The judicial commission’s 450-page report on the Sambhal violence is not merely a dossier on one bloody incident. It is, in fact, a mirror to India’s long-denied demographic realities, historic distortions, and the dangerous consequences of appeasement politics. Submitted to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath last week, the report combines archival evidence, demographic data, and a chronology of communal riots to expose how Sambhal—once home to a thriving Hindu population—has been systematically transformed into a Muslim-majority stronghold.
Among the findings is evidence of a Harihar temple beneath the Shahi Jama Masjid—remnants from the era of Babur. That discovery alone should have shaken our historians and secular apologists out of their selective amnesia. But what is more telling is the demographic shift: Hindus, who once constituted nearly 45% of Sambhal’s population, have now been reduced to just 15%. In the Sambhal Nagar Palika area, Muslims who were 55% at Independence now make up a staggering 85%. Is this a coincidence, or the outcome of a calculated plan?
For decades, India’s academic establishment—under the stranglehold of Congress-appointed historians—whitewashed such truths. They insisted that demographic changes were “natural” and dismissed Hindu concerns as paranoia. School textbooks peddled half-truths, portraying partition as the folly of Jinnah alone, while carefully absolving Gandhi and Nehru of their catastrophic blunders. The reality is this: India was partitioned precisely because a sizeable section of Muslims refused coexistence with Hindus. Yet, those who chose to remain in India had promised loyalty to the nation and harmony with the majority community.
Seventy-eight years later, the Sambhal report shows how that promise has often been betrayed—not by every Muslim, but by those who, under political patronage, pursued an agenda of demographic domination.
The report catalogues 15 major communal riots in Sambhal between 1947 and 2019—each one pushing Hindus further into the margins. From 1947 to 1948 and the violent flare-ups of 1990, 1992, and 2019 clashes, the pattern is unmistakable. Each episode weakened Hindu confidence, while successive governments turned a blind eye in the name of “secular balance.” Appeasement was always dressed up as “Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb,” that overused cliché meant to mask ground realities.
Worse, Sambhal has not just been the site of communal riots—it has emerged as a hub for terror networks. The commission records the shocking use of foreign-manufactured weapons, stamped “Made in USA,” “UK,” and “Germany,” in the November 24, 2024, violence. If this does not ring alarm bells about international linkages and sleeper cells, what will?
India’s rulers since 1947—especially under the Congress—encouraged these demographic shifts with calculated appeasement. Nehru’s romanticized secularism, Indira Gandhi’s cynical vote-bank politics, and the later UPA’s obsession with minority welfare schemes—all fed into a single outcome: Hindus in towns like Sambhal either fled, were terrorized into silence, or reduced to a token minority.
Consider this: from being 3–4% of India’s population at Independence, Muslims today account for nearly 15%—with some districts in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Assam virtually converted into Muslim-dominated pockets. This is not just growth; it is consolidation with political backing. The Sambhal report has simply put hard numbers to what common Hindus on the ground have felt for decades.
India’s civilizational ethos has always been tolerant. Sanatan Dharma predates all organized religions by millennia—it did not need invading Mughals or colonial Britishers to teach coexistence. In fact, Hindu civilization offered space to every faith that arrived on its soil—from Jews and Zoroastrians to Christians. But tolerance is not the same as self-erasure. When a community uses numbers, fear, and violence to alter the very balance of a region, it is no longer coexistence—it is subjugation.
The Sambhal report reminds us of the cost of ignoring history. We dismissed warnings during partition, we romanticized slogans like “unity in diversity,” and we allowed generations to grow up on doctored textbooks. But the truth cannot be buried forever—it resurfaces in places like Sambhal, where demographic reality screams louder than any secular sermon.
The Uttar Pradesh government must act decisively. This is not the time for token arrests or committee reports that gather dust. With evidence of temple remains, foreign weapons, and demographic engineering, the Sambhal case must serve as a national wake-up call. A comprehensive security overhaul, strict action against terror linkages, and an honest debate on demographic changes are imperative.
Above all, the majority community can no longer be patronized with platitudes. Hindus have watched silently as their numbers dwindled in countless towns and districts. That silence is breaking. The so-called “Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb” will no longer work as an opiate.
The message to those who chose to stay in India in 1947 is simple: coexist in harmony, as promised, or risk reopening historical wounds. If minorities truly wish to live in peace, the first step is to accept these truths—not suppress them with violence. For history teaches us one unshakable lesson: truth, however delayed, always returns to claim its place.
