Colonial demography fueled fears that Islam would eclipse Hinduism in Bengal.

Evidence

“In East Bengal two-thirds of the inhabitants and in North Bengal nearly three-fifths are followers of the Prophet.” As the Mohammedans in those regions increase faster than Hindus, it is quite possible that within a few decades Hinduism may be banished from those parts of Bengal…The influence of Islam is the most powerful engine destroying Hinduism in North and East Bengal at the present day. The next year Takle cited U.N. Mukherjee of the Indian Medical Services whose pamphlet “A Dying Race?” made much the same argument. Official demography added to the stream of knowledge about Muslims that imperialism made available to Britons and Americans. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 94

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing how demographic census data was weaponized rhetorically, not just reported, in colonial-era anti-Muslim polemics.
• XREF: Connects to later anxieties about Muslim birth rates in contemporary Islamophobia discourse — the demographic-threat frame has deep roots. — connects to: While these Americans and Britons avoided any suggestion that someone, drawn by a positive characteristic of the religion, might willingly accept Islam, others argued that, if there had been a good reason for South Asians to convert, it reflected less the value of Islam than the deficits of Hinduism, specifically caste prejudice and the proscription of widow remarriage. Reverend John Takle – a New Zealander working as a missionary in Bengal – used the most recent ‘scientific’ evidence that tracked intermarriage between Muslim and native races to supposedly prove a long-standing conclusion. In 1911 he stated, ‘The anthropometric survey made by government proves conclusively that the vast majority of the Mohammedans in India are converts from among the depressed Hindu communities.’; The fear of Islam intensified amid Ottoman decline and colonial expansion — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 166; British census data on Muslim numbers amplified Anglo-American fears. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 90 (+1 more)
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• The fear of Islam intensified amid Ottoman decline and colonial expansion #expands (0.70) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 166
• British census data on Muslim numbers amplified Anglo-American fears. #expands (0.65) — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 90