Hindu nationalists lay claim to mosques

As Muslim places of worship are caught upina BJP attempt to rewrite history, many fear disputes could turn violent

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen

In a small, darkened office in Budaun, where dusty legal books line the walls, two lawyers have fallen into a squabble. VP Singh and his associate BP Singh - no relation - are discussing Shamsi Jama Masjid, the mosque that has stood in this small town in Uttar Pradesh for 800 years.

According to the lawyers, this grand white-domed mosque, one of the largest and oldest in India, is not a mosque at all. "No no, this is a Hindu temple," asserted BP Singh. "It's a very holy place for Hindus." Records dating back to 1856 reference the working mosque, and according to local Muslims, they have been praying there undisturbed since it was built by Shamsuddin Iltutmish, a Muslim king, in 1223. The Singhs however, have a different version of events. In July, they filed a court case on behalf of a local Hindu farmer - and backed by the rightwing Hindu nationalist party Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) - alleging that Shamsi Jama Masjid is not a mosque but an "illegal structure" built on a destroyed 10th-century Hindu temple for the god Shiva. Their petition states that Hindus have rightful ownership of the land and should be able to pray there.

Except, the two bickering lawyers can't agree on the facts. BP Singh initially claimed the original Hindu temple was destroyed by a Muslim tyrant king - but VP Singh contradicts him.

"Not destroyed, altered," said VP Singh. "Most of the original Hindu temple is still there." They claim as evidence a lotus flower painted on the inside of the mosque dome. But when the Observer was given access to the mosque, there was no such motif, instead, it was the calligraphy of a Qur'anic verse. There was also no sign of a "hidden locked room filled with Hindu idols", which VP Singh claimed he had seen in the 1970s as a child. Instead, the room in question was a store cupboard, filled with cleaning materials and prayer mats.