In the Bidar district of Karnataka, 9 Hindus were booked by the police for merely entering a Mosque and offering prayers. The police action came after the videos of Hindus offering prayers at the Mahmood Gewan Madarsa and Mosque went viral on social media. The incident reportedly took place on Dussehra on the 6th of October.
In an assault against the syncretic and composite culture of India, the Muslim community filed an FIR against the Hindus alleging that Hindus tried to break the locks of the Mosque and raised “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” slogans. The complainants also warned the police to aggravate their protests on Friday if the accused persons are not arrested. According to reports, Hindus have been booked merely for offering puja, however, nobody has been arrested so far.
While the Muslim community has been outraged by the actions of these Hindus, the Superintendent of Police Dekka Kishore Babu said, “It is a regular practice from the Nizam period of performing Pooja during Dasara. There is a minar inside the mosque complex. Usually, 2-4 people visit but this time there was more number of people who entered the place. Nobody illegally broke the lock to enter the mosque. We have registered an FIR and will be arresting the miscreants.”
Inspector General of Police, Gulbarga said that every year Hindus go near the Masjid to perform Puja on Vijaydashmi and this occurrence is not new. It would seem like it was only this year that the Muslims of the area decided to stop Hindus and raise alarm over the incident.
While the police said there was nothing unusual about Hindus offering prayers in the premises of this Mosque and no lock was broken, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi took to Twitter to fear monger.
An attack on the syncretic culture of India?
It is pertinent to note that the police have gone on the record to say that Hindus offering Puja at the Mahmood Gewan Madarsa and Mosque on Vijaydashmi is an event that takes place every year. They have also clarified that contrary to what Muslim leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi are claiming, nobody attempted to break the lock of the mosque to illegally enter it.
Despite this, the running narrative on social media has been that Hindus “desecrated” the faith of the Muslim community by offering prayers at the Mosque and raising the slogan that pays respect to Bharat as a Goddess to be revered.
Interestingly, in the past, there have been several instances of Muslims offering Namaz inside temples that have been hailed as an example of the inclusive, tolerant and syncretic culture of India where faiths inter-mingle freely.
In April 2022, in Gujarat’s Dalvana village, a historic Hindu temple opened its doors and invited Muslims to break their Ramzan fast and offer Namaz at its premises. The media hailed the move as a signal of brotherhood and love while reports of communal strife emerged from various parts of the country. According to the report, some 100 Muslim rozedaars of the village were given an invitation to offer Maghrib Namaz (Jumma Namaz) and break their day-long fast during Ramzan inside the premises of a 1,200-year-old temple holding great social and religious significance for the people of Dalvana.
In 2018 as well, reports emerged from Uttar Pradesh that Hindus in a village had offered to 100s of Muslims that they could use the temple premises for offering Namaz. A Deccan Herald report read, “In an example of Hindu-Muslim unity, a group of Muslims offered ‘namaz’ (prayer) at a Shiva temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahar district, about 500 kilometre from Lucknow, on Sunday.
The report further read, “According to reports, a group of Muslims were returning home after participating in a religious meet, attended by thousands of their community members. The group was caught in a jam. The members of the group were desperately looking for a suitable place for offering ‘zuhr’ (namaz offered at midday) prayer as it was time for the same. Sensing their desperation, some Hindus from the nearby Jounpur village suggested to their Muslim brethren that they could offer the prayer at the Shiva Temple, which was very close to which they agreed readily. The gates of the temple were opened and arrangements were made for the prayer, reports said adding that around one hundred Muslims offered prayers at the temple and its adjoining ‘dharamshala’ (inn)”.
In fact, there was widespread outrage when members of the Muslim community were booked for offering Namaz at Mathura temple recently. In 2020, a Hindustan Times report read. “According to the FIR, the four accused — Faizal Khan, Chand Mohammad, Alok Ratan and Neelesh Gupta — reached the temple at about 12.30 pm on October 29 and performed the “84 kos parikrama” that is common in Hindu prayers in the Mathura’s Braj area. “[Later] photographs of the two Muslims offering ‘namaz’ in the temple premises were uploaded on social media by Faizal Khan. This has hurt Hindu sentiments,” alleged Goswami. “No permission was sought from the priests or administration for offering ‘namaz’. Also, the photos of the ‘namaz’ were made viral on social media,” Goswami said in the FIR, adding that these images could be misused to fan communal tensions”.
When the Mathura incident happened, there were several “liberal” portals and individuals who condemned the arrests. One such cartoon by Manjul posted on FirstPost said that nobody could be sure if the Muslim men had been arrested for offering Namaz in a temple or “spreading love and communal harmony”.
It was said that Faisal Khan was a Gandhian activist working for Communal Harmony by offering Namaz inside the Mathura temple and that it was “turned communal” when he was arrested for celebrating India’s syncretic culture.
In fact, it was alleged that Faisal Khan has been offering Namaz in temples for the sake of communal harmony for decades. But it was only under Yogi Adityanath that he is seen as a threat.
One has to wonder why the incident of Hindus offering Puja in a Mosque is different from the incident of Muslims offering Namaz in temples which were viewed as exercises in maintaining communal harmony and promoting brotherhood by the very people who are today outraging against the Hindus.