Matuas in Bengal hail CAA implementation: Who are they? How will they gain from the law?

A section of the Matua community in West Bengal erupted in celebration after the Centre on Monday (11 March) notified the rules for the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), four years after Parliament passed the legislation. The implementation of the legislation comes just months before the crucial Lok Sabha elections.

The vote of the Matuas could impact at least eight Lok Sabha seats in Bengal. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping the move will help consolidate the Matua community votes in its favour. Union Minister of State for Shipping, Ports and Waterways and All-India Matua Mahasangha head Shantanu Thakur has called the CAA implementation an “independence day for refugee communities living in the country”, reported Indian Express.

Who are the Matuas? How will the CAA benefit them? Let’s take a closer look.

Who are the Matuas?

The Matuas are Hindus who migrated to India, first during the Partition and later after the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War due to religious persecution and communal tension.

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The sect was founded by Harichand Thakur in the 19th century in East Bengal (today’s Bangladesh) on three principles – truth, love and sanity, according to The Wire.

Thakur’s son Guruchand organised the sect socially and politically in the early 20th Century, reported Indian Express. 

The Matuas, who predominantly belong to the Scheduled Caste Namashudras, gained limelight after the 2003 Citizenship Amendment Act which made it tougher for refugees to get Indian citizenship.

The community, which currently constitutes the second-largest Scheduled Caste population in Bengal, has long been demanding Indian citizenship.

Over three crore Matuas live in West Bengal, mostly concentrated in North and South 24 Parganas districts. They are also settled in Nadia, Howrah, Cooch Behar, Malda, East Burdwan and parts of north Bengal.

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The political legacy of Matuas

Harichand Thakur’s descendants have a long political history in Bengal.

His great-grandson Pramath Ranjan Thakur joined the Congress and was elected to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1962. PR Thakur’s widow, Binapani Devi, fondly known as Boro Ma, was the face of the community until she died in 2019 at the age of 100.

During the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, she sided with the Trinamool Congress (TMC). In 2011, her son Manjul Krishna Thakur was given a berth in the Mamata Banerjee’s Cabinet.

Binapani Devi’s eldest son, Kapil Krishna Thakur, was elected as a TMC MP from Bongaon in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In the Bongaon bypoll in 2015 necessitated after his death, Manjul Krishna’s son Subrata Thakur fought on a BJP ticket, challenging his aunt Mamata Bala Thakur (widow of Kapil Krishna) who was a TMC candidate. She defeated her nephew and retained the seat for TMC.

Manjul Krishna’s other son, Shantanu Thakur, who won the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat in 2019, is currently the Union Minister of State for Shipping in the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.

Matuas welcome CAA implementation

Matuas in Bengal, who have been demanding the amendment to the Citizenship Act of 2003 for years, will benefit from the implementation of the 2019 legislation, which some say is divisive and was the cause of widespread protests in the country four years back.

The CAA will provide fast-track Indian citizenship to non-Muslims — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India on or before 31 December 2014.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweets "The Central government notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024. These rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in our nation. With this… pic.twitter.com/fdWDzpde1x

— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2024

The Matua community members broke into celebrations at Thakurbari, their spiritual abode, in North 24-Parganas’ Thakurnagar to hail the implementation of the CAA. About 1,000 people gathered there, distributed sweets and danced to the beats of donka, a traditional drum, cymbals and bells, reported The Telegraph.

“It is like winning a battle fought for years. The sun has emerged to clear the dark clouds…. I was waiting for this day. Hope that from tomorrow I will be able to claim myself as a citizen of India and will no more be harassed by police,” Bijit Kanti Mondal, a Matua devotee in Thakurnagar, told The Telegraph.

As per PTI, the community members also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Union minister Santanu Thakur for the Act’s implementation.

BJP MP Thakur said at a press conference at the party’s office in Kolkata, “The life of future generations of people belonging to refugee communities have been secured today. It is a historical day for refugees in the country. This is like an independence day for them. Today their ordeal has come to an end. They can no longer be branded as refugees as the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought in CAA which grants citizenship to these people. The effects of this will be felt in the Lok Sabha polls”, according to Indian Express.

He also attacked Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee who “misled people by creating a panic that the CAA would rob their right to stay in India”, The Telegraph reported.

The TMC has hit out at the Centre for notifying the Act ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. “We are already citizens of this country. We have Aadhaar and voter cards. We were elected as public representatives being citizens. Besides, a large number of people have lost their documents over the years. How would they prove their citizenship?” TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur was quoted as saying by Indian Express. 

How Matuas can influence polls

The BJP has tried to woo the Matuas in West Bengal with the CAA. In 2021, the saffron party had promised to meet the community’s demand for Indian citizenship if it won the state Assembly elections.

The Matuas can reportedly influence elections in about 70 of the total 294 Assembly seats. The community is believed to comprise over 15 per cent of Bengal’s population.

Matuas are present across at least five Lok Sabha constituencies in south Bengal, of which two – Bongaon and Ranaghat – were won by the BJP in 2019, noted News18.

Bangladeshi Hindus – Rajbanshis and Namasudras – in north Bengal will also benefit from the implementation of CAA.

As per a News18 report, an internal survey by the BJP in Bengal found that its CAA move would impact at least five Lok Sabha seats across Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts and two-three seats in north Bengal.

“This was long due. The CAA was a promise in the BJP’s election manifesto in 2019. The implementation establishes that the government at the Centre does not backtrack on its promises,” senior adviser Kanchan Gupta from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting told the news channel.

With inputs from agencies