Following a legal pattern that has seen several historic Islamic sites reclassified, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has ruled that the Kamal Maula mosque in Dhar is a temple dedicated to a Hindu goddess.
In a detailed report for Al Jazeera, journalists Yashraj Sharma and Mohammad Sartaj Alam documented how the ruling has immediately altered the religious landscape of the Bhojshala complex, a protected monument that has been the subject of dispute for decades.
The court’s decision has effectively ended the local Muslim community’s access to the site. For Mohammad Rafiq, the 78-year-old muezzin who has served the mosque for 50 years, the ruling is a profound personal and communal blow.
Rafiq told Al Jazeera that the mosque had been a central part of his life and that of his grandfather, Hafiz Naziruddin, who led prayers there even before India’s independence in 1947.
Following the judgement, the site was draped in saffron flags as Hindu worshippers, supported by far-right Hindutva activists, installed a temporary idol of the goddess Vagdevi amidst a significant police presence.
The High Court’s judgement relied extensively on a survey conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) two years ago.
However, speaking to the Al Jazeera reporters, historian Audrey Truschke criticised the methodology of such surveys, describing the current trend of targeting mosques as part of an “entrenched Islamophobia” designed to harm Muslim communities.
Legal representative Ashhar Warsi also challenged the verdict, arguing it violates the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which was intended to preserve the religious character of sites as they stood in 1947.
Warsi further noted that British Museum records indicate the idol of Vagdevi was originally found in the ruins of the City Palace in 1875, not at the mosque site.
The broader political implications of the ruling were highlighted by Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi, who told the writers that the judgement “reeks with the stench” of the 2019 Supreme Court ruling on the Babri Mosque.
Owaisi suggested that such legal outcomes are increasingly based on popular faith rather than justice or evidence, potentially opening the door for similar claims across India.
While Gopal Sharma, a local Hindu organiser, celebrated the verdict as a restoration of “Hindu civilisation,” the Muslim community has pledged to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court.
