Lucknow: While tensions prevail in western Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal in the aftermath of a petition claiming that the 16th century Jama Masjid in the city was built at the site of an ancient temple, and a court-ordered survey, another controversy has erupted in Varanasi—Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency.
A mosque in the campus of a college is at the centre of the row. Several former and current students are now demanding its removal.
Soon after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the Udai Pratap Autonomous College last week and announced that it will be granted university status, a six-year-old notice by the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board to the college, saying that its area was “Waqf land”, came into circulation on WhatsApp groups.
On 29 November, the following Friday, Muslims arrived in large numbers to offer namaaz at the masjid, located inside the premises of the institution that was established in 1909. Days later, hundreds of students led by student association members and former students of the college marched to the mosque to recite the Hanuman Chalisa, where they were stopped by the police.
Nine of the student leaders were detained, while seven of them were arrested by the Varanasi Police Tuesday and were later released on bail after proceedings under Section 170 (preventive arrest) of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.
Shivam Singh, one of the nine detainees and former general secretary of the UP College Students’ Union, told ThePrint, “Five of the arrested students are currently studying in the college, while the rest are alumni. They were taken to police lines, where they were bailed out after a challan was issued against them.”
As the issue snowballed with the involvement of both Hindu and Muslim religious leaders, the Waqf board Tuesday said that the controversial notice from 2018 had already been cancelled on 18 January, 2021.
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College management vs Waqf board
According to the website of the Udai Pratap Autonomous College, Rajarshi Udai Pratap Singh Judeo, the Raja of Bhinaga (present-day Bahraich) founded the Hewett Kshatriya High School in Varanasi in 1909, which evolved into the present-day institution, also referred to as UP College.
However, S.M. Yasin, joint secretary of the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, which manages the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, told ThePrint that some accounts by Muslim scholars say that the mosque was established by the Nawab of Tonk of Rajasthan.
Yasin said that according to Aasar-e-Banaras, a book by Maulana Abdus Salaam Nomani, the Nawab of Tonk or Amir Khan established a small mosque-like structure, when he was sent to Banaras by the British whom he had been fighting.
“There is a very small masjid here and a mazaar too. The Nawab had been fighting Britishers, who murdered many Muslims. He had been planning to seek revenge, but he was caught and all his property was confiscated. When he was sent to Banaras, he was put under detention in Narayanpur near the UP College. Then, he made a masjid here and another one in Gilat Bazar, where he would go and offer namaaz. Later on, the land was somehow passed on to Rajarshi Udai Pratap Singh Judeo, who established a high school there,” he said.
However, the college administration said that those making these claims have no papers to prove this theory.
In October 2018, the college administration had received a notice from the Waqf board, saying that Waseem Ahmad, a resident of Bhojuveer in Varanasi, had written to the board with the demand that the ‘Choti Masjid’ be registered by the board, and that the board had been apprised that the said Waqf property was in the college’s possession.
“You have been informed that you have to make your position clear within 15 days of receiving this notice as to why should the said property not be registered in the records of the Waqf board, and if your reply is not received within the said time limit, your objection will not be heard after that,” read the notice, a copy of which has been accessed by ThePrint.
In response, the college management committee had written to the board, saying that the land belongs to the endowment trust and according to the Charitable Endowments Act, anyone’s ownership on such land ends automatically after the base year. In the reply to the board dated 21 December, 2018, the college management committee’s secretary U.N. Sinha had written, “Some unwanted person had presented the application to create deformity in the educational environment of the college premises.”
After the notice resurfaced following CM Yogi’s visit, Yasin wrote to the Waqf board seeking clarity over the notice’s status, voicing concerns about how it caused confusion on the college campus, and calling the mosque a symbol of communal harmony.
“In 2018, the Waqf board had issued a notice whose reply was given by the UP College in 2018 itself. But now, some misconception has arisen in 2024. Hence, you are requested to inform about the current status of the notice so that the misconceptions can be eradicated,” his letter read.
The Waqf board wrote back saying that the notice had been withdrawn back in 2021 as ordered by the board chairman, and that no further action was being taken on the issue.
Despite the withdrawal of the claim on college property by the board, former and current students staged another protest Friday—the day of the jumma namaaz—demanding that the masjid be removed from the spot.
“When CM Yogi came to the college last week, the old notice resurfaced and misleading news was spread about the ownership of the college land. On Friday (last week), about 600 Muslims arrived at the masjid and we felt bad because it was an attempt to show that they are the rightful owners,” Abhay Singh, one of the protesters and a former student of the college, told ThePrint.
“Students gave them a response Tuesday and now, we will protest again this Friday and demand that the masjid, which is an illegal entity, be seized.”
Hundreds of students gathered outside the main gate of the college Friday morning, holding saffron flags and raising slogans, and clashed with police personnel as they tried to stop them from entering the college.
Students are demanding that the masjid be demolished, claiming that it is “an enroachment”.
“They have no document to prove that it is a Waqf property. We are demanding that nobody be allowed to enter the college premises and offer namaaz inside the college property. They started it and now, we will end it,” said Abhay.
Meanwhile, Varanasi Police have booked 12 persons from the Muslim community for allegedly attempting to spoil the atmosphere outside the masjid, acting on a complaint by the college principal.
These include Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, a litigant in the Gyanvapi mosque case, among others.
‘Face of the property changed over time’
The college administration has, however, said that the issue of seizure falls under the administration’s domain. D.K. Singh, the college principal, told ThePrint that the college has found that the Waqf board has now withdrawn its claim on the college land.
“In 2022, there was a small problem, when they wanted to start some construction and the security tried to stop it as the bricks and other material reached the masjid after midnight. The security informed us the next morning and students began protesting. The police were called and the bricks were removed the same day. Students then objected that the masjid was being supplied electricity with the money that they pay to the college. Its electricity connection was subsequently separated from the college’s connection.”
He added that the care takers of the masjid failed to get an electricity connection on their own because “they could not produce proper papers of the property”.
About the theory of the origin of the mosque, he said, “I had enquired about the story of how this masjid came up. People told me that earlier, there was only a small mazaar made of mud, where a certain family would light a diya everyday. Later, someone put a green cloth over it.”
He highlighted that students had broken parts of the mazaar in the past and that between 1989 and 2012, the face of the property kept changing. “Later, its rooms were built, but clashes with students kept happening before 2012. Things were normal, but suddenly when the CM came here last week, someone circulated the old Waqf notice,” he said.
The college administration is concerned about the students’ studies as the semester examinations are underway in the campus. “If students miss their exams, their entire year gets ruined. After the COVID pandemic, we have streamlined the semester exam system with a lot of difficulty. This is an educational centre and we hope that the law and order situation remains under control,” the principal said.
Also Read: Sambhal Masjid row: A Mughal-era mosque, Gyanvapi-like legal battle & clashes that killed 4
The Waqf Board must be liquidated and all it’s properties brought under the ambit of the Union govt. In a democratic secular polity, there is absolutely no space for an entity like the Waqf Board.