As Yadav pointedly implied, it’s difficult to fret about imagined demographic shifts while ignoring real cartographic ones. For instance, Despite Modi’s 2020 “clean chit” to Beijing — claiming no one had intruded into Indian territory — multiple reports, satellite imagery, and even official records confirm that India has lost control of nearly 2,000 sq km in eastern Ladakh since 2014. This is in addition to the 38,000 sq km in Aksai Chin under Chinese occupation since 1962.

In March 2024, Ladakh-based climate activist Sonam Wangchuk announced an 10,000-strong march — later aborted under administrative pressure — to the Line of Actual Control to “show whether the land has been lost or not”, after locals complained of shrinking grazing grounds and blocked access to traditional pastures.

The political establishment, however, treats such admissions with suspicion. Just days ago, during a hearing on a defamation case, a Supreme Court judge controversially chastised Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for saying China occupies Indian territory, asking, “How do you know that 2,000 sq. km of Indian territory was occupied by the Chinese? If you are a true Indian, you would not say this.”

So here we are: on the one hand, fiery rhetoric about ghuspaithiya stealing jobs, women’s safety, and tribal land; on the other, actual foreign occupation of thousands of square kilometres of Indian soil brushed off as either sensitive or unmentionable. Yadav’s merh analogy might sting — because while a farmer would fiercely defend a few feet of his bund, the national leadership seems oddly less vocal about ceding mountains and valleys.