For over a century, generations of Muslims have worshipped in a mosque that stands just across the road from the prime minister’s official home in the heart of India’s capital. Now the historic mosque, older than the Indian republic itself, faces the threat of demolition.
Bulldozers work nearby as fears mount that the Race Course Mosque will soon be torn down as part of an ongoing drive to clear the surroundings of the prime minister’s residence.
The nearby Delhi Race Club, a city landmark since the British colonial era, is already a pile of rubble and an old Hindu temple is feared to be under threat as well, sparking protests over the wanton destruction of religious and cultural heritage in the heart of the capital.
The mosque and the temple stand desolate amid the wreckage of some 700 homes that were bulldozed earlier this month despite protests.
Muslim worshippers have not been allowed in the mosque since 16 October.
The Indian government is preparing to destroy the mosque at a time when it’s facing allegations of bulldozing Muslim homes, businesses and places of worship on flimsy legal grounds, particularly in states ruled by prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP party. Amnesty International, among many human rights organisations, has condemned a pattern of “bulldozer justice” aimed at punishing activists from minority groups, mainly the country’s 200-million-strong Muslim minority.
The Independent visited the area on Wednesday and found that a gate had been freshly installed across the lane leading to the mosque, the temple, and the settlement where hundreds of people lived until not very long ago. A bulldozer was busy demolishing a wall to create access to a plant nursery after the new gate blocked its old entrance.
“Brother, sir, please open the gate,” Mohammad Ejaz, a 25-year-old salon worker, hollered to security personnel manning the gate.
He was one of many worshippers denied entry to the mosque on Wednesday. “See, they have closed off everything. They are not letting anyone go into the mosque. Look at all the barricades they have set up, look at how many security personnel are sitting there,” Ejaz complained to The Independent.
“We pray regularly here, including on Friday. Prayer is our faith, after all. They aren't letting us into the mosque. They aren't even saying anything, they are just sitting there silently. They haven't been letting anyone in for several days now.”
The Race Course Mosque is one of 141 structures listed as heritage sites by the New Delhi Municipal Council, a designation that affords protection against demolition or major alterations.
It’s also listed as a Waqf property since 1977, according to records reviewed by The Independent, meaning it is officially recognised as an endowment under which land or property is permanently dedicated for religious or charitable purposes. Yet a notice put up outside the barricade by the Land and Development Office of the federal housing and urban affairs ministry claims the land belongs to the government.
“Any unauthorised occupation, encroachment, construction, or other illegal activity on this land is a criminal offence,” the notice reads, warning of punitive and legal action.
The Independent contacted the Land and Development Office, the authority behind the changes, for comment about the newly erected notice and the reasons for the demolition drive as a whole, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
The mosque’s imam of almost 36 years, Mohammad Harun, issued an SOS video message on Tuesday after authorities cut the utilities and restricted access to the place of worship.
“This is a historic mosque. Land belonging to the mosque is registered in the Waqf Board’s gazette. The mosque is included in the heritage list and is a very old structure,” he told The Independent.
The Race Course Mosque sits on a 1.24-acre plot and can accommodate up to 800 worshippers. It has had a registered electricity meter for over 50 years, water supply since 2008, and an authorised sewerage connection, the imam said, and it has duly paid the bills. Yet he was given no more than a verbal warning to evacuate the premises within a matter of days.
On Thursday, with the utilities still disconnected, he remained hopeful. “It is hoped that no injustice will take place and the government will show empathy,” Harun tells The Independent.
“This mosque is not just a historical site, it is heritage of this country and a symbol of secularism. It is a symbol of faith, and the government understands this. Our electricity and water supply have not been restored yet.”
Nearby, the priest of the Hindu temple, Keshav Raj Shastri, said worshippers were being prevented from entering, although no written or verbal evacuation order had been issued.
“We do not have electricity or water right now. I live here with my family,” he said in brief comments before the gates were opened for him.
Huda Zariwala, a political activist campaigning against the demolition of the religious sites, was among the few worshippers who managed to enter the mosque on Wednesday after slipping past the security barricades.
“We saw many of the structures demolished. We saw rubble from around 700 homes and families that were displaced. Their homes have been razed to the ground,” she said. “The mosque is adjacent to all of that rubble.”
She feared both the mosque and the temple were being targeted for demolition.
The proposed demolition of the mosque is part of a wider clearance drive encompassing a nearby slum settlement, barely 500m from the prime minister’s residence, which is being cleared out in phases.
The drive began in August with the demolition of the Delhi Race Club, built in 1926 and home to northern India's only major race course, distinguished by its horseshoe-shaped track. Its stables, winning post, photo-finish camera, saddling enclosure and other facilities were turned to rubble.
The club had challenged its eviction in the Delhi High Court but lost. The Land and Development Office had cited an “important public purpose” and “planning and development” as reasons for taking over the land and demolishing the club.
This was followed by the flattening of some 700 homes and shanties in the slum. The government’s representatives brought up national security concerns, claimed they needed to clear unauthorised constructions near sensitive installations.
Zariwala rejected the arguments, saying the now-displaced families had lived there for generations.
“What is it that they plan to do with the land? What is it they plan to do after, God forbid, targeting and demolishing the temple and the mosque?” she asked.
Asaduddin Owaisi, parliamentarian and leader of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party, told The Independent that the mosque’s status as a Waqf property was recorded in a 1977 gazette, and that its history predated that record.
Owaisi, a critic of the Modi government’s sweeping changes to laws governing Muslim charitable assets through the Waqf Amendment Act, described the Race Course Mosque’s situation as a “classic example” of how the act could be used to facilitate the takeover or destruction of Waqf properties.
“This amendment is not in favour of protection of Waqf properties but to ensure that masjids and all Waqf properties are taken away from the Muslims,” he said.
He also questioned who would benefit from the proposed redevelopment of the area. “Will it be private entities, private industrialists?”
For the displaced residents of the area, the blame for the destruction of their homes lies squarely at the door of their high-profile neighbour, prime minister Modi.
Vipin, who goes by only one name, showed his government-issued identity card bearing the address of his former home as he broke down outside the barricade across the way to the place he called home.
“They demolished it before we could take our belongings out. Our blankets got buried in the rubble,” he said.
“Modi will leave this whole place deserted. Tell me, how will we survive the cold? They aren’t letting poor people live here. It was a good place. Our family lived here.”
The evicted families have been given flats in a resettlement colony in northwest Delhi, 45km away near the border with Haryana state, separating many from their jobs and established livelihoods.
Rajinder Kumar, whose family had lived at Race Course for generations, said the demolitions destroyed his faith in Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.
“Poor people lived in these shanties. We will never vote for the BJP again, not as long as we live. They have destroyed everything,” he said. “We have been allotted a flat, but what will we do there? You tell me. The whole area is like a jungle. Our work is here.”
For Mohammad Anas, 26, the forced relocation has turned his working day into an exhausting ordeal, with four hours spent travelling to and from his job.
Showing The Independent a video of his house being demolished, he became emotional as memories of the day came flooding back. “Even this noise of the bulldozer breaking down the walls is unsettling me,” he said.
