A Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government in eastern India has ordered 252 Muslim madrasas to shut and placed another 100 at risk of closure, intensifying a growing witch-hunt against Islamic educational institutions under BJP rule.
The sweeping action in West Bengal follows a statewide investigation ordered by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari in June, subjecting madrasas to scrutiny over their registration, management, student enrollment and sources of funding.
Government officials say institutions without valid authorisation are being targeted, while BJP leaders have publicly sought to justify the crackdown by linking madrasas with “radicalisation,” “anti-national activities” and terrorism.
Minority Affairs Minister Khudiram Tudu said closure orders had been issued against 252 madrasas during first phase, while another 100 received show-cause notices over what government described as more serious irregularities. Those institutions have been told to produce valid authorisation or face closure.
Madrasas are Islamic educational institutions that provide religious instruction, with many also teaching mainstream academic subjects.
They have increasingly come under political and administrative pressure in India as Hindu nationalist governments have portrayed Muslim religious institutions through national security, illegal immigration and radicalisation narratives.
West Bengal’s investigation covered Kolkata and 22 other districts and examined how madrasas were managed, their registration status, student enrollment and where they received funding.
Most of the 252 institutions ordered closed are reported to be Khariji madrasas. Forty-four are in Malda, 37 in Uttar Dinajpur, 32 in South 24 Parganas and 25 each in Nadia and Murshidabad; several districts with substantial Muslim populations.
The scale of the investigation could expose far more Islamic schools to government action. Tudu said 2,132 madrasas in West Bengal currently have government approval, while 2,396 are categorised as unapproved.
BJP leaders have meanwhile reinforced concerns that the exercise extends beyond regulatory compliance by repeatedly associating madrasa education with extremism.
BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya claimed there had been an increase in “radicalisation” in border areas and said the government had a responsibility to stop “anti-national activities in the backdrop of madrasa education.”
Senior BJP leader Agnimitra Paul went further, alleging that such institutions promoted “anti-national education” and claiming Bangladesh-based terrorists had previously taken shelter in unaffiliated madrasas.
Such rhetoric places Muslim educational institutions under collective suspicion even as the government formally describes its action as an effort to identify unauthorised schools. No evidence linking 252 madrasas ordered closed collectively to terrorism was cited in raw government statements accompanying the action.
Opposition Trinamool Congress lawmaker Kunal Ghosh rejected attempts to associate madrasas with terrorism, saying they were educational institutions and that making “terrorist jibes” against them was wrong.
West Bengal action adds another front to tensions over Muslim religious education in India, where madrasas have repeatedly faced closures and government scrutiny in BJP-ruled states amid a wider Hindu nationalist campaign that Muslim groups say increasingly treats their religious and educational institutions as objects of suspicion.
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