The Indian parliament has passed an unprecedented land bill which critics have slammed as a government attempt to seize Muslim property and attack Muslim religious autonomy.
Passed last week, the contentious Waqf Amendment Bill deals with charitably endowed property, referred to in Arabic as “waqf”, a phenomenon which has been widespread in the Indian subcontinent for centuries.
The British Raj introduced a Religious Endowments Act in 1863 which formalised the practice and allowed different religious communities significant autonomy in managing charitably endowed property.
In modern India, a succession of laws have placed waqfs under increasing government oversight.
The Waqf Act of 1995 established government waqf boards to regulate endowed property, which includes centuries-old mosques, schools, graveyards and hospitals used by many of India’s 200 million Muslims.
The new legislation requires waqf boards to produce documents to prove that properties are charitably endowed. Many waqfs, however, are undocumented, meaning that their ownership will be determined by a state-appointed collector.
Disputed land will be assumed to be government property.
Asaduddin Owaisi, a prominent Muslim MP and opponent of the bill, told The Independent: “Waqf by user means a property becomes waqf through long-term possession and use.
“Properties from centuries ago were rarely documented, yet they’ve served religious purposes for generations.”
‘Land jihad’
The act further overturns a previous requirement for the Central Waqf Council to include Muslims of “national eminence” in administration, financial management, engineering, architecture or medicine, as well as Muslim members of parliament.
One of the more controversial aspects of the legislation is a requirement for a Muslim to have been a Muslim for at least five years in order to make an endowment.
Many politicians in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have presented the new bill as a defence against “land jihad”, a conspiracy theory that Indian Muslims have used waqfs to try and take over the country.
BJP MP Anurag Thakur said during a parliamentary debate on the bill: “We will not allow a second partition in the name of land jihad. India needs freedom from the fear of the Waqf board.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the bill’s passage was a “watershed moment in our collective quest for socio-economic justice, transparency and inclusive growth”.
He added: “This will particularly help those who have long remained on the margins, thus being denied both voice and opportunity.”
Many critics have warned that the bill places scores of Muslim cemeteries at risk of being seized.
Prominent Indian Muslim commentator Rana Ayyub said the bill “doesn’t just attack [Muslims] in life, but now threatens their final resting place after death.
“As if brutalising them while they are alive is not enough, you want to take away the spaces that are provided to them for their burial.”
For many Muslims, the new legislation represents an attempt by the Modi government to weaken Muslim civil society.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of the opposition Congress Party, alleged that the bill was “brought arbritarily” and accused the government of targeting Muslims.
Protests against the bill have been suppressed in some areas of the country. Officials in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh have issued notices to Muslims accused of being likely to “breach the peace”, requiring them to pay bonds.
Despite this, the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board has vowed that it will lead a national movement against the legislation.
“In every state capital, Muslim leadership will offer symbolic arrests and at the district level, protests will be organised,” said the organisation’s general secretary, Maulana Mohammed Fazlurrahim.
“At the conclusion of these protests, memorandums will be submitted to the President of India and the Home Minister through the respective district magistrates and collectors.”
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