A high-level committee to study demographic changes from illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons reflects the growing centrality of the issue within the ideological and political discourse of the broader Sangh Parivar, particularly the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since its inception in 1925, a top RSS functionary said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the 'High-powered Demography Mission' on August 15, 2025, coinciding with the RSS's centenary year. Sources said the issue has been a key highlight of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS), the RSS's highest decision-making body.
According to a Sangh functionary, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has consistently emphasized that demographic imbalance requires more urgent attention than general population control. The organization has specifically raised concerns over unnatural population growth and changes in the religious composition of border districts.
The demand has been vociferously raised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), RSS's religious arm, in almost all its meetings of the National Board of Trustees and managing committee. The board consists of elected office-bearers, prominent seers, and senior functionaries who determine the organization's national and international agenda.
VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said that constituting a commission to study demographic changes would help understand socio-economic problems arising from illegal migration and religious conversions over the past many decades. "These demographic changes have been the key reason behind the large-scale law and order situation in many districts where religious conversions have been rampant," Bansal said, adding that around 200 districts in the country have seen migration and religious conversion turn demography on its head, reducing the Hindu community to a minority.
"Subsequently, a parallel network, undeterred by any political or government set-up, runs in these places," Bansal said, stressing that illegal migration, especially in border states, has burdened the national economy.
Opposition parties maintain that claims of widespread demographic takeover are exaggerated and not always supported by official census or migration data. They caution that conflating migration, religious conversion, and law-and-order concerns risks deepening communal divisions.
Samajwadi Party national spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi said that illegal migration, if any, should be factually ascertained and stopped. "Let the commission bring out the truth," he said, adding that the BJP government at the Centre and in border states are equally responsible for demographic changes due to illegal migration and other reasons.
