Verdict of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on 15 May declaring Kamal Maula Mosque – Bhojshala complex as a Saraswati temple and a Sanskrit learning centre, and directing Muslims to seek alternate land, is revealing. This comes in the immediate context of the latest Assembly elections and the fascist “double engine” directly extending its stranglehold over 78 percent of the Indian population. This judgement of the Court is a gross violation of the 1991 “Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act”, preventing the reopening of historical religious disputes. Following the Court ruling, without wasting time, on 16 May itself, the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) has issued an order stating that Hindus shall have “unrestricted access to the Bhojshala Complex” along with the discontinuing of “the offering of namaz” by Muslims.
Of course, as in the case of Babri Masjid, the issue connected with Kamal Maula Mosque in Dhar in MP is a dispute whose history dates back to 14th century ( around 1310- 1320 AD) when Dhar was under the rule of the Sultanate. According to historical records, since then the Kamal Maula Mosque in Dhar was utilized by Muslims as a center for Islamic worship and the burial site of the Sufi saint Shaikh Kamal Maula, associated with the Malwa Sultanate period. However, as in the case of Babri Masjid, following the claims of Hindu groups who identify the site as the Bhojshala complex with a temple dedicated to Saraswati, the mosque -temple dispute intensified integrally linked up with the colonial policy of Hindu-Muslim divide. In fact, the term “Bhojshala” itself was popularized during British rule in the early 20th century by a local education officer following the 1903 “discovery” of Sanskrit shlokas inscribed on the floors and pillars at the venue.
Even as the dispute was going on, following an administrative order by the princely state of Dhar in 1934, Muslims started performing regular Friday namaz at the Bhojshala complex in Dhar. However, endorsing the Hindutva claims, the ASI under Vajpayee government made an arrangement on 7 April 2003 which allowed Hindus to perform poojas at the “Bhojshala complex” on Tuesdays and during the festival of Basant Panchami, while Muslims continued to offer namaz on Fridays. Now, the present landmark verdict of the High Court entrusts the entire disputed site to Hindus, declaring the complex’s true religious character as Hindu and suggests the need of alternate land to build a mosque for the Muslim community. While the Hindutva forces characterize this one-sided judgement as “historic and the result of a 700-year struggle”, and smacks of the historic Supreme Court judgement on 7 November 2019, handling over the entire disputed Masjid-Mandir site to a government-created trust for the construction of a Ram Mandir.
Of course, this is a tragic repetition of the same pattern that was witnessed in the case of Babri Masjid. In the background of decades of legal battles, a district judge ordered the inner gates of the Babri masjid to be unlocked in February 1986, officially permitting the Hindus to enter and perform puja and darshan inside the premises. Consequent to Rath Yatra, the site was later demolished in 1992. Later, the Supreme Court gave the disputed structure to the Hindu community. The Ram Mandir was subsequently built and consecrated while prime minister Modi himself was the main “Yajman” during the ceremony in 2024.
The case of Kamal Maula Mosque is not an isolated or the last one. In this no holds barred Hindutva move towards “new history writing” and its implementation, Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, Shahi Masjid in Mathura, etc. are already in the queue. At a time when all institutions of State power, including even the judiciary, are saffronised, it needs to be identified that this denial of religious rights to the Minorities, is part of the ongoing majoritarian move towards their disenfranchisement and denial of citizenship altogether. It is high time on the part of all secular, democratic and all anti-fascist forces to come forward resolutely and relentlessly resisting this heinous majoritarian fascist offensive towards a Hindu Rashtra.
P J James
General Secretary
CPI (ML) Red Star
New Delhi
17. 05.2026
