Myths about Muslims, overheard

At some point in the evening in a lull after dinner someone asked a question about the direction in which the country was headingMark you everyone was everyonersquos friend with decades of camaraderie and shared memories so there was no immediate danger of homicide or blunt force trauma However within minutes the temperature pressure and gravity around the dining table were noticeably different Battle lines were drawn and everyone had fixed their bayonets ready to chargeThe host choosing his words carefully said ldquoNarendra Modi is the most effective efficient and goaldriven manager I have ever seen in my entire life He has a clear vision for the country and the last ten years are a testament to the sweeping changes he has brought about through his focus and disciplinerdquoInfrastructure was mentioned including superhighways and gleaming new airports the end of corruption at the higher levels the rise in Indiarsquos global stature as a superpower and the restoration of national pride The reclamation of Kashmir ldquotaking back of whatrsquos oursrdquo the firm handling of Muslims and the reversal of years of alleged inequities against Hindus by Muslims were brought upMatching heat for heat the other side argued that Indiarsquos culture of secularism and acceptance of diversity was being replaced by permission to hate a climate of fear among the media intolerance of open speech and criticism and the demonisation of MuslimsNo gain without some pain came the response If a Muslim or two was unfortunately killed in a WhatsApp lynching or a colony or two had been bulldozed let us remember that deep change is neither quick nor easy Mistakes will be madeNeither side was ready to yield an inch as in all such discussions these daysSeveral factual assertions that were made about Muslimsmdashmost of them common tropes and none particularly originalmdashfelt indigestible to me I have selected three ldquofactsrdquo that I thought deserved closer scrutinymdash1 Muslims will soon overtake Hindus After Independence the argument went they were only three per cent of the population now theyrsquore closer to 40 per cent in some places with an average of around 24 per cent2 Muslims proliferate because they have large families and procreate rapidly This is why they will rapidly become the dominant community3 Hindu girls are being forcibly married off to Muslim men in Kerala and shipped off to the Middle East I was told to see The Kerala Story a movie that explained what was going onI present below the most elementary of factchecks of these ldquofactsrdquoSTATEMENT Only three per cent of the country was Muslim after Independence now theyrsquore close to 40 per cent Nope No one knows how many Muslims there were in India at Independence because the first national census only happened four years later According to the 1951 census however the number of Muslims in India was not three per cent as claimed around the dinner table but 98 per cent Hindus made up 841 per cent of the countryHow had those numbers changed around the 2011 census the latest one available Hindus made up almost 80 per cent of India 798 per cent to be exact Muslims have registered a modest increase to 1423 per cent up from 98 In brief the share of the Muslim population grew by 44 per cent while that of Hindus dropped by 43 per cent over 60 years I leave it to you to decide if that should be interpreted as a sign of Islamic creep and takeoverSTATEMENT Muslims have large families and proliferate rapidly Across India the Total Fertility Rate TFR or the average number of children per woman has been dropping since 1951 Across all regions and sectors it dipped below the replacement rate of 21 by 2021Among Hindus TFR dropped from 33 to 19 between 1992 and 2019 and among Muslims from 44 to 24 in the same period In other words both Hindus and Muslims have smaller families today than 60 years ago with Muslims having a slight edge I leave it to you to decide if a 05 difference in the fertility rate is a sign that Muslims are going to overrun IndiaAnother study in 2018 found that in districts where Muslim fertility was high so was Hindu fertility Conversely where one was low so was the other suggesting that religion had nothing to do with itSTATEMENT 32000 Hindu girls were forcibly married off to Muslims and forced to join ISIS This fact gained prominence from the trailer of The Kerala Story which claimed that ldquolove jihadrdquo was forcibly turning thousands of Hindu womenMuslim In 2018 the Supreme Court directed the National Investigation Agency to probe the love jihad aspect of a case The NIA found no evidence that any forcible conversion had occurredMeanwhile the 11 Indian states that had enacted laws by 2021 to nullify interfaith marriages done solely for religious conversion have yet to report a single case The US Department of State too has countered stating that they had counted only 66 Indianorigin fighters in ISIS not 32000The Kerala High Court looked into the matter Shortly afterwards the filmmaker quietly revised the moviersquos trailer replacing 32000 withmdash3You can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper