Ajmer: The legal suit claiming that a Hindu temple is located under India’s most important Sufi shrine, the tomb of 13th-century saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, comes just as the dargah is preparing for its 814th urs or annual festival.
The flag to mark the beginning of the festival will be unfurled on December 28, the dargah said while announcing the schedule for the event which will end on January 10, 2025.
On Wednesday, an Ajmer court accepted a petition claiming the existence of a Sankat Mochan Mahadev Temple within the Dargah complex and issued notices to the Dargah committee, the Archeological Survey of India, and the Ministry of Minority Affairs. The matter was kept for further hearing on December 20.
As the dargah became the latest religious place to get caught in claims that it was built over a Hindu shrine, the news shocked Sufis, members of a religious tradition that incorporates worship at the dargahs of saints. The Sufi Islamic Board said they will file an intervention application in the case before the case comes up for hearing. The suit is meant to spread unrest, Sufis said.
The suit asks the government authorities to revoke the registration of the dargah and allow Hindus to worship at the site. Sufis said this dispute was different from the other tussles over religious sites. “Unlike mosques where Hindus are not allowed, dargahs are visited by Hindus. Hindus have been praying at the Ajmer dargah for centuries. The saint is a buzurg (a wise elder) followed by millions of Hindus,” said Mansoor Khan, president of the Sufi Islamic Board.
Also, unlike disputes that are centuries old, the only mention of a temple in the dargah premises is in a book on Ajmer’s history published in 1911. Another distinction for the shrine is that it is governed under a special law, the Durgah Khawaja Saheb Act, 1955. “How can a lower court pass an order on a subject that is governed by a law passed by parliament? The parliamentary law is above the Code of Civil Procedure,” added Khan.
Sufi Raj Jain of the Sarv Dharam Khawaja Mandir, an organisation dedicated to the saint’s teachings, said that Hindus and Sikhs are followers of the saint. “He has been accused of converting people to Islam, but it was his message of social equality that attracted people. I have studied his life and I can say that he did not convert people. Sufi saints built bridges and not pits,” said Jain who travels from his home in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, every few months to worship at the shrine.
Sufi are meeting on Friday to decide their legal response to the suit. They said that the suit should not be admitted as the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991, requires the maintenance of the character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947. Only the Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid dispute, now settled, was made an exception under the law.
