After it is established by the ASI and the courts that the remains belong to the Akbarabadi Mosque, they can take initiative in its rebuilding to prove the point, argues DR. SYED AUSAF SAIED VASFI.
A mosque, which is exclusively meant for prayers, can never cease to be a mosque and shall remain the House of God till the Day of Judgement. Its existence is non-negotiable, its premises non-transferable. It can’t be sold or bought. Unfortunately, the Muslim leadership of plural Bharat has failed to put this common knowledge down the throats of the powers-that-be, or the latter have deliberately refused to digest it.
This fact is at the bottom of the Akbarabadi Masjid controversy in Old Delhi. It is agitating the Muslim mind as unseen forces are at work to ensure that the historical place of worship belonging to the principal minority is not reinstated, regaining its glory.
GENERATING AWE
It is not for the first time that such a controversy has arisen. Earlier too, several cases of this kind had come to public notice. Not long ago, the Safdarjang Mosque in New Delhi was a point of avoidable confrontation. Whenever a mosque, as a result of normal digging or historical excavation surfaces, the authorities cordon off the area, prohibit prayers with a heavy hand and when the Faithful politely insist upon offering the prayers and prayers alone, curfew is imposed and Section 144 is promulgated and platoons of armed personnel are pressed into service to generate awe.
Surprisingly, no such drill takes place when an idol is surreptitiously planted at a nondescript banyan tree and in a day or two an oil lamp is lit under it. In a week or so, the tree takes the shape of a small makeshift place of worship belonging to the majority community brethren. It is only a matter of weeks when a marble-covered bling bling poojasthal shows up gaining the significance of a landmark.
Coming back to the Old Delhi find, do they smell Muslim revolt or mutiny in prayers? Do they fear Muslim collaboration with a foreign power in prayers? Do they apprehend cessation in prayers? We admit we have failed to understand how the small minds work!
ARCHAIC LAW
The task of unnecessarily harassing the minority is completed with the help of an archaic law enacted by the British in 1931. Exactly 81 years have passed since our past masters promulgated this perversity. During the last 10 decades, it has occurred to nobody to do away with the monstrosity, ostensibly brought into existence to protect the important historical buildings, including mosques. Now it should go lock, stock and barrel.
It is not that the Akbarabadi Masjid appeared like a bolt from the blue. The Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC) had, in 2007, referred to the possible existence of a mosque-in-ruins in Subhas Park near Old Delhi’s Jama Masjid and suggested the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) take the matter in right earnest.
Again in 2009, the DUAC repeated its plea rather forcefully. But the lazy authorities preferred to sit pretty on the files. Otherwise, much earlier the issue would have attracted the attention leaving behind the jottings of DUAC, ASI and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
The Waaqeaat-e-Daarul Hukoomat Delhi and the Aasaarus-Sanadeed, the latter written by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, recall the necessary facts which should shame the purblind, busy creating hurdles for Muslim prayers.
CONSULTATION CENTRES
There were three mosques which the freedom fighters of 1857 war of independence used as their consultation centres – the Jama Masjid Delhi, the Masjid Fatehpuri and the Akbarabadi Masjid. The Jama Masjid was built by Emperor Shahjahan himself. During the freedom struggle, it was occupied by the British military which stayed there for quite long. For a long time the British used the mosque as stable for police horses, denying Delhi Muslims their right to pray there.
The Fatehpuri Masjid was fired upon and still has bullet marks on its walls telling a gory tale. The British soldiers sold this mosque to Lala Chhannu Lal, who was noble enough to return it to Muslims after peace.
RESISTANCE STRATEGIES
According to Delhi’s historians, the Akbarabadi Mosque was built by one of the spouses of Shahjahan, named Aizazunnisa in 1650. Her title was Akbarabadi. It was there that the freedom fighters used to assemble and chalk out strategies of resistance. In retaliation, the British levelled the mosque, which was not a mean structure.
The area of its main hall was 63 x 17 yards; courtyard 63 x 57 yards; hauz for ablution 12 x 12 yards and the hujraas (rooms for imam and muezzin) 154 x 104.
It is regrettable that instead of wildly using this Godsent as an effective tool to underscore the Muslim role in the freedom struggle, the clever-by-half authorities preferred to create bottlenecks in the reconstruction of the mosque which the freedom fighters used as their rendezvous.
Even now, after it is established by the ASI and the courts that the remains belong to the Akbarabadi Mosque, they can take initiative in its rebuilding to prove the point.
NATIONALLY IMPORTANT
Besides being significant from the religious point of view, it is important from the national and international points of view also.
In their utter muddle-headedness, the powers-that-be sent a wrong signal to the Muslim world by sternly disallowing prayers in the said mosque and that too in the month of Holy Ramadhan.
Let the South Block reconcile to the fact, and the fact is: Word Islam is writ large on the national horizon of the West Asia and North Africa. We want to befriend both the regions, and rightly so.
We regularly invite them to invest their capital in plural and secular Bharat. But how would you feel if people in the Arab street start doubting India’s claim to be plural and secular as it fails to allow the Faithful to offer prayers in mosques. Still there is time to salvage the Arab rather Muslim trust in India.
UTTERLY RIDICULOUS
It is ridiculous on the part of the Saffron to send its cadets around the turmoil-torn area, claiming the mosque in question is in fact a Hindu temple. For the sake of decency at least, they should not make a laughing stock of themselves and of course the nation and the country.