Images of undocumented Indians being shackled in chains on a military deportation flight from the United States flooded India’s airwaves in February. The shocking images revealed the devastating effects that President Donald Trump’s draconian crackdown on “illegal immigration” would have had on thousands of vulnerable Indian citizens who had fought in vain to enter the country.
During a demonstration outside the New Delhi parliament, opposition lawmakers wore handcuffs, including Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Indian National Congress. They demanded that the Indian prime minister discuss this with the US president ahead of Narendra Modi’s White House visit.
However, Modi responded to questions about the deportations by stating that his government, which was led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was “fully prepared to bring back illegal immigrants.” He continued, “India’s young, afflicted, and poor people are tricked into immigration.” These kids come from very ordinary families, drawn to big dreams and big promises. Many are brought in by a human-trafficking system without understanding their purpose.
The leader of a Hindu nationalist regime known for its muscular jingoism found this response unusually meek and endearing. With ongoing negotiations regarding reciprocal tariffs, it seems as though Modi was merely trying to avoid a Volodymyr Zelenskyy-style bust-up with Trump. Although this may be true, it is also crucial to keep in mind that both Trump and Modi are on the same page regarding immigration.
Modi rely on lofty ideas and claims about the country, just like his American counterpart. The BJP government’s bombastic assertions about India’s economic health are among them.
The Indian economy is currently experiencing a troubling slowdown, but inequality is a more persistent issue that needs to be addressed. The top 1% of the nation’s most populous nation account for 40.1% of the wealth. India was the third-largest country in the world by the end of 2024, behind only China and the US. It also contributed to a whopping 70% of the global rise in extreme poverty. India has the highest population (234 million people) who live in extreme poverty.
This ominous reality manifests itself in the US as undocumented Indian migrants. Their exact numbers are subject to variations. At the end of 2022, according to estimates from the Pew Research Center, there were 700,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US, making Indians the third-largest undocumented population group after Mexicans and Salvadoris. According to the Department of Homeland Security, India has 220 000 undocumented immigrants.
This group of undocumented people, regardless of the population’s exact size, disproves the rosy image of a Hindu nationalist-dominated economic powerhouse. This is why Modi is so eager to end this “illegal immigration” saga as quickly as possible. He opposes any conflict with Trump over how the undocumented migrants are treated, which would highlight the flaws in the Indian nation’s rising image.
However, it is not unusual to hear a Trump-like anti-immigration discourse in a Hindu nationalist India. The Indian right has been routinely bringing up the issue of a rumored scourge of undocumented migration, especially from Bangladesh, for a while.
Kiren Rijiju, the then-Minister of State for Home Affairs, claimed there were “20 million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in India” in 2016. Amit Shah, the home minister, reported that the nation had more than 40 million illegal immigrants in 2018. Right-wing politicians added that there are now close to 50 million undocumented immigrants in India in 2023.
These figures lack any actual proof to support them.
These assertions about the existence of a secretive, Muslim undocumented population, however, have a powerful impact on Hindu nationalists in India and fit well with an Islamophobic discourse about a Hindu nation facing an existential threat from its neighbors.
Right-wing politicians in India can lay blame on the undocumented “outsider” for the economic plight of the country’s economically underprivileged by making unsupported claims about the threat of “illegal immigration” from Bangladesh. According to Shah, “They]Bangladeshi immigrants are eating the grain that belongs to the poor.” In another instance, Shah has referred to undocumented immigrants as “termites” and “infiltrators” who needed to be relocated. Shah also promised that the BJP government would “pick up infiltrators one by one and throw them into the Bay of Bengal” while campaigning in 2019.
These unsupported assertions also stoke Hindu nationalists’ concern that a Hindu nation will face a demographic challenge. For instance, Ashwini Upadhyay, the leader of the BJP’s Delhi division, claimed that the Hindu population’s majority status was in danger during a TV interview.
He claimed that “illegals,” “Muslim] Rohingyas,” and “[Muslim] coverts” were diluting India’s status as a “Hindu nation.”
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar also claimed that “illegal immigration” was eroding “demographics” in similar vein. He noted that this cohort was undermining democracy by gaining “electoral relevance,” undermining the country’s health and education sectors, and denying citizens’ employment opportunities. He also warned that these “demographic invasions” would harm the Hindu ethnic identity if left unchecked.
Finally, it’s a common adage in India that “illegal migration” is synonymous with crime. Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar stated in a statement to the lower house of the Indian parliament that “illegal mobility and migration have many other related activities that are also of an illegal nature.” Authorities in India have also claimed that there is a “well-oiled” criminal network that assists undocumented migrants gain residency, employment, fake birth certificates, and eventually voting rights, while Jaishankar here was referring to undocumented Indian migrants in the US. This has resulted in police searches and deportations aimed at Bangladeshis and Rohingya in a manner similar to Trump’s.
Bengali-speaking Muslims from India are frequently the target of these raids. A study conducted a few years ago discovered that more Bangladeshis were emigrating than entering. None of this is relevant in the era of the rise of the right, though. It’s always the shady outsider who is to blame for problems in the nation, whether it’s Trump’s US or Modi’s India.
This mindset fuels the anti-immigration wave in both India and the US. In India, it provided the justification for laws banning Muslims from obtaining Indian citizenship, such as the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act.
Modi won’t run the risk of hurting his relationship with Trump by supporting the rights of undocumented Indians in the US. His views on immigration are the same as Trump’s, and he only harbors contempt for undocumented people, even if they are Indian citizens.
Source: Aljazeera
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