Noorpur in Aligarh was a Hindu majority village. Now it’s 80% Muslim and the Hindus are fleeing

Noorpur village of Tappal police station area in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district has been in news for all the wrong reasons. The Hindus of the village are being forced to sell their homes and move out of the village as the Muslim community continues to harass and make their lives miserable.

The recent flashpoint in the relations between the two communities came on May 26 when a baraat procession of a villager named Omprakash and his daughters was passing through the village near the mosque. According to Omprakash’s statements, some miscreants of the Muslim community came out of the blue and started pelting stones on the procession, vandalising the entire festivities in the process.

“We were intercepted by people from the minority community; they objected to the procession. Our community has faced oppression on many occasions — they try and stop our wedding processions. When we tried to reason, they attacked and beat us. It was humiliating to face this one my daughter’s wedding day. I also received injuries,” he said.

According to a report by Breaking Tube, there are more than 800 Muslim families in the village while the number of Hindu families is said to be around 100. Troubled by the nuisance of the hoodlums of the ‘minority’ community, the Hindus including Dalits have been forced to put up ‘House for Sale’ boards in front of their homes.

As per the Census India 2011, Tappal village has a population of 1531 of which 805 are males and 726 are females. There are 8.69 per cent Scheduled Caste (SC) living in the village which is expected to have dwindled as the Jats (SC) continue to flee the village, fearing for their lives.

Villagers claim that whenever a procession passes through the village, the Muslim men engage in violence and thievery. Despite informing the police about the atrocities of the minority community, no action has been initiated against the perpetrators and the villagers are forced to lament, “When they do not allow us to live here, what would we do by staying here?”

The report quotes the villagers as saying that the people of the Muslim community also pressurise the Hindus to convert into their faith by luring them. It is the conversion that has allowed the traditionally Hindu dominated village to be overpopulated by the Muslim community. There are three mosques and a big madrasa in a village which has sprung into existence only recently.

The Police however claimed that the situation has gone back to normal in the village. “Some families had said that they can no longer reside in the village. The SDM and the Police CO have visited the village & now the situation in normal there,” Aligarh SP (Rural) Shubham Patel was quoted as saying.

It is not the first time that a story like this has come to light where Hindu families and their exodus from a village like Noorpur of Aligarh has happened. It occurred in Kairana as well and it is repeating in Noorpur and if the authorities do not step in, it will continue to happen.