Inflation, CAA-NRC, targeted violence: Why are Bihar’s Muslim voters anxious?

Between master strokes and criticism, the last 10 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government have been marked by religious polarisation and increasing Islamophobia.  

A spate of communal incidents have come to define the decade: From a Muslim MP being subjected to communal slur in the house to mob lynchings, riots, rise of anti-Muslim Hindutva pop, and increasing violence against Muslims in the name of “gau raksha”, or cow protection.   

The community, which makes up about 20 crore Indians and was once considered a kingmaker, has been recording its lowest electoral representation in the Modi era. In 2014, a total of 23 Muslim MPs were elected to the Lok Sabha, but not even one from the BJP. This number marginally improved to 25 after the 2019 polls, still lower than the period before Modi.      

Bihar, one of the most backward states in India, comprises 17.7 percent Muslims and 81.99 percent Hindus. Out of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats, 31 have Hindu population of more than 40 percent and nine have more than 20 percent people from the Muslim community. The latter are mainly divided into three castes: Surajpuri, Shershahbadi and Kulhaiya.

In the 2019 polls, the NDA alliance won all the Hindu-dominated seats and eight out of nine Muslim-dominated constituencies. The RJD-Congress alliance had won only one seat, Kishanganj.

Newslaundry spoke to the locals of the flood-prone Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region, which has four Lok Sabha constituencies: Kishanganj with 68 percent Muslims, Araria with 43 percent, Katihar with 45 percent, and Purnia with 39 percent.  

Besides unemployment and price rise woes, Muslim locals told Newslaundry there is a haunting fear of targeted violence, and the fear of being relegated to a “second class citizen” after the implementation of laws promised by the BJP, such as the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Uniform Civil Code. What do Muslims in rural hinterlands think about Asaduddin Owaisi? Will they choose their own leadership in the country?

Watch.