Haryana: Hindu Radicals Don’t Allow Employing of A Regular Imam To Lead Five-Time Daily Prayers, Attack Muslims For Repairing the Mosque

Hindu radicals in Bhora Kalan village of Haryana’s Gurgaon district don’t allow the local Muslims to employ a regular Imam from outside the village to lead five-time daily prayers. They attacked the Muslims recently when they were repairing the damaged part of the mosque due to recent rains.

Syed Khalique Ahmed

BHORA KALAN VILLAGE(Haryana)—Hindu radicals don’t allow Muslims of this village to emplioy a regular Imam from outside the village to lead five-time daily prayers and teach the basics of Islam to Muslim children. The Muslim population is around 400 in this village having a total population of around 20,000. There is no Muslim in the village properly qualified to lead the daily prayers as well as Friday and Eid prayers.

The village falls in the Gurgaon district and is about 3 km off the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway 48. The Muslim residents say their ancestors came to this village in 1810, and their families have lived since. The village is about 80 kms from Delhi, the national capital.

The village was a part of the princely state of Pataudi with Iftikhar Ali Khan (father of cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan) as Nawab and had a mosque with mud walls and a thatched roof. However, the old mosque lost its existence in 1947 when several people from the village chose to shift to Pakistan. Owing to the extraordinary situation, Muslims lived without a mosque for decades and went to the nearby town of Pataudi to offer Friday and Eid prayers. They prayed at home on other days.

However, they set up a prayer hall over a piece of a 150 square-yard plot they purchased from a fellow Muslim who had shifted to Pataudi after selling his landed properties in the early 1990s. In 1994, they converted the hall’s interior into a proper mosque with a “Mehrab” and a “mimber” or pulpit from where the Imam delivers ‘khutbah’ or sermons on Fridays and on Eid days. The mosque was expanded into ground plus one building when the strength of ‘namazis’ (those who perform namaz) went up over time.

The villagers also appointed an Imam to lead the prayers. Among those visiting the mosque for prayers included the native Muslims and Muslims from other places who had set up their shops and other businesses in the village. The Muslim community had no problem with the Hindus, and both lived peacefully.

However, the local Hindus objected when the number of ‘namazis’ swelled, and many of them occupied the space on the terrace of the mosque and adjoining Muslim houses on the day of Alvida, or the last Friday of Ramzan in 2013, to offer congregation Friday prayer.

Nazar Mohammed(67), a retired subedar from the Indian Army, police officials and the local Sub Divisional Magistrate(SDM) rushed to the mosque to control the situation after they learned about the development. “To sort out the problem, the local Hindus put two conditions: Firstly, No one except the native Muslims will come to the mosque for prayers; and secondly, no Imam from outside the village will be employed in the mosque,” said Nazar Ahmed. “We accepted the conditions in the interest of peace and harmony though both the conditions are illogical because this amounts to interference in our religious affairs,” he said. 

Currently, the prayers are led by Nazar’s grandson Pervez and another youth Nasir. Pervez and Nasir, who have memorized the last chapter of the Quran, also lead Taraveeh (late-night prayers) in Ramzan. Pervez completed his graduation in arts from Zakir Hussain College in Delhi and is now planning to do a course in management. But Nazar says a full-time Imam is required to meet the religious requirements of the local Muslims and impart spiritual and religious knowledge to local Muslim boys and girls. But he says it is impossible without support from the local Hindu community because some radicalized elements have strongly opposed it.

Opposition from the radical Hindu elements is so strong that some don’t want to repair the part of the mosque damaged due to rains and other reasons. Repair work on the first floor to plug the leakage and replaster the roof and part of the walls resulted in an attack on the ‘namazis’ on October 12 night. The radicals also oppose any extension of the mosque by adding an extra floor or even horizontally.

Narrating what happened on October 12, Nazar Mohammed said that repair work was happening inside the mosque when about 200 Hindus came to the mosque. Somebody had told them that Muslims were expanding the area of the mosque. However, when they saw that there was only repair work going on, they were convinced and went back.

However, some teenagers aged between 18-20 years, armed with firearms, came to the mosque around 8 pm the same day when Isha (night prayers) was going on. Without any reason, they attacked the ‘namazis’, including two old persons who were sitting in chairs due to knee problems. They picked up a plastic chair and hit Nasir, who was leading the prayers. While others escaped, Nasir was overpowered by the youths. He was, however, freed when his family members and Muslim youths arrived on hearing about the attack. The attackers forced the Muslims to vacate the mosque and then locked it from the outside.

Police, however, broke the lock and deployed security at the mosque for a few days. Police also lodged an FIR against unnamed persons for vandalism in the mosque and attack on Muslim worshippers. However, no arrest has been made so far. Nazar Mohammed told this scribe that since the issue had been resolved amicably by the police and local administration, he was contemplating withdrawing the FIR in the interest of peace and harmony.

The village is going for the ‘sarpanch’(village head) elections on November 11, and canvassing is in full swing by different candidates contesting for the post. Many say that some people resorted to mosque vandalism to polarize the voters in favour of a particular candidate. But Nazar Mohammed asks why Muslims should be made a scapegoat for the political problems of someone else. No Muslim candidate is in the fray for the village election. In fact, it has become a culture all over the country to target Muslims for no fault of theirs to polarize voters in the state assembly and parliamentary elections. Many political parties have been resorting to delivering hate speeches by their leaders to create division in society for their political gains. Unfortunately, this is being accepted as a new normal in Indian politics, and even courts have not taken a serious view of it. Hate-peddling has, therefore, acquired a very dangerous shape. What happened in the mosque in this village on October 12 is a manifestation of a deep-seated hostility at a local and minuscule level.

SHO of Bilaspur Police Station Ajay Kumar, under whose jurisdiction the village comes, expressed his inability to comment on the episode. He also refused to say anything about the local Hindus not allowing Muslims to appoint an Imam for the mosque. When contacted, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Pataudi, Harinder Singh, said he was busy in court.

Sitting ‘sarpanch’ Yajvinder Sharma, when contacted, said he was not against the appointment of an Imam, but some people were indeed opposed to it. However, he candidly admitted that what happened at the mosque on October 12 was wrong. “And it is also wrong to prevent Muslims from appointing an Imam from outside the village. They have a right to have an Imam. I will handle the issue once the election ends,” Sharma assured.