Thakurnagar, North 24 Parganas: Just a couple of months ago, the narrow lanes around the Matua Mahasangha offices in Thakurnagar, North 24 Parganas, were jammed with thousands clutching affidavits and hope. Today, they are mostly empty. Inside, a handful of workers sit before computers once used to upload Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) applications. The silence reflects the rapid deflation of a political promise that had electrified this belt.For the Matua community, a Dalit refugee-origin population spread across North 24 Parganas and Nadia, citizenship and documentation are not abstract questions but pillars of security. Many now fear that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise could leave them vulnerable if they cannot establish personal or parental links to the 2002 voters’ list required for mapping, potentially triggering objections, hearings or exclusion from the rolls.Swapan Biswas, a vegetable vendor from the Barasat area, travelled to the Thakur Bari in Thakurnagar near the India-Bangladesh border after failing to find his name in the draft roll.“Leaders told us, ‘Come under the shelter of the Thakurbari leaders and you’ll survive.’ Even my local Trinamool councillor said the same back then,” he said, referring to the party ruling West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC). “Now my name is missing, I don’t have documents, and the BLO [Booth Level Officer] says even the Hindu identity card issued by the Mahasangha has no value at all.”Also read: A ‘Hindu Card’ for Rs 50: Inside a Camp Issuing Citizenship Shields for Matuas in BengalThe “Hindu card” he refers to is a certificate-style identity card issued through local Matua-Bharatiya Janata Party-linked camps, promoted as proof of the holder’s religion for CAA-related paperwork. In recent months, Union minister and Bangaon Member of Parliament Shantanu Thakur and Subrata Thakur, both BJP leaders, have been linked locally to camp-style drives promising documentation facilitation amid SIR-era verification and legacy-linkage anxieties.File photo of a so-called Matua card, taken at a CAA camp at Thakurnagar. Credit: Joydeep Sarkar.Thousands have received colour-coded “Matua cards” and “Hindu cards” carrying official-sounding letterheads and assurances, though these documents do not confer citizenship or any legal rights or recognition. Several families allege they were charged between Rs 800 and Rs 4,000 at these camps for forms and applications that ultimately produced no outcome.Dibakar Biswas, from Malda’s Baishnabnagar, said he waited for days while officials cited software glitches and delays. “We paid money to BJP leaders. A Union Minister himself ran camps with his photo displayed,” he said. “Now our names aren’t there. If a hearing notice comes, what will we say?”“They took Rs 4,000 from my family and promised documents in fifteen days,” alleged Jharna Biswas, a resident of Sanghati. “Now the office is empty. No one answers the phone. We are being treated like criminals in our own homes.”Also read: Rs 800 for Citizenship: At Union Minister’s ‘Camp’, BJP is Monetising Matuas’ CAA ApplicationsAn analysis by The Wire of a Matua-focused cluster of 17 Assembly seats across Nadia and North 24 Parganas suggests that West Bengal’s most pronounced “No Mapping” hotspot lies in the Matua – Scheduled Caste refugee belt, far from the locations typically invoked in political speeches. These constituencies record an average No Mapping rate of 9.47%, more than twice the statewide figure of 4.05%.They are strongly Scheduled Caste-heavy, with an average SC share of 36.39%, while minority share averages 13.66%. Individual seats underline the trend. Gaighata (SC) records 14.51% No Mapping even though minorities comprise only 7.61% of the population, while Bagda shows 12.69% No Mapping with an 11.97% minority share.In the context of the SIR, “No Mapping” refers to voters whose names appear in electoral records but cannot be linked (or “mapped”) to the required legacy documents or earlier electoral rolls, such as the 2002 voter list. As a result, their entries are flagged for verification and may face objections, hearings or deletion from the rolls if the linkage is not established.These documentation shocks are rooted in a longer history of displacement and search for a permanent sense of belonging. Founded by Harichand Thakur and consolidated by Guruchand Thakur, the Matua movement emerged among East Bengal’s Namasudras as a struggle for dignity, equality and education. Partition turned that spiritual-social project into a persistent political demand for settlement, citizenship and papers.A 2019 photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Binapani Devi, the matriarch of the Matua community, who passed away in March 2024. Credit: PTIThat chronic insecurity also made the community politically bridgeable. The BJP mobilised a Hindu refugee narrative and the CAA, while the TMC leaned on symbolic recognition and welfare delivery. The No Mapping pattern now cuts through these binaries, exposing a simpler truth: For many Matuas, even a secure electoral identity remains precarious.Pabitra Biswas, who came from Barasat to convert his mother’s Matua identity card into a Hindu card, remained unconvinced. “Will any of this actually help?” he asked. “The court has said religious identity won’t work like this. Still, we come. What if Modi says something again?”Also read: SIR Misfires, Cultural Cues Get Mixed Up: Bad Days for BJP in Bengal?Addressing the heartland virtually on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked the spiritual legacy of the Thakur family but avoided the SIR-induced voting rights crisis. While he later assured the community – on social media – that the CAA guarantees their dignity, the promises have done little to quiet local fears.“From the beginning, I said BJP was cheating and looting money this way,” claims TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur, who is also a member of the Thakur family. “Now the court verdict and the draft voter list prove that BJP cheated people, looted their money and also tarnished the dignity of Thakurbari. The BJP alone is responsible for this crisis.”For over seven decades, Matua politics has revolved around dignity, settlement and papers. The CAA raised hopes that this history might finally be settled. Instead, the SIR draft has exposed how administrative processes can reopen old wounds – and how quickly promises can dissolve into silence.Translated from Bengali to English by Aparna Bhattacharya.