India's lost tolerance: Is it heading towards sectarian violence?

The claim of illegality rests on a far-right narrative according to which most of these mosques were actually temples

- RASHME SEHGAL

Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (1141-1230) is one of the most revered saints of India. His Dargah Sharif in Ajmer is a place of introspection and shared devotion visited by people of all faiths and it is not unusual to see Hindus and Sikhs doing ‘sewa’ (devotional service) here for weeks on end helping with the cooking and serving of food and in the daily cleaning of these hallowed premises.

A Sufi saint, Khwaja Chisti practiced a tolerant and inclusive form of Islam that incorporated elements of other religions. The Sufi saints including Shaikh Abdul Qadir, Salim Chisti, Nizamuddin Aulia and Miyan Mir were in the forefront of spreading the message of universal love and brotherhood and have influenced amongst many saints including Guru Nanak and Kabir.

Imagine the horror of waking up on Tuesday morning to learn that, like several mosques which are presently under siege, a civil court judge Manmohan Chandel in Ajmer had served notices to the Ajmer Dargah Committee, the Archaeological Survey of India and the Ministry of Minority Affairs demanding a survey be conducted of Chisti’s mausoleum. This notice was given in response to a petition that was filed in Chandel’s court by Vishnu Gupta that the mausoleum was built after destroying Hindu and Jain temples.

Gupta claims the Dargah to be declared a Hindu temple “and if it has a registration, it should be cancelled, an ASI survey should be conducted, and that we should be permitted to pray”. The court order has not been uploaded online or shared with the petitioners so far.

Ajmer Dargah will observe its 813th Urs in January next year and the caretakers of the Dargah are gearing up to cope with the thousands of Muslim and Hindus who will descend in Ajmer to partake in the prayers. Gupta has gone public to state that, “Chishti Saheb was not born here and he was not from here. So, who was here before him? Prithviraj Chauhan. And the city was known as Ajaymeru.”