BOOK- The Population Myth: Islam, Family Planning and Politics in India ( S Y Quraishi)
Uses data to assert that Muslims can never outnumber Hindus in keeping with the trend of last 70 years. Studies should Muslims open to the concept of family planning and fare better than many Hindu sections on the topic of birth spacing.
More than religion, factors affecting birth rates are- literacy, age of marriage, exposure to mass media, and economic conditions. All communities in India are polygamous, trend least among Muslims.
The total fertility rate for Muslim women has been falling steadily since 1992-93 (NFHS-1), and the gap between Muslim TFR and Hindu TFR has narrowed down significantly. TFR is the number of children that a woman on average gives birth to during her reproductive years. While TFR for Hindus declined from 3.3 to 2.1 between 1992-93 and 2015-16, TFR for Muslims declined from 4.4 to 2.6.
Quraishi writes about the holy books Quran and the Hadith, in the book, to show how Islam may have been one of the first religions in the world to advocate family planning where the parents might not be able to provide for the children,
Interviews, excerpts and reviews:
https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/books/review-the-population-myth-islam-family-planning-and-politics-in-india-by-s-y-quraishi/cid/1812720 https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/interviewsy-quraishi-author-the-population-myth-islam-family-planning-and-politics-in-india-101613741759641.html
ARTICLE- Toxic Myths About Muslims Are Putting India on the Road to Ruin (Anoop Sadanandan)
The three forms in which this population anxiety become manifested- ‘hum paanch’ (Muslim man and four wives- the myth of extensive polygamy), ‘humhare paanch’ (muslims reproduce in hoards), love jihad (muslims trick hindu women into conversion to increase population). polygamy exists only among a minuscule fraction – 0.66% – of married Muslim men, and to almost an equal extent among Hindu men, 0.45%. In the 2011 tally of women who had children in the preceding year, some 47,000 Muslim women had more than five children compared with the 1.2 million Hindu women.
If “countless Hindu girls” had converted to Islam, then the number of young Hindu women in the 2011 census should have declined relative to their number in the 2001 census, and the number of young Muslim women should have registered a concomitant increase. Both Hindus and Muslims show decline in the number of young women, with a sharper drop in the minority group.
https://thewire.in/communalism/toxic-myths-about-muslims-are-fueling-indias-road-to-ruin
ARTICLE- Six steps to build an anti-Islamophobic movement (Asim Ali)
India needs anti-islamophobic movement similar to anti-caste movement. Steps: recognizing the extent of India’s Islamophobia problem, building Muslim visibility, transforming the way Muslims are represented in popular culture, changing the language used by media while reporting anti-muslim crimes to shine light on the larger problem of islamophobia, inspiring well-intentioned majority community members to begin the process of fighting islamophobia within their family and social circles, the emergence of a powerful muslim intelligensia.
ARTICLE- Higher mortality rates in Hindus vs superior survival rates of Muslims: A data analysis (Amna Meraj)
muslim-hindu survival differential- By age five, the Muslim advantage over Hindus is about 17% of baseline mortality risk.- socio-economic status is not the main player.
Female foeticide- around 5 lakh girls lost every year; sex-selective abortion started earlier and remains more prevalent amongst Hindus. Muslim women have healthier BMI. Hindu women were often undernourished than Muslim women (37% against 32%). Muslim mothers eat meat, eggs and even dairy products way more than Hindu mothers- giving advantage to both male and female offsprings. - evidence points to a persistent Muslim Survival “fixed effect”, puzzling demographers world over. Religious tenets on hygiene, abstinence from alcohol etc contributes to better health, along with lower prevalance of open defecation etc.
http://twocircles.net/2021feb04/440855.html
Full study:
https://ideas.repec.org/p/bri/cmpowp/08-185.html
TV STORY- Reality behind growing Muslim population in India (NDTV)
Three major fake news when it comes to Muslim population expansion- Muslims are going to overtake Hindus, Muslim men marry 4 men and produce 25 kids, Muslims do not believe in family planning. The decline in hindu population and increase in Muslim population betwee census data in 2001 and 2011 is miniscule- population increase rate down among both- higher among muslims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_voAXVntjIE
TV STORY- Myth of Muslim majority in India busted: Muslims will take over 270 years to match Hindu population (ABP News)
It will take 270 years for Muslim and Hindu populations to be the same, if Muslim population rises at the level of the 1991-2001 censuses. The total population of the country at that time would be 1300 crores. Similar fears about muslim population overtaking hindus was prevalant during the partition era as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfVBsbkAGco
WEB STORY- Will India be 84% Muslim by 2041? (Factly)
Social media post claims muslim population will be 84% of total indian population by 2041. The study quoted by post does not exist. PEW center data suggests population by 2050 will be around 18%-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWBTCNU3px0
ARTICLE- Love Jihad! (Dr Robin Mathew)
Article in Malayalam- unnecessary fear among kerala christians about exploding muslim population in state- half-truths based on CDC studies used to spread these rumours. differences in choice of countries for migration affected local population - muslims in gulf countries (with no citizenship) and christians largely in other states, us/europe etc (with citizenship). In the education sector, most aided institutes (salary by govt, but reservation policies not applicable) are owned and managed by church and nair service society.
https://emalayalee.com/getPDFNews.php?pdf=228531_sathyjwala-january.pdf
ARTICLE- Condition of Muslims in West Bengal: A reality check (Subhanil Chowdhury, Saswata Ghosh)
Three main points to misinformation around muslims in bengal- huge number of infiltrators from bangladesh, high birth rates threatening to overtake hindus, muslim appeasement by governments. Decadent growth rate too low to support infiltration theory. Growth rates among hindus and muslims have dropped. Fertility rates in many muslim countries lower than india’s. Employment figures and monthly income rates show appeasement is a myth.
ARTICLE-The Myth of India’s Muslim-Population Rise (Prachi Salve)
Religion is not related to the number of partners; it is connected to other reasons- failure of first wive to produce kids, regional differences.
https://www.factchecker.in/the-myth-of-indias-muslim-population-rise/
PODCAST- Are Muslims responsible for the population growth in India?(The Muslim Watch)
Population anxiety over muslims found even in pre-independence books eg, Hindus A Dying Race (U N Mukherjee). Polygamy, absence of family planning etc are the prime accusations. Population has grown, but growth rate sharply declined. The sex ratio among muslims in india does not support the theory of every man having four wives.
ARTICLE- On India’s population, let the data speak (Mohd Shahid, Manoj Kumar Jha)
The total fertility rates (TFR) in the Union territories of Lakshwadeep and Jammu & Kashmir, which have sizeable Muslim populations, have gone substantially below the replacement level with 1.4 children per woman.
STUDY- ‘Modest change’, but Indian Muslim population grew faster due to fertility differences (PEW Research Centre)
India’s Muslim population has grown “somewhat faster” than other religious groups because of fertility differences, but there have been only “modest changes” in the overall religious makeup of the population since 1951. Every religious group in India “has seen its fertility fall, including the majority Hindu population and Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain minority groups”. While Muslim women were expected to have an average of 1.1 more children than Hindu women in 1992, the gap had shrunk to 0.5 by 2015.
Full study:
ARTICLE-The Islamophobic roots of population control efforts in India (Kunal Purohit)
Campaign across north india on population control is inspired by myth of muslims ‘overtaking’ hindus- Facebook posts spread the conspiracy theory that the number of India’s Muslims – currently about 200 million – will at some point surpass the 966 million-strong Hindu population. Jansankhya Samadhan Foundation says 95% of those surveyed says muslims are driving the population expansion. Minister giriraj said in 2020 that only “one community’ was responsible for population growth. Some ‘population activists’ believe the data on muslim population is fake. The RSS has previously claimed that European nations, including Germany and France, are on their way to becoming “Islamic states” as a result of fast-growing Muslim communities.