A unique, over 400-years-old symbol of religious co-existence comes under the hammer of hate-mongers

More than four hundred years of unique religious co-existence was buried under the debris with the demolition of a mosque reportedly built by Emperor Akbar in the precincts of the early medieval Sawai Bhoj temple complex on July 27 at Asind in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan.

A religious site as old as the 10th century AD, the Sawai Bhoj temple complex is dedicated to 24 Bagrawat brothers, and Sri Devnarayan, folk heroes of the Gujars, a north Indian peasant community. The reigning deities of the temple complex are Sawai Bhoj, the eldest of the Bagrawat heroes and his son Devnarayan whom the Gujars consider a god incarnate.

Legend has it that while roaming these wild parts, Emperor Akbar and his battalion lost their way and strayed into this green wet patch with its multiple Gujar shrines. The great Mughal’s elephant, they say, was completely exhausted and on the verge of breathing its last when the serene lush place rejuvenated the animal. A miracle, the emperor thought, and grateful, he erected a mosque where he offered his namaaz, surrounded by all those holy shrines of the Gujars.

It was not a mosque, as we usually understand it. No roof, no four walls. On a slightly raised platform, it was just a wall, 15 feet high, 12 feet wide, with a minaret rising from its each edge and a small dome in the middle.

Some people are quick to seize on the unusual architecture of this mosque to deny that it ever existed — and now demolished. "It was just an old decrepit wall that was demolished for renovation in the temple complex," says Laxmi Narayan Gujar, former Congress MLA and chairperson of the Sawai Bhoj Temple Trust. "Nobody ever offered namaaz there. It was a wall where Naga Sadhus, halting for the night, would lean against with their chillums," says Kaluram Gujar, former Rajasthan minister, BJP leader and a leading member of the trust.

For three days after the demolition, the district administration, too, echoed this view. The Bhilwara superintendent of police told this corespondent on July 30: "There was no mosque in the temple precincts. The dispute should only really be regarding the Badiya Dargah, tucked away in one corner of the sprawling temple estates."

It was like denying the undeniable. "This is nothing but a collusive conspiracy to cover up the sin," says Sheikh Rafique who heads the Badiya Dargah Committee and is a local Muslim leader. Confronted with hard documentary evidence in the days following the demolition, at least the district administration has changed its stance on the existence of the mosque. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot told newspersons on July 31: "The demolition of the historic mosque in the Sawai Bhoj temple complex at Asind and the trouble created by hoodlums at Badiya Dargah within the complex was unfortunate. We will not spare the guilty."

To its credit, the tiny Muslim community at Asind has fought back astutely, with restraint and documentary evidence. What is the evidence that a mosque existed? A video cassette of 1998 in possession of Sheikh Rafique, filmed by none other than the temple trust itself during a festival. A reference in Bagrawat Mahagatha, a chronicle of the Bagrawat legend and historical facts about the place, written 30 years ago by eminent scholar, freedom fighter and former state Congress chief, Rani Laxmi Kumari Chundawat. An application given by local Muslims to the chief minister in April this year for permission to renovate the place. An FIR in the police records when the mosque was first damaged 16 years ago in 1985. Waqf Board records, showing the appointment of a mutwalli (caretaker) of the mosque. And, of course, the obvious fact that every body in Asind was well aware of the mosque’s existence.

As for regular namaaz at the mosque, even Muslims agree that hardly any body went there for it. It was what they call a ‘Qalandari Masjid’, a roofless unorthodox mosque found only in the western region of South Asia and Iran. Where wayfarers and spirits stop briefly to offer namaaz. Till 30 years ago, they recall, there was a fakir to look after the mosque, offering namaaz, lighting lamps and joss sticks, and breaking bread with the mahant of the Sawai Bhoj temples. In fact, the fakir and the mahant jointly looked after the mosque’s maintenance.

That was the beauty of the place. A pretty unorthodox mosque set amidst a close cluster of temples. And a Dargah, Badiya Dargah, established some 50 years ago at the site of two medieval graves of Muslim fakirs, nestling in one corner of the 147- hectare temple estate. Both maintained by the temple estate management. The priests of two different faiths breaking bread together — a unique harmony of beliefs.

In March-April this year, a towering three-storeyed lavish temple came up amidst the beautiful cluster of small old shrines. In addition, two rings of boundaries, inner and outer, were built to encircle the temple estate. During the renovation, a few Gujar bullies raised murmurs of demolishing the Sawai Bhoj masjid, resenting its presence inside their temple complex. But some Gujar elders prevailed against this.

It was then that the Muslims requested that they be allowed to renovate the mosque. Obviously, they were apprehensive as they recalled the 1985 attack on the mosque. As trouble started to brew, the attention of everybody got diverted because of a side-show enacted by a local bully, Mansukh Singh, who played a leading role in the communal trouble later.

Along with the inauguration of the new three-storeyed Devnarayan temple in the complex on April 8, a statue of the late Gujar leader and former Union minister Rajesh Pilot was slated to be unveiled by chief minister Ashok Gehlot. But Mansukh Singh, a gas agency owner, a strongman and self-styled head of the ‘International Rajesh Pilot Brigade’ vowed that he would not allow a non-Gujar to unveil the statue of a Gujar leader. To the district administration’s and the organisers’ relief, Gehlot cancelled his programme due to former deputy prime minister Devi Lal’s death.

The communal flare up took place during the annual urs at the Badiya Dargah which fell this year between July 26 and 28. On July 26, some Gujar youth, led by Mansukh Singh, obstructed access to the dargah. A second point of friction was over the issue of tents being put up around the dargah for the urs period. The next day, on July 27, the local tehsildar came to the dargah with a patwari (both petty revenue officials) to oversee drinking water arrangements for the urs fair. But some one spread a rumour that the government officials had come to measure land that the local administration would settle permanently in favour of the dargah.

The rumour was sufficient reason for Mansukh Singh to lead a mob of some 200-300 Gujars, attack the place and burn down the rows of tents put up around the dargah. It was claimed that Muslims had violated the agreement regarding the number of tents to be put up for the urs. The mob also beat up a few Muslims present at the dargah, mostly beggars and women, as nearly all the Muslim men had gone to offer Friday prayers at the main mosque in Asind town. This happened in the presence of the police who were posted there in anticipation of the trouble. The local administration says the police were far outnumbered by the armed mob. But it did manage to save the dargah by forming a human wall.

Meanwhile, the Gujar mob that created trouble at the dargah, entered the temple complex, demolished the mosque, hastily raised another platform over the razed one and installed a Hanuman idol. The particularly shocking fact was that the mosque was demolished in the presence of the police. When asked about it, the district collector preferred to keep mum.

How is it that the religious shrines, which co-existed in such harmony for so long became a point of such contention?

It began with the formation of the Sawai Bhoj Temple Trust and probably the politics of competitive religiosity that accompanied it. As long as the temple complex was managed by traditional Gujar mahants, it was the temple management that looked after the mosque and the dargah located on the temple grounds. The first attack on the mosque, damaging a minaret, happened in 1985, soon after the formation of the temple trust in 1981.

The main accused in this attack was Harjiram Gujar, a prominent RSS worker of the area and an important member of the Trust. It was the then Congress MLA and the chairperson of the trust, who brokered a compromise with the Muslim community to repair the mosque. The FIR, lodged by one Akbar Khan whose father had been the mutawalli or caretaker of the mosque, was then closed by the police.

In 1991, during the BJP rule in the state, the land records were manipulated to show the dargah as an agricultural land. Land records prior to that showed the dargah for what it really was.

Though the trust is headed by a former Congress MLA, Laxmi Narayan Gujar, its composition is heavily weighted in favour of the sangh parivar with people like former BJP minister Kaluram Gujar, present BJP MLA Ramlal Gujar and RSS full-timer Harjiram Gujar dominating the show. The competitive political pulls within the trust for Gujar leadership would be apparent even to a casual onlooker. Once the sentiment of a sizeable section of Gujars is aroused, the demands of competitive politics are such that the rest of the trust members have to succumb.

For instance, the trust chairperson Laxmi Narayan Gujar lauds the maintenance of the dargah — that also catered to the spiritual needs of the Muslim Gujars from Kashmir and across the border — by the trust management for so long, but denies the existence of the mosque. The competition is more acute now as the demise of Rajesh Pilot has created a vacancy for a new Gujar leader nationally.

The Muslims are demanding the restoration of the mosque and a permanent passage to the dargah. The administration seems to have persuaded most of the members of the temple trust to accede to the latter demand. As for the restoration of the mosque, the administration has persuaded the Muslims to abide by whatever the Waqf Board finally decides and not press the issue now. But seeing the record of the local administration in the present dispute, Muslims are apprehensive.

What makes matters worse is that the present district collector was handpicked by the previous BJP government and promoted to the IAS over scores of Rajasthan administrative service officials. Moreover, in the past year-and-a-half, there have been four small communal incidents in Bhilwara district and the attitude of a section of Gujar leadership is also hardening.

Former BJP minister Kaluram Gujar says that they still have to decide whether they would make a reference to the Waqf Board, the talk by administration notwithstanding. Meanwhile, the state government has succeeded in persuading the temple trust to have the Hanuman idol removed from the disputed spot.