People outside the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in Ajmer, Rajasthan on November 28.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The story so far: During a hearing of the Gyanvapi petition in 2022, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud made an oral observation that Sections 3 and 4 of the Places of Worship Act, 1991 do not prohibit the “ascertainment of religious character” of any place of worship. His oral observation has had repercussions at the lower judiciary with a number of districts and sessions courts in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan admitting petitions seeking to “ascertain the religious character” of mosques and other places of worship built in medieval India and ordering their surveys. Among the places facing calls for survey are the Ajmer Dargah, Adhai Din ka Jhonpra, the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal, the Teelewali Masjid in Lucknow, the Shamsi Jama Masjid in Badaun, the Atala Masjid in Jaunpur besides the better known cases of Gyanvapi Masjid, the Eidgah in Mathura and Kamal Maula Masjid in Dhar.
The salience of the Places of Worship Act and the Gyanvapi precedent
Are calls for surveys increasing?
Shortly after a civil judge in Sambhal ordered a survey of the town’s Jama Masjid on November 19, there has been a slew of petitions calling for surveys of mosques and dargahs. On November 24, there was a repeat survey of the Sambhal mosque which led to violence in which six people were killed. Following the violence, the Supreme Court asked the report of the advocate commissioner to be kept in a sealed cover, and directed the mosque’s committee to approach the Allahabad High Court to hear the case.
Around the same time, Ajmer’s West Civil Court admitted a petition claiming that the Ajmer dargah was originally a Sankat Mochan Mandir. The demand led to uproar as the dargah is frequented by people of all religions and the Prime Minister himself sends a chador for its annual Urs in January. Disturbed by these petitions, a number of retired bureaucrats and Army personnel wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to curtail what they called, an “ideological assault on India’s civilisational heritage”.
Timeline: Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute
What about Adhai Din ka Jhonpra?
The dargah petition triggered demand for the restoration of the 12th century mosque Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra to its alleged pre-Islamic heritage. The mosque, located a few minutes away from the dargah, is an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected site. The demand came from Ajmer’s Deputy Mayor Neeraj Jain who reiterated claims that the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra was originally a Sanskrit college and a temple before being demolished towards the end of 12th century. Earlier the demand for a Sanskrit college and a temple at the site was raised after a Jain monk visited the mosque along with some functionaries of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Soon after Rajasthan Assembly speaker Vasudev Devnani demanded an ASI survey at the historic site, arguing, “An ASI survey should immediately be done at Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra to find out whether the Jain delegates’ claim is true. It’s a subject to research whether it was occupied and converted into a mosque.”
The mosque was built by Qutubddin Aibak around the time he built the Quwwat-ul-Islam Masjid in the Qutub Minar complex in Delhi. Sultan Iltutmish beautified it in AD 1213 with a screen pierced by corbelled engrailed arches which appears in this country for the first time. A protected monument, its name stems from an Urs (fair) that used to be held here for two and a half days. Hence the expression Adhai Din or two and a half days. However, the claim of the site being a mosque has been disputed by author Har Bilas Sarda who argued in his book, Ajmer: Historical and Descriptive, that Seth Viramdeva Kala built a Jain temple here in celebration of the Jain festival Panch Kalyan Mahotsava in 660 AD. The temple was destroyed by Afghans of Ghor in 1192, he claimed.
The ASI doesn’t agree with the assertion. About the mosque, the ASI website states, “It was commenced by Qutubuddin Aibak in about 1200 AD with carved pillars used in colonnades… The pillared (prayer) chamber is divided into nine octagonal compartments and has two small minarets on top of the central arch. The three central arches carved with Kufic and Tughra inscriptions make it a splendid architectural masterpiece.”
What about the Shamsi Jama Masjid?
The 800-year-old Shamsi Jama Masjid is the latest mosque to face contestation. A fast-track court is hearing the claims of Mukesh Patel of the Hindu Mahasabha who filed a claim against the mosque, insisting it was an ancient Neelkanth Mahadev temple. In response, the Shamsi Shahi mosque’s intezamia committee argued the suit was non-maintainable. Incidentally, the mosque is built on an elevated area called Sotha Mohalla, and is said to be the highest structure in Badaun town. After Quwwatul Islam and Adhai Din ka jJhonpra, it is the third oldest mosque in north India.
After Badaun, cries are being made about the historic Jama Masjid in Delhi too — that it’s built at the site of a Vishnu temple. With the districts and sessions courts continuing to freely admit such petitions, the provisions of the Places of Worship Act 1991 which prohibit changing the character of places of worship as they stood on August 15, 1947, stand ignored. Meanwhile, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board appealed to the Supreme Court to take suo moto notice of such petitions and bar the lower level judiciary from entertaining them in the future.
Published – December 12, 2024 08:30 am IST
