Social media has been flooded with false information regarding demographic shifts within the Muslim community of Haldwani, Uttarakhand, after the city was engulfed in communal tensions following the demolition of a madrasa and a mosque.
These posts falsely claimed that the Muslim population of Haldwani grew from 1,000 to 1 lakh in the last two decades, and that its share among the population of the city grew from 1% to 20% in the past 23 years. BOOM accessed census data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs which stated that the Muslim population dropped from 80,000 in 2001 to 67,559 in 2011. Furthermore, due to the postponement of the 2021 census following the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest demographic data is unknown.
One such post on X read, "20 years back, less than 1000 Muslim population was in Haldwani Tehsil. Today there are more than 1 Lakh. Most are Bangladeshi & Rohingya who were settled by PFI & so called secular parties. Now they are burning Haldwani."
The archived tweet can be found here.
In another tweet, the same account claimed, "In 2000, their population in Haldwani was less than 1%,today they are 20%.They are burning police stations, vehicles & civilian properties. This is the side effect of demography change. The only solution is NRC & forceful deportation of illegal Rohingyas & Bangladeshis." The archived tweet can be found here.
On February 8, communal violence broke out over an anti-encroachment operation in Haldwani's Banphoolpura area in Uttarakhand, aimed at demolishing what district officials deemed an 'unauthorized' madrasa and an adjoining mosque. The violence killed four people and injured 100. A shoot-at-sight order has been issued against the rioters and internet in the area has been suspended by the local authorities.
Fact-check
The claim can be divided into two parts: the first part of the claim suggests that there were less than 1000 Muslims in Haldwani 20 years back.
BOOM looked at census data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The closest census available to 2004 is the census carried out in 2001. According to the 2001 census of Haldwani, out of a total population of 4,97,869 individuals, 80,436 people belonged to the Muslim community in the city. Of these, 43,133 were males and 37,303 were females.
Hence, the claim stating that fewer than 1000 Muslims resided in Haldwani 20 years ago is false because the 2001 census recorded over 80,000 Muslims, constituting approximately 16.15% of the total population.
The census after 2001 was conducted in 2011. Data from the 2011 census shows that the size of the population decreased to 3,64,129. Of these, the Muslim population also declined to 67,559 individuals. Hindus (2,87,015) formed the largest segment of the population, followed by Muslims (67,559), Sikhs (6,514), and Christians (2,423). Furthermore, the Muslim community represented 18.55% of the population of the city.
The second part of the claim suggests that there are more than 1 lakh people in the Muslim community in Haldwani today. However, there is no official record or evidence to back this claim due to the postponement of the census in 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic. As of now, the recent demographic figures for Indian cities are unknown.
Regarding the claim about Rohingya communities settling in Haldwani, BOOM checked the Uttarakhand state assembly's website and other official sources for data on Rohingya immigrants in Haldwani. However, the results were inconclusive. Approximately 40,000 Rohingya immigrants stay in India and have largely settled in Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan, as per a 2017 reply by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.