Factors behind under-representation of Muslims in Bihar
By Syed Ali Mujtaba
Bihar is one state in India, which is still a ‘Dark Continent’ for many people residing in Bihar. The geographical unity that is explicit in other states is missing in Bihar.
Bihar is still divided on the basis of regions: Semanchal, Mithilanchal, Magadh and other such nomenclatures. Bihar is also divided based on language, Bhojpuri, Maithili, and other dialects of Hindi spoken in the other regions.
Then the big divide is North and South Bihar. While North Bihar has a larger number of assembly seats, the fulcrum of power resides in South Bihar. This is because North Bihar is prone to floods and remains underdeveloped; South Bihar, due to the historical baggage, dominates the entire landmass of Bihar.
As a result, Bihar lacks its true identity, and people living there have boxed themselves in whichever identity they find convenient for the daily struggle of life.
Muslim identity lies buried in the rubble of Bihar, which faces such a deep identity crisis. No one has ever attempted to cement such an identity and forge a common identity, and that is the bane of Bihar.
In such a maze of identity crisis, Muslims’ political identity is buried, and there is none to bring out the religious identity of the Muslims and tell them that with 18% demographic strength, Muslims can hold a lion’s share if the sphere of political power if they can play the game of numbers in the electoral democracy of Bihar.
As a result, in a state where Muslims can easily score half a century and with some social engineering, they can even touch 75 seats; their number is constantly and currently held at only 19 seats in the outgoing assembly.
The under-representation of Muslims in Bihar is a chronic illness, and someone has to take up this challenge and guide the people on how to deal with the under-representation in the state assembly.
Here, an attempt is made to map out Muslim assembly constituencies in Bihar. This is done by pulling out the data from the 2011 census. It is assumed that the decadal population growth has pushed the percentage of Muslims in each constituency much higher than it was in 2011. Here is the list of the 243 assembly constituencies in the 38 districts of Bihar, where the percentage of Muslims is listed in descending order.
1- Kishangang District – 1-Bahadurganj 2- Thakurganj 3- Kishanganj 4- Kochadhaman are four assembly constituencies where Muslims are 68 %.
2- Katihar District- 1- Katihar 2- Kadwa 3- Balrampur 4- Pranpur 4-Manihari (ST) 5- Barari 6-Korha (SC) are six assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 44.47 %.
3- Araria District: 1- Narpatganj 2- Raniganj (SC) 3. Forbesganj 4-Araria 5- Jokihat 6- Sikti are six assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 42.95 %.
4- Purnia District: 1-Amour 2- Kasba 3- Banmankhi (SC) 4- Rupauli 5- Dhamdaha 6 –Purnia are six assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 38.46 %.
5- Darbhanga District: – 1- Kusheshwar Asthan (SC) 2- Gaura Bauram 3- Benipur 4- Alinagar 5- Darbhanga Rural 6- Darbhanga 7- Hayaghat 8- Bahadurpur 9-Keoti 10- Jale are ten assembly constituencies where Muslim population is 22.39 %.
6- West Champaran District: – 1- Valmiki Nagar 2- Ramnagar (SC) 3- Narkatiaganj 4- Bagaha 5- Lauriya 6- Nautan 7-Chanpatia 8-Bettiah 9-Sikta are nine assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 22%.
7- Sitamarhi District: 1- Riga 2-Bathnaha (SC) 3- Parihar 4- Sursand 5- Bajpatti 6- Sitamarhi 7- Runnisaidpur 8- Belsand are eight assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 21.62 %.
8- East Champaran District: 1- Raxaul 2- Sugauli 3- Narkatiagang 4- Harsidhi (SC) 5- Govindganj 6- Kesaria 7- Kalyanpur 8- Pipra 9- Madhuban 10-Motihari 11- Chiraia 12-Dhaka are 12 constituencies where the Muslim population is 19.42 %.
9- Siwan District-– Siwan 2- Ziradei 3- Darauli (SC) 4- Raghunathpur 5- Daraundha 6- Barharia 7- Goriakothi 8- Maharajganj are eight assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 18.26%.
10- Bhagalpur District: 1- Bihpur 2- -Gopalpur 3- Pirpainti (SC) 4- Kahalgaon 5- Bhagalpur 6- Sultanganj 7- Nathnagar are 7 constituencies where the Muslim population is 17.68 %.
11- Supaul District: -Nirmali 2 Pipra 3 Supau 4 Triveniganj (SC) 5 Chhatapur are five assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 18.36 %.
12-Madhubani District: 1- Harlakhi 2- Benipatti 3- Khajauli 4- Babubarhi 5 -Bisfi 6- Madhubani 7- Rajnagar (SC) 8- Jhanjharpur 9 -Phulparas 10 Laukaha is ten assembly constituencies where Muslim population is 18.25 %.
13-Gopalganj District: – Baikunthpur 2- Barauli 3- Gopalganj 4- Kuchaikote 5- Bhorey (SC) 6- Hathua are six assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 17.02 %.
14- Muzafarpur Districts: 1 -Gaighat 2- Aurai 3- Minapur 4- Bochaha (SC) 5- Sakra (SC) 6- Kurhani 7- Muzaffarpur 8- Kanti 9- Baruraj 10-Paroo 11- Sahebganj are eleven assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 15.53 %.
15- Saharsa District: Sonbarsha (SC) 2- Saharsa 3- Simri Bakhtiarpur 4-Mahishi are four assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 14.03 %.
16- Begusarai District: -1- Cheria Bariarpur 2-Bachhwara 3-Teghra 4-Matihani 5-Sahebpur Kamal 6-Begusarai 7-Bakhri (SC) are seven assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 13.71 %.
17- Sheohar District has only one assembly constituency where Muslim population is 13.43%.
18 – Banka District: 1--Amarpur 2- Dhauraiya (SC) 3- Banka 4- Katoria (ST) 5-Belhar are four assembly constituency where the Muslim population is 12.33 %.
19 – Madhepura District- 1- Madhepura 2- Alamnagar 3-Bihariganj 4- Singheshwar (SC) are four assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 12.08 %.
20- Jammui District: 1- Sikandra (SC) 2- -Jammui 3-Jhajha 4-Chakai are 4 assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 12.36%.
21- Gaya District: 1-Gurua 2-Sherghati 3 Imamganj (SC) 4- -Barachatti (SC) 5-Bodh Gaya (SC) 6-Gaya Town 7-Tikari 8-Belaganj are 8 assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 11.12 %.
22- Nawada District: 1- Rajauli (SC) 2-Hisua 3-Nawada 4-Gobindpur 5-Warsaliganj is 5 assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 11.01 %.
23- Saran District: – 1- Ekma 2- Manjhi 3- Baniapur 4- Taraiya 5- Marhaura 6- Chapra 6- Garkha (SC) 7- Amnour 8- Parsa 9 – Sonepur are nine assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 10.28 %.
24- Samastipur District: 1- Kalyanpur (SC) 2-Warisnagar 3-Samastipur 4-Ujiarpur 5-Morwa 6-Sarairanjan 7-Mohiuddinnagar 8-Bibhutipur 9-Rosera (SC) are nine assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 10.62 %.
25-Khagaria District: 1- Alauli (SC) 2- Khagaria 3- Beldaur 4- Parbatta are four assembly constituencies where Muslim population is 10.53 %.
26- Rohtas District: – 1- Chenari (SC) 2-Sasaram 3-Kargahar 4-Dinara 5-Nokha 6-Dehri 7-Karakat are seven assembly constituencies where the Muslim population in is 10.15 %.
27- Vaishali District: – 1- Hajipur 2- Lalganj 3- Vaishali 4- Mahua 5- Raja Pakar (SC) 6- Raghopur 7- Mahnar 8 Patepur (SC) are eight assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 9.56 %.
28- Kaimur (Bhabuha) District: 1- Ramgarh 2-Mohania (SC) 3-Bhabua are three constituencies where Muslim population is 9.55 %.
29- Aurangabad District: 1–Goh 2-Obra 3-Nabinagar 4-Kutumba (SC) 5-Aurangabad 6-Rafiganj are six assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 9.34 %.
30- Arwal District: 1- Arwal 2-Kurtha are two assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 9.17 %.
31- Munger District – 1- Munger 2-Jamalpur 4-Tarapur are three assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 8.7 %.
32- Patna District – 1- Mokama 2-Barh 3-Bakhtiarpur 4-Digha 5 Bankipur 6-Kumhrar 7-Patna Sahib 8-Fatuha 9-Danapur 10-Maner 11-Phulwari (SC) 12-Masaurhi (SC) 13-Paliganj 14-Bikram are fourteen assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 7.54 %.
33- Bhojpur District – 1-Sandesh 2-Barhara 3-Arrah 4-Agiaon (SC) 5-Tarari 6- Jagdishpur 7-Shahpur are seven constituencies where the Muslim population is 7.25 %.
34- Jahanabad District: 1-Jehanabad 2-Ghosi 3-Makhdumpur (SC) are three assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 6.73 %.
35- Nalanda district: 1-Asthawan 2-Biharshari 3-Rajgir (SC) 4-Islampur 5-Hilsa 6-Nalanda 7-Harnaut are seven assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 6.88 %.
36- Buxar District- 1-Brahampur 2-Buxar 3 Dumraon 4-Rajpur (SC) are 4 assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 6.18 %.
37- Sheikhpura District – 1-Sheikhpura 2-Barbigha are two assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 5.92 %.
38- Lakhisarai- 1-Lakhisarai 2- Suryagarha are 2 assembly constituencies where the Muslim population is 4.08%.
The inference drawn from the above statistics is that Muslims have to first know their demographic strength and weaknesses. It is after those assessments that they have to make a strategy to go to the electoral battlefield and play the game numbers with the resolve that’s its fight for “do or die”.
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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com