Is Indian Muslim community really marginalized? Almost every other week if not month we all hear that socio-economic status of the Muslims in India is worse than any other community. Is it true? Not only do we hear this but we also hear about a report published in 2006 called as Sachar Committee report. Ever since the report was published Mr. Owaisi refers to it every other day.

Islam came to India as a fully developed ideology of an aggressive and self-righteous imperialism. It tormented Hindu society for several centuries. It should have been demolished and dispersed when its imperialist hold was broken at last, after a long struggle. But it was allowed to survive and its inherent aggressiveness was not tamed. Hindu society had meanwhile deceived itself into believing that Islam was just another religion and, therefore, entitled to reverence.

Pakistan and Bangladesh are their fixed deposits. Those are Islamic states. No one else can lay a claim on them. India is a joint account. Plunder it as much as you please. This is how Shri Shiva Prasad Roy, a very perceptive Bengali writer, has summed up the situation in what is described as the Indian subcontinent now a days but what has been known as Bharatavarsha since time immemorial.

Muslim spokesmen, no matter what political platform they use, have levelled the same sort of accusations, namely, that the Muslims are a poor and persecuted minority entirely at mercy of a brute Hindu majority; that Muslim lives, properties and honour are not safe in the midst of a rising tide of Hindu communalism; and that Hindu chauvinism is seeking to wipe out all vestiges of Muslim religion and culture.

Islam has established its theocratic states on both sides of the truncated homeland which Hindu society has been able to retain for itself. It has driven away millions of Hindus from their ancestral homes, and has been harassing in a most harrowing manner millions of other Hindus who have been unable to escape from its bigotry.

Below is a tweet which clearly shows their one-track mindset.

Hindu society should have done some hard thinking about Islam and its invariably vicious behaviour which Hindu society has witnessed for so long and at such great cost to itself. But that is exactly the habit which Hindu society seems to have lost - the habit of hard thinking.

Land Jihad - Waqf Board owns a whopping 6 lakh+ acres of land

In 2013, the then Congress government made amendments in the Waqf Board law thereby giving Muslims infinite rights. This amendment gave the Waqf Board the power to declare any piece of land as theirs, not limited to the land belonging to temples and trusts. As such, currently, the Waqf Board owns a whopping 6 lakh acres of land – the largest, only after India’s Defence Forces and Indian Railways. In reality, the Waqf Board was never in possession of such obscene amount of land; however, owing to the lack of knowledge and indifferent nature of Hindus pertaining to this law, the Waqf Board is literally running amok usurping lakhs of acres of land across the country. The Land Jihad being perpetrated by the Board is far more dangerous than Love Jihad. Hindus should unite and fight this battle legally – Adv. Hari Shankar Jain of Supreme Court and President of ‘Hindu Front For Justice’, has appealed. He was speaking at the Ninth All-India Hindu Rashtra Convention organised by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, held online.

Land Jihad being carried out by Waqf Board by usurping lakhs of acres of land, much more dangerous than Love Jihad; Hindus need to fight this ! – Adv. Hari Shankar Jain, Supreme Court

He said further,

1. Wakf Board has taken over private properties of Hindus, properties of temple trusts and even government lands; therefore, there is disintegration of Hindus’ assets. Presently, Wakf Board is holding maximum land after Indian Railways.
2. In the year 1923, Wakf Board had common rights; but after Congress took over, maximum special rights were conferred on Wakf Board in 1954, 1995 and 2013. As a result, Wakf Board took possession of whichever land it wanted; however, Hindus are still inactive and indifferent.
3. Hindu advocates should study laws related to the Wakf Board. Research needs to be conducted on lands taken over by Wakf Board. The land-owners, who have not been given information about their lands, can give legal fight.
4. Hindus should become alert when they see a board displayed by Wakf Board on any land. Wakf Board has grabbed Hindus’ lands, on large scale, in Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. We can get back these lands in a lawful manner
5. We can even go to Supreme Court to get justice so that Wakf Board’s game of looting Hindus’ properties could be stopped. Hindus can be given this information by holding work-shops

While speaking at the occasion, Sadguru (Dr.) Charudatt Pingale, National Guide, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti said, “Our ancient Indian system of education, judiciary, administration, medical science, science of architecture etc. is truly advanced and the best in the world. After Lord Macaulay, Pandit Nehru plagued by Communist ideology gave the rights and responsibilities of designing India’s education policies to the Communists. As a result, the Left has caused much more damage to India in the last 70 years than what the Mughals and the British did in 1000 years. The Leftists are now attempting to tear the country into pieces. To counter this, Hindus should empower themselves by learning our real history and culture.”

"Hindus from across the globe should now freely express their voice of conscience – of establishing Hindu Rashtra, so that fellow Hindus from across the world get awakened and raise their voice for the cause. The sooner we unite, the faster will the resolve of establishing Hindu Rashtra materialise."

Hindu Rashtra is based on truth. Hindus are law-abiding and altruistic people; therefore, I make an appeal to all citizens for living life as per Hindu ideology. Hindus’ temples are not meant only for going there and bowing your head; but here, along with God’s ‘darshan’, one gains knowledge and learns the goal of human life. Everyone will be benefited with establishment of Hindu Rashtra. Don’t leave the path shown to us by our ancestors. Earlier we unite, sooner will be establishment of Hindu Rashtra. Getting inspiration from the 8th all-India Hindu Convention, we held a regional Convention at Chhattisgad. We are proud that the long pending dream of Hindus is getting fulfilled with ‘bhoomi-pujan’ at Ayodhya. People following all four ‘Varnas’ will be happy in the ‘Rama-rajya’ envisioned by us. Hindu Rashtra is a concept that would help human’s progress. We are also proud that the concept of Hindu Rashtra is being presented through this Convention.

What is the Waqf Board Property Act 1995?

As per HRA 1991, the religious state of all places as of August 15,1947 stays the same and cannot be even challenged in court.

Waqf act 1995 empowers them to attach even our properties; no need to give us notice. If we have any issue against it (if we ever come to know it), we can appeal to Waqf board which is a Muslim body; you can’t go to court. Power of Waqf is absolute!! They can order district collector to attach property under them without going to court!!!

Wakf: Generous Muslims adhering to the principles of ‘endowment’ embedded in Islam often bequeath large and valuable acreage of properties in the name of God. The proceeds from these properties are dedicated to meet the exclusive needs of the poor and also to the perpetual maintenance of the bequeathed property. This type of property bequests made by Muslims is called ‘Wakf’.

Waakif is a person who so dedicates his or her property.

Mutawalli is a person nominated by the Waakif to manage the affairs of the Wakf property.

Wakfs in India include Mosques, Dargahs, Khanqahs, Maqbaras, Ashoorkhanas, Qabristans (graveyards), Takiyas, Idgahs, Imambaras, Anjumans and so on. However, the Wakf premises mean “any Mosque, Graveyard, Mazar, Takiya, Eidgah, Imambara, Dargah, Khanqah, Maqbara, Anjuman and land appurtenant or belonging to them, the property dedicated for their maintenance, the property purchased from their income, the land, garden, well, baoli, school, hospital and other institutions dedicated as Wakf and the passages used leading to the Wakf premises”.

After the basic definitions, lets move on.

As per the earlier report there were more than 4.9 lakh registered Wakfs spread over different states and union territories of India. The total area under Wakf properties all over India is estimated at about 6 lakh acres and the book value at about Rs 6,000 crores. However, the fun part is that these numbers are half a century old. That is the area and the amount are from 1960s and ’70s. As per the report this 6 lakh acre of Wakf property as in early 2000s market rates can be put at Rs. 1.2 lakh crores. Wakf properties in Delhi alone is in excess of Rs. 6,000 Crores. And along with this, these properties can generate at least a minimum return of 10 per cent which is about Rs. 12,000 crores per annum and an average return of 20 per cent. As a matter of fact, British during their rule in India extracted 1.1 million pounds by just imposing taxes in Bengal which were formerly tax-exempt.

We could technically build four Statues of Unity by just using a year of return from the Wakf properties (3000*4=12000). Even if we leave compounding and other complex mathematics aside, the average return would help us build some where around eight of them if not more. Am I correct? Don’t forget the area under consideration is from the ’60s. And just to give you a perspective of how big 6 lakh acres is; if these fragmented pieces of properties are put at one place it would be more than twice of the total area of today’s Delhi (NCT).

The report does not give the maximum potential, because the government has no data about the Wakf properties in the country as of today. In fact the very first mandate of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Wakfs 1996-2006 asks the concerned authorities to assess, ascertain and Identify the Wakf properties in the country. And also identify the Wakf properties illegally gifted, transferred, mortgaged, leased or sold etc.

So,  I visited Waqf Management System of India (WAMSI)  (https://wamsi.nic.in/wamsi/base/home.jsp) website and noted Wakf Estates, immovable and movable properties of all the states of India to find startling steep increase in their numbers.

Waqf Board Properties as on 29th September 2021

Is #KagazNahiDikhaenge (will not show the papers) a strategy to avoid declaring properties like this? 

Will not get an Adhar Card, will not use a bank account, linking account with the Aadhar does not even make sense, as both of them don’t exist. In short, will not do anything that would give the government a lead on where the properties are and how much the properties are. Just put the poor and women in the front and the discourse of the discussion goes to a different tangent altogether.

Also to mention that there are two types of Wakfs, Public wakfs and family wakfs (alal aulad), the report only and only talks about public wakfs. It does not even touch the surface of family wakfs.

All our famous Temple lands have shops and you know who has occupied these shops - its mostly Muslims. If they claim like this tomorrow what are we going to do?

Once such tweet today shows a Police man asking Rohingyas to remove their commercial stores blocking from main door of Kashi Vishwanath Temple.

Land acquisition issues

Since Wakf properties are scattered all across the country, they are at both the prime locations as well as the sub-urban areas, are they the reasons why governments face serious issues while acquiring land to build anything? Just put the faces of farmers and tribals and once again the narrative changes altogether.

We have recently seen Assam issue of illegal encroachment where there has been continuous demand and many marches done against encroachers.

The encroachment began from early 1980s and often resulted in violent clashes, but the administration mostly remained indifferent to illegal encroachments. For record, in 1978, during a by-poll to the Mangaldoi LS constituency, the detection of 45,000 illegal names in the electoral rolls triggered the Assam agitation (1979-85) against illegal immigrants. While the encroachment of more than 77,000 bighas of government land was revealed in an RTI response in 2013, there was an official order in 1994 to evict 194 families of doubtful nationalities from that area. However, no action was taken.

“We lost grazing lands for cattle. Our dairy business suffered heavily. Our daughters cannot move around freely for the fear of getting abducted and sexually assaulted by these encroachers. The administration has been of little help,” says Jeherul Islam, 52, a dairy farmer in Sanowa village, adjacent to Dholpur. Since 2011, the Assam government introduced a transparent teacher appointment system based on Teacher Eligibility Test (TET). But several women recruits refused to join work, following a series of brutal rapes and murders in areas dominated by Bengali-speaking Muslims.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the total area under encroachment in Assam is more than the size of Goa.

There are thousands of such examples where Government land, Hindu's temples or their properties are grabbed illegally. Today only in a tweet by @FreeTemples the following incident was mentioned:

Baffling question - Is Vedaranyam Temple controlled by Wakf Board - 2 M Schools Quathe Millath, Al Noor in temple land. Now we find that 6000 Sq Ft land has been usurped by one Sahul Hameed constructin building. Gets fast track NOC for construction, EB connection!

Where are the funds generated from these Wakf Properties or assets being used? 

Are these funds used in Shaheen Bagh like events? Money had to come from somewhere. Right?

Is it a form of Land Jihad?

This can be explained using following diagrams:

If you consider the bigger rectangle as the area of India and the smaller circle within as the Wakf land, the bigger rectangle has a fix area and will not increase unless India starts invading other countries, which is never going to happen. But the smaller area is expanding at a rate that we are not aware of. But what we are aware of as per the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha (2004-12), K. Rahman Khan, the Wakf Board was already the third largest land holder in the country after Defense and Indian Railways. At the time when the government faces difficulties acquiring these pieces of land, what is a common non-Muslim going to do? What happens to the non-Muslims? Where will they go? Moreover, one of the court cases talking about the similar situation has been quoted in the report too.

If you are thinking, Wakfs are used only for social causes, the report clearly debunks this thought and states a variety of instances where the Wakfs are used for private purposes to build shops, complexes, buildings etc. There are innumerable instances where Wakfs are treated by Mutawallis as their personal properties. From dargahs, the offerings are sometimes appropriated by them. By the way, have you been paying your visits at Dargahs and peers for some miracles? Good!!!

So coming back to the original question, Is Indian Muslim community really marginalized and at economic disadvantage? I will not answer this, but instead I will rephrase the question for you and leave you to ponder upon. Is the Muslim community in India investing everything they got in their religious agenda even at the cost of their socio-economic well being?

Think about it and do let me know your views in the comments below. And if it does make sense to you, please do share the article with others. Everyone should be aware of what is going on in the country. This is extremely important because once they know things like this, they would come up with better arguments when people want religious Hindu institutions to make contributions for non-religious purposes. Different states and governments were able to impose taxes on Hindu temples and were able to control them, when other religious institutions were kept out of purview of the state only because Hindus did not give a damn about these things. I urge every reader to share this article or report similar to take this research further.