Waqf land in India grew from 2 villages gifted by invader Ghori to 9.4 lakh acre

Waqf land in India grew from 2 villages gifted by invader Ghori to 9.4 lakh acre

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, November 30, 2024: When 70-year-old farmer Rajagopal from Tamil Nadu’s Trichirappalli district tried to sell his 1.2-acre plot for his daughter’s wedding, he was left shocked. At the sub-registrar’s office, he got a 20-page document saying that his land was, in fact, owned by the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board.

Not just Rajagopal’s plot, his entire village of Thiruchenthurai, home to the 1,500-year-old Sundareswarar Temple, was apparently Waqf land. All the villagers were left scratching their heads.

This 2022 incident in Thiruchenthurai wasn’t an isolated case, 18 other nearby villages were also claimed to be Waqf property.

The total Waqf land in India stands at 9.4 lakh acres, which is approximately 3,804 square kilometres. The process that converted a huge swathe of land that is now considered Waqf property began with the gift of just two villages.

Many experts believe that, after the Indian Railways and the Indian defence forces, the Waqf Boards, collectively, are the third-biggest property-holders in India.

This all began at the very end of the 12th century in Punjab’s Multan, part of undivided India, and flourished with sultans sitting on the throne in Delhi and ruling over Hindustan.
 
What is waqf and the latest debate over waqf bill?

Waqf, meaning to detain or to hold or tie up, is rooted in Islamic principles of charity. Waqf denotes a lasting endowment where property is set aside for religious, philanthropic, or communal purposes, with ownership entrusted to Allah.

This makes the Waqf properties irrevocable and immune to sale or transfer. This means, once property is entrusted in Allah, it can’t be reclaimed.

The ongoing Winter Session of Parliament has seen chaos and heated exchanges over the Waqf Amendment Bill introduced by the BJP-led Centre. The Bill, aimed at reforming the management and regulation of Waqf properties across India, is currently with the Joint Parliamentary Committee for discussions.

Now the Waqf Bill may be tabled during the Budget Session in February 2025, according to sources cited by India Today TV.

Against the backdrop of these discussions and debates on the Waqf Amendment Bill, it is interesting to note how the concept of Waqf came to India with Afghan invader Muhammad Ghori.

Ghori’s Invation: The gift of two villages and the birth of waqf in India

With the early Islamic conquest of Multan by Muhammad Ghori, who defeated the Ismaili ruler in 1175, and the subsequent defeat of the Rajput king Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192, Delhi, along with much of northern and northwestern India, came under his rule.

Muhammad Ghori, an invader of the Ghurid dynasty, after establishing his rule over Punjab, made the first recorded Waqf donation in 1185.

Not just that, Ghori’s victory against Prithviraj Chauhan in the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192 started Islamic rule in India. After his death in 1206, his slaves took charge of his kingdom and started the Slave Dynasty. Those Muslim rulers and the sultans who occupied Delhi’s throne after them, institutionalised the system.

Sultan Muizuddin Sam, also known as Muhammad Ghori, gifted two villages to the Jama Masjid of Multan and entrusted their management to the Shaikh-al-Islam, a title given to a prominent religious leader, according to Insha-i-Mahru, a Persian book by Aynul Mulk Multani.

Multani’s book is a collection of hundreds of letters and their samples used as letters for official correspondence during that period.

Letter number 16 said that the early Waqfs primarily served religious and charitable purposes. They supported mosques, madrasas, dargahs, and other community welfare institutions, according to historian Vipul Singh’s Interpreting Medieval India.

Growth of waqf under Delhi Sultanate

The concept grew and land got converted as Waqf property under the Delhi Sultanate.

The grave of Miran Mulhim in Badaun, Khawja Majd al-Din’s tomb in Bilgram, the dargah of Lal Pir in Azmat Tola at Gopaman, the Qabristan on Bilsi Road in Badaun, and the Ganj-i-Shahidan in Asiwan, Unao, are examples of some of the earliest Waqf properties in India, according to scholar Amir Afaque Ahmad Faizi.

"As the Delhi Sultanate and later Islamic dynasties flourished in India, the number of Waqf properties kept increasing in India," according to an explainer on Waqf Amendment Bill 2024 by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, issued in September.

During the Delhi Sultanate era, the practice gained momentum as successive sultans like Iltutmish and Muhammad bin Tughlaq not only preserved existing Waqfs but also established new ones.

The management of Waqf was significant and played a key role in the political and financial affairs of the Delhi Sultanate, as evidenced by the fact that the Diwan-i-Wizarat, or prime ministers, were entrusted with overseeing them. He had direct access to the Sultan, writes historian Vipul Singh, showing the importance of people managing Waqf properties.

The office of Diwan-i-Rasalat, responsible for judicial and religious administration, was also tasked with the upkeep of Waqf properties, according to a report by the Capacity Building Commission, Government of India.

The proceeds from Waqf supported the construction and maintenance of public amenities such as hauz (reservoirs), madarsas, roads, and sarais. Prominent examples include the Shamsi Masjid in Badayun, constructed during Iltutmish’s reign, and the Waqf for the upkeep of Sultan Qutbuddin’s tomb in Lahore.

"It is a custom among kings, while they are on the throne, to appropriate villages and lands to religious men in order to provide means for the maintenance and repair of their tombs," wrote 14th century scholar Ziauddin Barani in Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi, the biography of Firoz Shah Tuhglaq.

Although the administration of Waqfs in the medieval times was decentralised, but it was highly organised.

Local trustees, known as mutawallis, managed day-to-day operations, while officials like the Sadr us Sudur and Kadis ensured compliance with Islamic law. Rulers, while respectful of the autonomy of Waqfs, occasionally intervened to restore mismanaged properties or replace corrupt trustees, noted according to scholar Amir Afaque Ahmad Faizi.

Sultan Alauddin Khilji, for instance, reappointed the original trustees after the new ones neglected the Waqfs, and initiated reforms to revive their operations. Khilji ruled in the 13th century.

Waqf properties: Mughal India to British Raj

After the fall of Delhi’s Lodhi rulers in the Battle of Panipat, the reins of power shifted to Babur, who came from Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley and established the Mughal Empire in India.

Under the Mughals, the institution of Waqf flourished further, with emperors like Akbar and Shah Jahan endowing significant properties. Akbar’s Farangi Mahal in Lucknow and Shah Jahan’s Taj Mahal are notable examples.

Revealing the scale and importance of Waqfs during the mediaeval period, scholar Amir Afaque Ahmad Faizi writes that the construction of the Taj Mahal by Shah Jahan in the 17th century was aided by nearly 30 villages and a parganah (province) that were endowed.

Over time, the concept of Waqf extended to rural India as Muslim communities settled in the countryside. This expansion also coincided with the conversion of many from underprivileged backgrounds to Islam.

The Waqf system, after developing under various Muslim dynasties, big and small, gained a more formal structure during British rule with the introduction of the Mussalman Wakf Act of 1923. After Independence, this was replaced by the Waqf Act of 1954, which was later updated in 1995 and 2013 to strengthen the powers of Waqf Boards, turning them into key players in land management.

That brings us to the 21st century.

Waqf has grown to become one of the largest landholding entities in India, managing a wide range of properties. From the two villages attributed to Waqf by invader Ghori to its organised expansion under the sultans of the Delhi Sultanate, today, Waqf Boards oversee more than 8,7 lakh properties covering around 9,4 lakh acres of land.

These vast powers of the Waqf boards and the challenges emerging out of them is what the BJP-led Central government is seeking to address with the amendment bill. It is interesting to note how the entire Waqf concept started in the 12th century by Muhammad Ghori, an invader, who gifted two villages.

Courtesy: India Today