There is a continuous uproar over mosques and tombs in the two hill states of Himachal and Uttarakhand. The latest case is from Sanjauli in Himachal Pradesh where locals are out on the streets over illegal mosque construction. A similar case had come to light some time ago in Uttarakhand where the government demolished several illegal tombs built on government and forest department land with a bulldozer. A debate has also started in both the states over the changes taking place in demography.
What is the uproar in Himachal
Actually, there was a lot of uproar over a mosque built on government land in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. This mosque is in Sanjauli area of Himachal Pradesh, which is about five kilometers away from the Mall Road of the capital Shimla. There are allegations of a large number of Rohingya Muslims in this mosque. If this is true, then the biggest question is how did the Rohingya Muslims coming from Bangladesh reach Himachal’s capital Shimla?
Himachal Congress government minister Aniruddh Singh himself called this mosque illegal in the assembly and demanded its demolition. He said, “It has become difficult for women to walk in Sanjauli market. Thefts are happening, incidents like love jihad are taking place, which are dangerous for the state and the country. At the same time, the Waqf Board says that this land does not belong to the government but to them. Documents of the year 1967 confirm that this ‘land’ belonged to the government. At that time it was a small mosque, but now it has become a five-storey building. There are two major reasons for the controversy regarding this mosque, the first of which is illegal construction and the second is encroachment on government land.
Also read: ‘Mosque should be demolished in two days…’, uproar over illegal construction in Shimla, people took to the streets, conflict in the assembly too
Congress surrounded by Anirudh Singh’s statement
Anirudh Singh This statement of Anirudh Singh has made the Congress leaders uncomfortable. Congress MP from Saharanpur Imran Masood said that the mosque is not illegal and the Himachal Pradesh minister is speaking the language of BJP. He has said that he will complain to the high command regarding this matter, while AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, reacting to the statement of Himachal Pradesh minister Anirudh Singh, said, “Is the Himachal government of BJP or Congress? There is only hatred in Himachal’s ‘Mohabbat ki Dukaan’.”
Is the number of Muslims increasing in Himachal?
So let’s try to find out what is the truth behind the increasing population of Muslims in Himachal Pradesh? And has there been a sudden increase in the number of mosques in Himachal Pradesh in the last few years? Actually, the population of Hindus in Himachal Pradesh has been continuously decreasing while the population of Muslims has been continuously increasing. In the year 1951, the population of Hindus in Himachal Pradesh was 98.14 percent, which increased to 95.2 percent in the year 2011. Census of different times shows that while on one hand the population of Hindus in Himachal Pradesh has been continuously decreasing, on the other hand the population of Muslims has been continuously increasing.
Due to the decrease in the population of Hindus and the increase in the population of Muslims in Himachal Pradesh, there has not been much change in the demography of the state and according to the census of the year 2011, more than 95 percent of the population there were Hindus and only 2.2 percent were Muslims. However, a problem here is that there has been no census in our country since the year 2011 and no one has the data on how much the demography of Himachal Pradesh has changed in the last 13 years and the people of Himachal Pradesh are expressing concern about this.
Claims of increase of 127 mosques in four years
People say that the population of Muslims has increased rapidly in the last 10 to 12 years and this can be estimated from the construction of new mosques in Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh Hindu Jagran Manch claims that before Covid, there were 393 mosques in Himachal Pradesh, which increased to 520 after Covid and 127 new mosques were built in Himachal Pradesh during Covid. Some people in Himachal Pradesh allege that so many new mosques are being built because the population of Muslims is increasing rapidly there.
Also read: ‘Demographic change is dangerous for this country’, said political analyst Sangeet Ragi in Dangal on the issue of infiltrators
Demography changed in 4 districts of Uttarakhand
Talking about another hilly state Uttarakhand, rapid demographic change has been seen in many areas here in recent times. Apart from the plains of the state, the Muslim population is also increasing in the hilly areas and many videos have also gone viral on social media from time to time regarding this. The Muslim population has increased rapidly in the four plain districts of Uttarakhand, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital and Dehradun.
In the year 2001, the population of Hindus in Haridwar district of Uttarakhand was 65.3 percent and the population of Muslims was 33 percent, but in the year 2011, the population of Hindus in Haridwar decreased by one percent to 64.3 percent. Whereas the population of Muslims increased by 1.3 percent and it reached from 33 to 34.3 percent.
Similarly, in Dehradun, between 2001 and 2011, the Hindu population decreased by 0.7 percent while the Muslim population increased by one percent. In the same 10 years, the Hindu population in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district decreased by 0.4 percent while the Muslim population increased by 2 percent.
There are more than 1000 illegal shrines in the state
Last year, the Dhami government of Uttarakhand had said that more than a thousand illegal tombs have been identified in the state which have been built by illegally occupying the forest department or other government lands. Out of these, more than 450 tombs have been demolished by the government so far.
Also read: Haridwar administration takes a U-turn, curtains on mosques and shrines on Kanwar route removed within a few hours
The biggest thing is that there is a whole process of illegal occupation of government land through these tombs. It is alleged that in this way bricks are first collected and kept around these illegal tombs and then slowly construction is done on government land. At many places, the local people not only protested but also took action against the illegal tombs themselves.
Overall, the way local protests are intensifying in both the hill states- Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand regarding mosques and tombs, a different form of politics will be seen in the coming days.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)