​Politics over people: On India’s High-Level Committee on Demographic Change

In constituting a panel to study demographic changes in India , the Centre was guided by a paranoid mindset that saw devious conspiracies everywhere. The move gave shape and substance to a thought expressed by Home Minister Amit Shah: “unnatural demographic change” is a “very significant challenge to the present and future of any nation”. In his Independence Day address in 2025 , Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the proposal, characterising illegal infiltration as a “premeditated conspiracy” to alter India’s demography. The committee, chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Justice P.P. Naolekar, is to assess demographic changes, examine patterns of abnormal population shifts among religious and social communities, and recommend a time-bound solution. Mr. Shah linked demographic changes not only to sovereignty but also to national security, law and order, “profound changes in social structure and the preservation of tribal society”. According to the government, demographic shifts have affected public service delivery, local governance, resource distribution and social cohesion, and Justice Naolekar has said that the panel will also formulate a system for the custody and deportation of infiltrators.