India: Waqf Board claims 1200 acres of farmers’ land, previously demanded land of Hindu temple and Sikh Gurdwara

The farmers in the Vijayapura district of Karnataka were met with a rude surprise soon after the Navratris, as they started receiving notices sent by the Tehsildar, stating that their lands belonged to the Waqf Board. The official cited old government records supporting the claim of the Waqf. The Waqf Board has claimed around 1,200 acres of land in the Honwada village in Tikota Taluk. However, some reports suggested that the controversy concerns 1,500 acres of land belonging to local farmers. On Thursday, October 24, responding to these notices, the farmers who are affected by these claims sent a petition to the local district official, Minister MB Patil. The farmers also noted that officials are attempting to designate their land for an Islamic religious institution, the Shah Aminuddin Dargah.

The Minister for Housing, Waqf, and Minority Welfare Department, Zameer Ahmed Khan, reportedly held a meeting with Waqf officers earlier this month and discussed “encroachments” on Waqf lands. Subsequently, officials were put into action against the farmers. Here, we must emphasize that the state of Karnataka is presently being governed by the Congress party, which is renowned for its extreme appeasement of Muslims, and Congress has oversight over all ranks in the state administration. Even after the end of Islamic rule and the British raj, at the time of independence and through many years that followed, key Congress party officials perpetuated the infamous Waqf Act in India.

Shedding light on the current situation, the vice president of Honwada village panchayat, Suneel Shankarappa Tudigal, said, “The notice claimed that the land belonged to Shah Aminuddin Dargah, but this dargah hasn’t existed for centuries, and our families have owned this land for generations. Around 41 farmers have received notices asking them to provide ownership records, but we are the rightful owners. We will launch a massive protest if the government doesn’t withdraw these notices.”

On the other side, officials representing the Waqf Board state that the notices were based on a 1974 gazette announcement. Waqf translates to detention, or confinement and prohibition. In Islamic terms, a “waqf property” is one that is available only for religious purposes and cannot be used for any other purposes. Nor can it be sold. Sharia law commands that once Waqf is established and a property is dedicated to it, it remains a Waqf property forever. Now we are left to wonder why a secular and developing country that doesn’t have Islam as its state religion is bound by Sharia law.

In Indian history, Waqf was introduced after the Islamic invaders established their draconian regime. One of the early examples is of the Delhi Sultanate, when Sultan Muizuddin Sam Ghaor dedicated two villages to the Jama Masjid of Multan. After independence, the country fell into the hands of the Indian National Congress, and its voting blocs dictated the further strengthening of the Waqf. The Waqf Act of 1995 was enacted and implemented in order to provide greater power and expand the scope of the Waqf Council, the State Waqf Boards, and the Chief Executive Officer, and the duties of mutawalli. This Act also defines the power and restrictions of a Waqf Tribunal, which acts in lieu of a civil court within its jurisdiction. The Waqf Tribunals are deemed civil courts and may exercise all the powers and functions of a civil court. The decision of a Tribunal shall be final, and no further proceedings shall lie under any civil court, thus rendering the Waqf Tribunal’s decisions above any civil court. As the ownership of the land or property has been transferred to Allah, it cannot be taken back from Allah; once a property becomes Waqf, it will always stay Waqf.

This unfortunate Act forced on Indians has resulted in several bizarre claims from the Islamic board. In one such case, reported by Hindi newsite Divya Bhaskar, the Waqf Board had sent an application to the Gujarat High Court claiming ownership of two islands in Bet Dwarka in Gujarat. This island is mentioned in ancient Hindu scriptures that date back to ages before the origin of Islam, and is known to be a part of the Hindu deity Krishna’s kingdom. Fortunately for the Hindus, sanity prevailed on the High Court Judge, who refused to entertain the application and advised the board to revise its petition.

But luck doesn’t favor the Hindus every time. An owner of a plot of land in the Shiv Shakti society in Surat, Gujarat, registered his plot with the Gujarat Waqf Board and turned the place into a holy place for Muslims, who started offering namaz there.

The Waqf Board has allegedly misused the Act extensively in the past 70 years. In 2022, Thiruchenthurai, a village in Tamil Nadu situated on the bank of the Cauvery River and housing a Hindu-majority population, was declared Waqf property.

In 2022, Sikhs staged a massive protest after a court directed a Sikh Gurudwara committee to vacate the Gurudwara land in Jathlana village in Haryana’s Yamunanagar district and hand it over to Waqf after the Islamic Board petitioned the court claiming the land. Gurdwara Committee members asserted that the Gurudwara has stood on the site since independence, and that there has never been a mosque on the property.

While such cases are aplenty, the most recent one was reported from Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar just a day after the Waqf board claimed the farmers’ land in Karnataka. The controversy sparked after the Waqf Board appropriated 40 acres of land around the Hindu temple of Kanifnath and claimed it belonged to some Dargah. The legal proceedings date back to 2005, when the land was abruptly registered under the Waqf. The temple trustees, on the other hand, brought out historical records to support their claim to the land. “The land was entrusted to Biban, the wife of Shankar Bhai, as a caretaker. Our trust possesses documents from the pre-British era that support our ownership, which the District Court of Rahuri has recognized,” argued the temple trustee.

It is noteworthy that Islamic countries such as Iraq, Turkey, Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Tunisia don’t recognize the concept of Waqf. However, billions of non-Muslims and their properties lie in danger of being claimed by the Waqf Board at any time.