- India’s parliament passed a controversial bill that amends laws governing Muslim land endowments, known as waqfs, by including non-Muslims on the boards that manage these properties and increasing government oversight.
- The government claims the changes aim to combat corruption and promote diversity, but critics argue it undermines Muslim rights and could lead to the confiscation of historic religious sites.
- Muslim groups and opposition parties have expressed concerns that the bill is politically motivated, and could marginalize Muslims by altering ownership rules and requiring waqf boards to validate property claims.
India’s parliament passed a controversial bill moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to amend laws governing Muslim land endowments, while Muslim groups and opposition parties protested the move.
The bill would add non-Muslims to boards that manage waqf land endowments and give the government a larger role in validating their land holdings. The government says the changes will help to fight corruption and mismanagement while promoting diversity, but critics fear that it will further undermine the rights of the country’s Muslim minority and could be used to confiscate historic mosques and other property.
The debate was heated in both houses of parliament. The Lower House debated it Wednesday through early Thursday, while in the Upper House, the fiery discussion lasted more than 16 hours into early Friday.
The Congress-led opposition firmly opposed the proposal, calling it unconstitutional and discriminatory against Muslims. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lacks a majority in the Lower House, but its allies helped to pass the bill.
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In the Lower House, 288 members voted for the bill while 232 were against it. Similarly, 128 favored it and 95 voted against it in the Upper House. The bill will now be sent to President Droupadi Murmu for her assent to become law.
Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju introduced the bill to change a 1995 law that set rules for the foundations and set up state-level boards to administer them.
Many Muslim groups, as well as the opposition parties, say the proposal is discriminatory, politically motivated and an attempt by Modi’s ruling party to weaken minority rights.
The bill was first introduced in parliament last year, and opposition leaders have said some of their subsequent proposals for it were ignored. The government has said opposition parties are using rumors to discredit them and block transparency in managing the endowments.
What’s a waqf?
Waqfs are a traditional type of Islamic charitable foundation in which a donor permanently sets aside property — often but not always real estate — for religious or charitable purposes. Waqf properties cannot be sold or transferred.
Waqfs in India control 872,000 properties that cover 405,000 hectares (1 million acres) of land, worth an estimated $14.22 billion. Some of these endowments date back centuries, and many are used for mosques, seminaries, graveyards and orphanages.
Law would change who runs waqfs
In India, waqf property is managed by semi-official boards, one for each state and federally run union territory. The law would require non-Muslims to be appointed to the boards.
Currently, waqf boards are staffed by Muslims, like similar bodies that help administer other religious charities.
During the parliamentary debate, Home Minister Amit Shah said non-Muslims would be included in waqf boards only for administration purposes and to help run the endowments smoothly. He added that they were not there to interfere in religious affairs.
“The (non-Muslim) members will monitor whether the administration is running as per law or not, and whether the donations are being used for what they were intended or not,” he said.
Muslim groups, like The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said such comments were against the fundamentals of Islamic endowments as such bodies necessarily need to be governed by Muslims only. The board said the bill was “a blatant infringement on the constitutional rights of Muslim citizens” and called on citizens to hit the streets against it.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress president, said, “Why should waqf bodies allow non-Muslims as members when Hindu temple trusts don’t allow people of other religions in their fold?”
One of the most controversial changes is to ownership rules, which could impact historical mosques, shrines, and graveyards, since many such properties lack formal documentation as they were donated without legal records decades, and even centuries, ago.
Questions about title
Other changes could impact mosques on land held in centuries-old waqfs.
Radical Hindu groups have laid claim to several mosques around India, arguing they are built on the ruins of important Hindu temples. Many such cases are pending in courts.
The law would require waqf boards to seek approval from a district level officer to confirm the waqfs’ claims to property.
Critics say that would undermine the board and could lead to Muslims being stripped of their land. It’s not clear how often the boards would be asked to confirm such claims to land.
“The Waqf (Amendment) Bill is a weapon aimed at marginalizing Muslims and usurping their personal laws and property rights,” Rahul Gandhi, the main opposition leader, wrote on social media platform X. He said the bill was an “attack on the Constitution” by the BJP and its allies “aimed at Muslims today but sets a precedent to target other communities in the future.”
INDIA’S RELIGIOUS DIVIDE CONTINUES TO WIDEN BETWEEN MUSLIM, HINDU COMMUNITY
Fears among Muslims
While many Muslims agree that waqfs suffer from corruption, encroachments and poor management, they also fear that the new law could give India’s Hindu nationalist government far greater control over Muslim property, particularly at a time when attacks against minority communities have become more aggressive under Modi, with Muslims often targeted for everything from their food and clothing styles to inter-religious marriages.
Last month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its annual report that religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate while Modi and his party “propagated hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities” during last year’s election campaign.
Modi’s government says India is run on democratic principles of equality and no discrimination exists in the country.
Muslims, who are 14% of India’s 1.4 billion population, are the largest minority group in the Hindu-majority nation, but they are also the poorest, a 2013 government survey found.
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