenting relevant documents. Sometimes this suffices, while at other times they are forced to pay bribes even after submitting the proper paperwork.
In 2018, however, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Mumbai’s Crawford Market arrested six individuals on suspicion of being illegal Bangladeshi immigrants – despite their pleas and presentation of documents, which the officers reportedly refused to examine. Among the six arrested were two minors, aged 11 and 8, who were separated from their mother (held in women’s prison) and placed in juvenile homes.
After running from pillar to post, they finally secured bail upon furnishing a surety of Rs 30,000 per person and were allowed to return to their lives. Initially, the authorities demanded bond guarantees from two individuals.
Ali Akbar Mollah, who was not present in Mumbai at the time, explained, “We do not know anyone here who could stand surety for us. So we managed to arrange the money, and after paying the amount, our advocate was able to get them released.”
He further clarified that among the six were his nephew, the nephew’s wife and their two children, along with two co-workers.
It was only after Akbar returned from their village that he could hire a lawyer to secure their release. During the ten days he was away, the six individuals remained in jail.
However, their troubles did not end there. They were instructed to report regularly to the police station for attendance. After several months, a CID officer approached Akbar, the head of the family, and allegedly demanded Rs 2 lakh – promising to have the illegal immigration case against them dropped.
But Akbar refused, asserting that they are Indian citizens who had been living in Mumbai for 16 years at the time (now 22 years) and had voter ID and Aadhaar cards to prove it.
“After all these years of constant harassment, I sometimes wish I had paid the bribe. I could have managed it somehow. For the past six years, we have been repeatedly paying money to the police and the lawyer. And attending court regularly. Our case is still stuck where it was in 2018,” he told TwoCircles.net.
The advocate, meanwhile, has done little apart from giving them false assurances.
“Every time we go to the court, we are told a new date has been given, or that the judge has been transferred and the new judge will go through our case, and we will be summoned again. For the last 6 years we have been attending court. Now the next hearing is in this month of May,” said Suman.
When the arrests occurred, Samirul Islam, president of the Bangla Sanskriti Mancha, had – as the family said – assured them that the organisation would stand by them and fight the injustice.
According to them, he had claimed that this issue was not limited to the Mollah family but affected all Bengali-speaking Muslims residing in Mumbai.
These migrants from West Bengal, having relocated to Mumbai, Pune and other parts of Maharashtra, are primarily employed in the fish business. However, their language (Bangla) makes them stand out and has become the basis for police suspicion of illegal immigration from Bangladesh.
This is an ongoing challenge, not just for the Mollah family but for many others from West Bengal as well.
“The Bangla Sanskriti Manch has not helped us in any way, despite raising our hopes in the beginning. Now, Mr. Islam, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from the Trinamool Congress, does not even take our calls. We had such high hopes when he became an MP in 2023,” said Akbar’s son Suman Mollah.
When contacted by TwoCircles.net, Islam claimed that he had raised this issue at least thrice in Parliament and that he was fully aware of the problems faced by Bengali-speaking Muslims across India.
“In West Bengal, we have many people from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh living peacefully. We have never mistreated anyone for not speaking Bengali. But on the other hand, our people are discriminated against and treated as foreigners simply because they speak Bengali,” he said, adding that the situation has worsened since 2014.
The MP, who still serves as the president of the Manch, once again assured that he would look into the matter. However, at the time of filing this story, he had not reached out to the victims.
Suman Sengupta, a member of the Communist Party of India (Maxist-Leninist) or CPI (ML), emphasised the need for a united response from all sections of society to tackle such “witch-hunting” and “demonisation” of Bengali-speaking Muslims.
“It is essential to speak out against any kind of division. Today, Bengali-speaking Muslims are being targeted. Tomorrow, anyone might be beaten up simply for speaking Bengali. If such incidents are brought to light, all political parties should oppose them,” he said.
Sabir Ahamed, a social activist and research coordinator at the Pratichi Institute (founded by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen), said, “Bengali Muslim migrant workers face a double disadvantage due to their linguistic and religious identities. This issue has persisted for a long time. Bengali Muslims are frequently and unfairly equated with Bangladeshis in cities like Mumbai and Delhi.”
Sharing from personal experience, he recounted an incident in a Mumbai slum where Bengali Muslim migrant workers were harassed by the police for singing a Bengali song while bare-chested after a long day’s work. One worker had to spend his entire monthly earnings of Rs. 5,000 as a bribe to avoid jail time.
He also emphasised the need for a systematic study on the harassment faced by migrant labourers from West Bengal to make their plight more visible. The study can potentially lead to concrete actions to protect them.
Saifulla, Professor in the Bengali department of Aliah University said, ” West Bengal migrant workers across India face harassment – wrongly branded as Bangladeshis, detained without verification. This unconstitutional denial of rights must end. Authorities must release those unjustly held. Such repression undermines democracy and unity”.
The six individuals in this case – Suman Mollah, Safikul Sarkar, his wife and two children, along with co-workers Nurul and Asgar – are still required to appear again this May for a hearing.
“For the last six years, they have been doing this. I do not know when it will ever end,” sighed Ali Akbar.
“Our only fault is that we do not speak Marathi or Hindi like others do. But we are Indians, and we can prove it. If the authorities visit our village in Burdwan, they can verify our citizenship to their satisfaction,” he added.