Increasing Muslim population, taps with Arabic inscription: Ground report from Balrampur along Nepal border

Several recent ground reports by OpIndia have shown that demography is changing rapidly along India’s border with Nepal. The number of mosques and madarsas is rapidly increasing in the area. From August 20 to 27, 2022, an OpIndia team visited several areas in Nepal bordering India to observe the ground situation. What follows here is the twelfth episode of the series of reports documenting the facts noticed by the OpIndia team.

In the previous report, we delved into the details of the vastly increasing number of mosques and houses of worship mushrooming along the road from Balrampur district headquarters to Nepal’s Jarwa border. In this article, we will tell you what the village heads and public representatives of these villages have to say about the rampant Islamisfication underway along the Indo-Nepal border.

Muslims purchase more land than Hindus

During our trip to several districts along the Indo-Nepal border, one Shivendra Kasaudhan, a local businessman from Balrampur’s Maharajganj Terai area, greeted us at Tulsipur Bazar tehsil. He also attested to the fact that the Muslim population in the district is growing much faster than the Hindu population. He further stated that the native Muslims have been steadily settling their relatives and kins here by purchasing land from Hindus. Shivendra claimed that many Hindus sell their properties to these Muslims because they pay more than the normal market rate.

Balarampur’s Shivendra Kasaudhan in conversation with OpIndia staff

Shivendra went on to say that Rizwan Zaheer is the most powerful leader in the area and that only the Yogi administration (Yogi Sarkar) can keep him in check. Despite the presence of a well-known temple such as Devipatan, he maintained that the number of Islamic places of worship in the area grew significantly under the previous Samajwadi Party regime.

Shivendra maintained that any increase in the Muslim population in these places is due to both locals and the gradual influx of outsiders who have come and settled in these areas. He also admitted that incidents of communal violence in these Muslim-dominated areas have risen over time and urged local authorities to take notice.

Muslim community outnumbers Hindus in this area

Pradeep Kumar, the priest of Baba Mukteshwar Nath Dham on his way to Jarwa from the Nepalese border, informed us that the temple is built in a Muslim-dominated area. According to the Mahant, the Muslim community not only outnumbers the Hindus in that area, but they have also surpassed them economically and politically.

Priest Pradeep Kumar stated that the temple is the centre of faith for the local Hindus, and it is here that they receive religious education. The priest informed us that the leader of the village council in which this temple is located is Muslim.

Muslim population increased manifolds during the last 10 years

Nankan Mishra, an uncle of the local village head and a resident of Ratanpur Jhingha hamlet near Jarwa district along the Nepal border, spoke to OpIndia. He told us that he operates a school called ‘Bhagwati Adarsh Vidyalaya’.

Nankan Mishra’s nephew defeated Siraj Khan in the presidential election. Before him, the hamlet was led by a Muslim woman named Noor Jahan. According to Nankan, the Muslim population in his village is approximately 50%, and this percentage has grown over the last ten years.

He stated that the majority of the Muslim population in his village has come and settled from Nepal, with the remainder from various parts of India. Mishra referred to these migrant Muslims as ‘NRI type people’.

Nobody ever investigated these outsiders

Nankan Mishra stated that no officer or govt employee has ever inquired as to who these outsiders are or where they have come from. Mishra likened his neighbourhood to a lodge and stated that whoever wanted to reside there can do so without restriction.

According to Mishra, along with the population, mosques and madrasas in the area have also grown in the same proportion.

Number of mosques and madarsas grown drastically in every border village

Nankan Mishra told us that the number of mosques and madarsas has grown in all border villages, not just his own. Reminiscing his childhood days, the 50-year-old Nankan stated that there were only two mosques, at least what he is aware of, in his area at that time, but today many Saudi-style mosques have mushroomed in the area. Mishra further stated that the same is true of the nearby Mahadeva hamlet. He estimated that the majority of the people in the village of Tandwa, located in Siddharthnagar Zone, Uttar Pradesh were also Muslims.

Urdu and Arabic names inscribed on taps

Nankan Mishra went on to describe how the taps put in his hamlet and adjacent areas have details in Urdu and Arabic inscribed on them. Mishra reported that the village’s public taps were installed with funding coming from Saudi Arabia.

He mentioned that a local Maulana is getting these taps installed, but no one has investigated him yet. Locals, according to Mishra, do not complain to the government because they know no action would be taken against him, in fact, it would only create animosity between them and the Maulana.

Taps with Arabic engravings spotted by the Opindia team

We started our own inquiry to see how accurate Nankan Mishra’s information on the public taps with Arabic inscriptions was. We spotted several such taps placed along the road and throughout the hamlet. The taps at Premnagar, a village near Tulsipur police station, read ‘United Arab Emirates Association’ in Arabic and ‘Khair Technical Society India’ in English.

भारत नेपाल सीमा पर बदल रहे हालातों का जायजा लेते हुए हमने तुलसीपुर क्षेत्र में ऐसे नल देखे जिन पर अरबी भाषा में कुछ लिखा था

इसी के साथ उसी नल पर खैर टेक्निकल सोसाइटी इंडिया भी इंग्लिश में लिखा था

ऊपर जो logo लगा था वो सऊदी सरकार से मिलता जुलता है.@BalrampurDm @balrampurpolice pic.twitter.com/JoHDXuWA4Y
— Rahul Pandey (Journalist) (@STVRahul) September 14, 2022

One such tap could be found near the main road, in front of Dr Ibadur Rahman’s clinic at the Khairi roundabout. People present there told us that the tap was installed using ‘zakat’ money and that more such taps can be found in both Hindu and Muslim homes.

As we delved further, we discovered that the ‘Khair Technical Society’ is headed by someone from Dumariaganj, a Muslim-dominated market in Siddharthnagar.

A creeping Islamisation of Nepal and its border areas appears to be underway, with Islamists steadily establishing their foothold in distant villages, including those on the Indian border. In the first four parts of this series, OpIndia documented the demography change ongoing in Nepal, as well as the worrying surge in the number of mosques and madarsas in the Himalayan nation’s border villages. Additionally, we also spoke about the rising incidents of love jihad in Nepal, as well as its Delhi connection and smuggling, and various other notorious activities that are going on along India’s border with Nepal.

The first report in this series can be read here in Hindi: कभी था हिंदू बहुल गाँव, अब स्वस्तिक चिह्न वाले घर पर 786 का निशान: भारत के उस पार भी डेमोग्राफी चेंज, नेपाल में घुसते ही मस्जिद, मदरसा और इस्लाम – OpIndia Ground Report

The same report can be read here in English: Demographic change hits other side of the border too, Mosques and Madarasas mushroom in former Hindu dominated areas in Nepal: Ground report

The second report in this series can be read here in Hindi: घरों पर चाँद-तारे वाले हरे झंडे, मस्जिद-मदरसे, कारोबार में भी दखल: मुस्लिम आबादी बढ़ने के साथ ही नेपाल में कपिलवस्तु के ‘कृष्णा नगर’ पर गाढ़ा हुआ इस्लामी रंग – OpIndia Ground Report

The same report can be read here in English: Islamic flags flying atop houses and mosques, madarsas influencing businesses: The creeping Islamisation of Nepal’s Krishnanagar

The third report in this series can be read here in Hindi: नेपाल में लव जिहाद: बढ़ती मुस्लिम आबादी और नेपाली लड़कियों से निकाह के खेल में ‘दिल्ली कनेक्शन’, तस्कर-गिरोह भारतीय सीमा पर खतरा – OpIndia Ground Report

The same report can be read here in English: Rising cases of love jihad in Nepal and its Delhi connection, smuggling plaguing India’s border with Nepal: Ground report

The fourth report in this series can be read here in Hindi: बौद्ध आस्था के केंद्र हों या तालाब… हर जगह मजार: श्रावस्ती में घरों की छत पर लहरा रहे इस्लामी झंडे, OpIndia Ground Report

The same report can be read here in English: Steady rise in mazars and madarsas adjoining Buddhist places of worship in UP’s Shravasti near Indo-Nepal border: Ground report

The fifth report in this series can be read here in Hindi: महाराणा प्रताप के साथ लड़ी थारू जनजाति बहुल गाँव में 3 मस्जिद, 1 मदरसा: भारत-नेपाल सीमा पर बढ़ती मुस्लिम आबादी का ये है ‘पैटर्न’ – OpIndia Ground Report

The same report can be read here in English: Rising number of mosques, madarsa along Indo-Nepal border: Ground report on Islamisation of village of Tharu tribe that fought along Maharana Pratap

The sixth report in this series can be read here in Hindi: बौद्ध-जैन मंदिरों के बीच दरगाह बनाई, जिस मजार को पुलिस ने किया ध्वस्त… वो फिर चकमकाई: नेपाल सीमा पर बढ़ती मुस्लिम आबादी – OpIndia Ground Report

The same report can be read here in English: Dargah and mazar built around Buddhist and Jain temple premises, illegal mazar once demolished surfaces again: UP’s Shravasti near Nepal border