- Muslims account for 25.36% of the population
- 11 Muslims among 151 governors
- Three Muslims among 114 CMs
- Four Muslims among 79 chief justices
- Four Muslims out of 139 high court judges
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – The representation of Muslims in governments and administrations in the eight northeastern states, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim. These states are home to 3.76-plus percent of India’s population and have a combined GDP of Rs7,835 billion.
With a unique Himalayan landscape, the region constitutes 7.97 percent of the country’s total geographical area, and close to one-fourth of India’s forest cover. Most of the 89 lakh Muslims in the region are in Assam, the third-highest percentage of the Muslim population in the country. As per the Census 2011, Muslims in the region account for 25.36 percent against the national norm of 14.23 percent, according to a new book, Muslims in India – 1947-2024 – Fake Narratives Versus Ground Realities.
Assam has a significantly high proportion of Muslims at 34.22%, followed by Tripura (8.60%), Manipur (8.40%), Meghalaya (4.40%), Arunachal Pradesh (1.95 %) and Mizoram (1.35%). Muslims in Sikkim account for 1.62 percent of the total population or about 9,870 people. Muslims in Nagaland are over 48,000 or 2.47 percent of the total population. Three states have majority Christian populations – Nagaland (90%), Mizoram (87%), and Meghalaya (70%).
The region, connected to five countries – Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, and Nepal by a 4,500-kilometre international border, had a total population of around 45.5 million, very sparsely populated compared to the other states. Assam and Tripura are the most densely populated states while Arunachal Pradesh is the least densely populated. Over 64 percent of the land area in the region is forested. With a few exceptions, the region continues to be mired in acute under-development and staggering levels of poverty. Its economy faces challenges including poor infrastructure, low productivity, limited market access, a narrow industrial base, and slowly improving connectivity.
The region has been facing increasing challenges and pressures emanating from its ethnic diversity, ethnonationalism, and disturbing socio-political scene. The region continues to witness ethnic violence, extremism, and insurgency at varying levels, next only to Jammu and Kashmir in terms of volatility and insurgency. The region is characterised by extraordinary ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic diversity.
A year before Meghalaya became the fifth state in the northeast, the Union government decided to set up the North Eastern Council (NEC) in 1971 – it started functioning a year later – as the nodal agency for the economic and social development of the region, by an Act of Parliament. Over the past half a century, NEC has been working for a faster pace of economic development by removing the “basic handicaps” that stood in the way of normal development of the region. Strangely, not a single Muslim is among the 23 officials at the NEC headed by secretary-rank officials.
The Union government, recognising that the region faced “geographical isolation, inadequate infrastructure, and limited economic opportunities”, established the Department of Development of the North Eastern Region in September 2001 and three years later elevated it to a full-fledged ministry. The Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region functions as the nodal organisation to deal with matters related to the NE’s socio-economic development. It is the only ministry in India’s history with territorial jurisdiction. Currently, out of a total of 16 chief nodal officers and nodal officers, there is only one Muslim – Dr Mohammed Nazmuddin, a Joint Secretary in Mizoram, who is among the two Muslims out of 68 officials including the secretary.
The Union government has, since 1998-99, earmarked 10 percent of the annual budgets of 52 ministries to address the region’s development deficit. A World Bank blog says long delays at borders, congested roads, and limited connectivity have been a familiar constraint in the region’s growth, restricting trade, economic activities, and overall development. It noted: “The North East has stood out for its lack of connectivity. Its only connection to the rest of India hinges on the narrow (22-kilometre) Siliguri Corridor which makes the routes and roads for trade unnecessarily long, leading to higher consumer prices.”
The Economic and Political Weekly noted in a report in December 2006: “The North East is characterised by widespread conflicts that are related to the geography of the region, the multiethnicity of its population, and the political and economic feeding grounds of discontent. The conflict dynamics range from insurgency for secession and autonomy, from sponsored terrorism to ethnic clashes to conflicts generated as a result of a continuous inflow of migrants from across the borders of the country.”
Muslims in the NE region have not been given opportunities to have a fair share of representation in government and administration.
The 151 governors that the eight states had till now include 11 Muslims – four in Manipur including a woman; three in Assam and one each in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura. The eight states had seen a total of 114 chief ministers of whom three had been Muslims – Anwara Taimur in Assam way back in 1980 and Mohammed Alimuddin in Manipur twice in 1972 and 1974. None of the 10 deputy chief ministers in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura had been Muslim.
The number of speakers and deputy speakers of legislative assemblies in the eight states stands at 112, of whom one had been a Muslim in Assam in 1979; two in Manipur in 1974 and 2005; and one in Meghalaya in 2013. Deputy speakers numbered a total of 68, including four in Assam and one in Tripura in 1963. Between 1947 and 2022, high courts in five states had a total of 79 chief justices, of which four had been Muslims – two in Meghalaya and one each in Sikkim and Tripura. The total number of judges stood at 139, of whom only four had been Muslims – all at Guwahati. Only three NE cities have mayors out of a total of 49.
One out of 17 mayors of Guwahati had been a Muslim – Mohammed Abdul Majid in 2006. In Tripura, Agartala had also seen a Muslim – Arman Ali Munshi – in 1950 out of a total of 31. Gangtok in Sikkim had seen only a lone mayor till now. All the chairpersons and secretaries/CEOs of Wakf Boards in Manipur and Meghalaya had been Muslims – a total of 40. All the 21 chairpersons in Assam had been Muslims while 23 out of 25 secretaries/CEOs were Muslims. In Tripura, two out of 14 chairpersons had been non-Muslims while one out of 18 secretaries/CEOS had been a non-Muslim.
The total number of MBBS doctors registered until 2022 with seven State Medical Councils stands at 29,499, with Assam’s share being 24,289. Out of this figure, only 779 are Muslims. There are no Muslim doctors in Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland. Sikkim and Tripura had 33 and 22 Muslim doctors, respectively. Arunachal Pradesh had four Muslim doctors. Only Manipur in the region has Ayurveda and Unani practitioners but no one pursued homeopathy as has been the case with Mizoram. While no Muslim is an Ayurveda practitioner, all the five Unani practitioners are Muslims. However, six out of eight states have homeopathy practitioners – a total of 1,952.
No Muslims are currently heading the human rights commissions that seven states had nor are there Muslims among their 23 members, secretaries, registrars, or senior administration officials. The eight State Public Service Commissions have seen a total of 119 chairpersons, of whom two were Muslims, one in Assam and Meghalaya in 1984 and 1972, respectively. Out of a total of 232 of their members, only 22 had been Muslims – 18 in Assam including a woman, three in Meghalaya, and one in Manipur.
In seven states that have State Women’s Commissions, none was headed by a Muslim out of a total of 35, with the highest of nine in Assam. Only three Muslims have been members out of a total of 129 – one in Assam and two in Tripura. The oldest Women’s Commissions dates back to 1993 in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Manipur. No Muslim had been the head of the prosecution, advocate-general, or additional advocate-general in any of the eight states. Twenty-nine Muslims are currently among 597 district prosecuting officers (DPOs) in seven states. Sikkim has no DPOs altogether.
Out of the total of 519 executive chairpersons, secretaries, members, and senior officials with the Legal Services Authorities, six states had no Muslim in their ranks. However, Muslims are 213 out of 2,001 in four states – Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura. As per the Civil Lists of 2023 in six states, as many as 56 are Muslims in Assam and Meghalaya’s Administrative Service officials. Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura have a total of 759 officials with no Muslims on the rolls. Only Assam and Meghalaya had a total of 37 Muslim officials in their police services which have 532 and 111 officers, respectively. As many as 570 officials are there in Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura.
There are no Muslim officials in the labour departments in all the eight NE states out of a total of 203 including the principal secretaries and directors. There are only six Muslims in the management teams of the departments of commercial taxes out of 900 in Assam and three in Manipur. There are a total of 132 officials without any Muslims in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura. Only one Muslim official exists in the revenue departments of seven states – in Assam out of 15. A total of 208 officials are there in Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Mizoram, of whom no one is a Muslim.
There are only 19 Muslims in the management and inspection teams of the excise/prohibition department out of 203 officials in Assam. Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, and Mizoram have a total of 204 officials, with Mizoram alone having 167 officers. In the departments of excise/prohibition that Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, and Mizoram have, only Assam had Muslims – 19 out of 203. None of the 204 officers has a Muslim among them in Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, and Mizoram.
Twenty-six officials are working in the anti-corruption departments/bureaus in four states – Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, and Meghalaya. Only Assam had a lone Muslim among six officials. Out of 22 officials in Nagaland, Manipur, and Meghalaya, none is a Muslim. No Muslim had headed the vigilance and anti-corruption offices in four states – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, and Sikkim – out of a total of 56. Only one is a Muslim among the 48 chief election officers (CEOs) and other senior officials for the parliament/assembly polls duties. Out of a total of 210 electoral registration officers (EROs), only two are Muslims – in Assam. Only one is a Muslim in Tripura among 16 deputy election officers (DEOs) and deputy DEOs.
Out of 129 DEOs and deputy DEOs in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura, there is no Muslim. Meghalaya has no DEOs at all. Assam tops for having the maximum of 144 Muslim officials out of 849 in its Public Works Department followed by Tripura with eight out of 431. There is only one Muslim among 316 officials in Arunachal Pradesh and another Muslim out of 38 in Meghalaya. There is no Muslim among 30 officials in Nagaland, 787 in Sikkim, 132 in Mizoram, and Manipur’s 97. The Public Works Departments in eight states have on their rolls a total of 2,680 officers, including 154 Muslims, of whom 144 are in Assam. Nagaland, Sikkim, Mizoram, and Manipur have no Muslim working in their departments.
The NE states have a total of 579 senior officials at their Forest Departments, of whom only two are Muslims – in Meghalaya out of 39. Only two states – Assam and Tripura – have Road Transport Corporations (RTCs) whose total numbers of senior officials stand at 32, of whom two are Muslims. There are two Muslims among 27 officials in the Assam State Road Transport Corporation – one of the two NE states to have RTCs. Tripura has five officials which include no Muslim. No Muslim had been a Lok Ayukta or Upa Lok Ayukta in any of the eight states out of a total of 18 and seven, respectively. Only Assam and Nagaland had Upa Lok Ayutaks. No Muslim is in the 218 senior staff they have as of now.
There has been a total of 185 Directors General of Police in eight states till now including four Muslims in Assam (last in 1975); two in Manipur (last in 2016); one in Meghalaya in 1974 and one in Tripura in 2010. In the eight NE states, the number of martyrs of the State Police Forces stands at 1,339, of which Sikkim had the lowest and Assam had the highest. There were no Muslims among the martyrs in Arunachal Pradesh (39); Mizoram (57), Nagaland (371), and Sikkim (20). There were 47 Muslims among 408 martyrs Assam had till now; 15 in Manipur out of 169; four out of 127 in Meghalaya, and nine out of 148 in Tripura.
Only one Muslim – Aftab Ahmed Ali – figured among 11 officials who headed the North East Police Academy set up for Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura in July 1978. Tripura’s facility had seen a total of 10 chiefs, with no Muslim as its head. No Muslim had been the head of Police Housing and Welfare Corporations in four states that had this set up – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland, the first to have in NE in 1968. A total of 51 senior police officials headed them.
The number of Muslim SPs in NE police forces has been very negligible. Arunachal Pradesh had 237 SPs in its history in its 26 districts. Assam’s 354 SPs in 32 districts include a lone Muslim, Imdad Ali, appointed in 2021. Dibrugarh, Assam’s oldest police district, had seen a total of 17 SPs. There have been only five Muslim SPs in Manipur out of a total of 110. Mizoram had no Muslims among the 110 SPs it had in its history. Meghalaya had a total of five Muslims as SPs out of a total of 155. Nagaland had a single Muslim as SP out of 90 it had till date. Sikkim had 50 SPs with no Muslims on the rolls. In Tripura, two were Muslims among the 45 SPs in had so far.
There are a total of 762 IAS officers belonging to the NE cadre, of which 19 are Muslims – Sikkim has no Muslim official. Among the 646 IPS officers, 17 are Muslims with Tripura and Sikkim having none. Only four are Muslims out of 343 Indian Forest Service (IFS) officials – two each in Assam and Meghalaya and two in AGMIT cadres, with four states having no Muslim officers. Out of eight states, only two – Assam and Meghalaya – had Muslims as District and Session judges in their history. Assam had 57 Muslims among the total of 496 while Meghalaya had two Muslims among 42.
All of the 22 district judges in Arunachal Pradesh have been non-Muslims as had been the case in Mizoram (36). Data for other states are not available. Six Muslims are among 103 pro bono lawyers numbering 71 in Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim; 21 in Manipur; five in Meghalaya, and six in Tripura.
Out of the 390 MLAs that Arunachal Pradesh had in its eight legislative assembly polls since 1978, none were Muslims. In Assam, the count of Muslims at 351 out of 1,791 MLAS that it had in assembly polls since 1951. Manipur had 30 Muslims among its 660 MLAs since 1967. Meghalaya had 18 Muslims among its 600 MLAs since 1972. Mizoram had no Muslims among its 410 MLAs chosen since 1972. Two Muslims were among the 740 MLAs that Nagaland had since 1964. Sikkim selected 3,200 MLAs since 1974 excluding a Muslim. In the 12 polls that Tripura had since 1967, it had 690 MLAs, of whom 23 were Muslims.
In Arunachal Pradesh, there had been no Muslim among the 17 vice-chancellors at its only central university. In eight state universities, only one had been a Muslim among the 17 vice-chancellors – Apex Professional University’s Dr. Mohammed Basha Mohiuddin.
No Muslim has been among the 13 vice-chancellors at Assam’s two Central universities. The same was the case with 69 V-Cs that the 17 state universities had in the state with one-third of its population being Muslims, the highest in the NE. No Muslim had been a vice-chancellor in Manipur’s two central universities which had 21 V-Cs and six at four state universities. Meghalaya too had no Muslim V-C among the 25 that its three central universities had or among the six Mizoram’s lone state university had till now. The same had been the case at Nagaland’s two universities which had a total of eight V-Cs till now; no Muslims among the 15 V-Cs that Sikkim’s four universities had or the 15 V-Cs among the three that Tripura had.
To obtain more data, please read the book
Muslims in India 1947-2024 eBook : Abdul Mannan, Mohammed
Author Email Contact – mannan1964@yahoo.com
