Ajmer, November 28, 2024: A lower court in Ajmer has accepted a petition that claims the mausoleum of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, known as the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, is a Shiva temple. The petition, filed by Vishnu Gupta, national president of the Hindu Sena, was admitted for hearing by Ajmer West Civil Judge (Senior Division) Manmohan Chandel on Wednesday. The next hearing is scheduled for December 20.
The petition asserts that the site, which has been a prominent religious place for centuries, was originally a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Mahadev. As part of the proceedings, Justice Chandel directed that summon notices be issued to the Dargah Committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
The petition’s admission has sparked controversy amidst ongoing debates on religious identity and communal harmony in India. The move follows a broader trend of examining religious sites, with some groups challenging the historical and religious significance of places of worship.
In response to this development, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti expressed her concerns over what she described as rising threats to minorities in India. In a tweet marking Constitution Day, Mufti voiced alarm over the increasing insecurity felt by the country’s largest minority community, calling it “disheartening” to witness such growing tensions.
Mufti also referred to the recent violence in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, where four individuals lost their lives, calling it a “painful reminder” of the challenges minorities face. She criticized efforts to unearth temples supposedly hidden under mosques, emphasizing that such actions are a direct contradiction to the Supreme Court’s directive to maintain the status quo of religious places as they existed in 1947.
“The trend of searching for temples under mosques continues despite a clear Supreme Court ruling that the status quo on all religious places, as they existed in 1947, should be maintained,” Mufti wrote on X. She cautioned that the nation’s identity could be at risk if constitutional principles were not upheld, urging those who believe in India’s values to protect these ideals.
The Supreme Court’s 1991 ruling, which underpins Mufti’s concerns, stems from the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act. The Act prohibits altering the religious character of any place of worship as it stood on August 15, 1947. The Court has consistently upheld the need to preserve the status quo in such matters, as seen in its 2020 verdict on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case, reaffirming the importance of this principle in maintaining communal harmony.
While the petition regarding the Ajmer Sharif Dargah remains in its early stages, it has raised broader questions about how India navigates its religious diversity, with significant implications for the preservation of historical and religious sites.
