Islamic heritage sites razed in India in the name of Delhi's development

The shrine of the Sufi saint in a park in the capital is the latest victim of the Delhi Development Authority's (DDA) "demolition programme", which it says aims to eliminate "illegal religious structures", after a mosque, tombs, shrines and Hindu temples.

This demolition aroused strong emotion among residents and sounded the alarm among historians who deplore the loss of heritage dating from the end of the 12th century.

“It’s a blow (...) to the history that made India what it is today,” underlines historian Rana Safvi.

“This shrine was of a Sufi saint, who was one of the first, if not the first, to come to Delhi,” she added. “I saw people of all faiths come to pay homage to him.”

“Everything is gone”

The shrine of Baba Haji Rozbih was already 500 years old when the Taj Mahal in India was built. It is much less spectacular: a low perimeter wall surrounds a grave at the end of a path in the vast Sanjay Van Forest Park.

But for residents, the loss is painful. “I spent nights here praying, and everything disappeared,” a man, asking to remain anonymous, told AFP. “If we don’t protect our history, who will?”

The demolition campaign, officially focused on development, targeted Hindu as well as Muslim structures.

But the DDA did not provide details on what could eventually replace the razed structures, many of which are now inside forested or reserved areas.

The developments were approved by a religious committee and "the entire demolition program was carried out without any hindrance, disruption or protest", said the DDA, a federal agency aiming to preserve "the unique historical character of Delhi".

According to the Hindustan Times newspaper, apart from the shrine and a mosque, four Hindu temples and 77 tombs were razed by the agency.

These demolitions come at a sensitive time, after campaigns by Hindu nationalists, the majority religion, claiming centuries-old Islamic monuments.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a giant Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodhya in January, built on the site of a centuries-old mosque. It was destroyed by Hindu fanatics in 1992, triggering religious riots in the country which left 2.000 dead, most of them Muslims.

General elections are due to begin in April and Mr Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely seen in the lead.

A “common heritage”

Last month, bulldozers also destroyed the Akhonji mosque in the same forest area of ​​Delhi, which its caretakers said was around 600 years old.

According to the mosque's imam, Zakir Hussain, 40, workers arrived early before dawn to raze the structure without warning.

“When you see the walls of a structure, you realize how long it’s been there,” he says. "We lost it. We cannot rebuild it no matter how hard we try."

For Rana Safvi, “heritage is common to all” and this demolition represents a loss for everyone. “We cannot say that this mosque is a blow only for a particular community or for Muslims because they prayed there.”

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) described the shrine of Baba Haji Rozbih in its heritage list in 1922, specifying that the mystic saint was "revered as one of the oldest saints of Delhi".

According to this description, "local tradition" pointed to a second tomb in the shrine, belonging to the daughter of a 12th-century Hindu ruler of Delhi, Rai Pithura, who converted to Islam under his influence .

The saint's proselytizing would have posed a problem. According to the ASI document, "many Hindus embraced Islam on his advice, and astrologers considered this a bad omen", anticipating the Muslim Mughal Empire that ruled much of India from the 16th century.