From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 22, Dated june 07, 2008
Worship is being allowed at a temple and a church inside the Vellore Fort, but not at a mosque. The people of Vellore are now rallying behind the Muslims, reports PC VINOJ KUMAR
JULY 10, 1806: In the first-ever rebellion against the British East India Company, Indian soldiers storm the 16th-century Vellore Fort, killing 200 British officers before their uprising is crushed. May 9, 2008: thousands of Muslims from a non-political organisation lay siege to the fort, demanding to hold Friday prayers at Nawab Masjid, a historic mosque inside the fort. As expected, the police stop the men, belonging to the 13- year-old Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), from coming into the mosque. A police contingent is now stationed at the mosque gates to ensure its large lock stays unbroken.
Muslims in Vellore have long demanded worship at the Nawab Masjid. But the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) says the mosque is a protected monument and claims prayers weren’t being held there when it took over the fort in 1921. “It [the mosque] cannot be opened for performing prayer,” ASI director (Monument) DR Gehlot wrote in September 2005 to Vellore MP Khader Mohideen. “The status quo has to be maintained.” Following the latest agitation, ASI superintending archaeologist Sathyabama Badrinath repeated the cryptic response to TEHELKA: “The status quo remains.” She refused to comment further.
The Muslims allege that the ASI is being discriminatory. In 1981, a temple and a church inside the 138-acre fort were opened to worshippers after some Hindus forced their entry into the temple and allegedly installed a Siva lingam there. In his book, Vellore Fort and the Temple through the Ages, author AK Seshadri records the event thus: “The staff of ASI could do nothing to prevent the forcible action of the mob, except watch the happenings and complain the incident to the police and the district collector. The district authorities took no action, saying that this is a sensitive religious matter and therefore any preventive action would lead to a law and order problem…”
“There is one set of rules for Muslims and another set for others,” says TMMK president MH Jawahirullah. He alleges that the ASI actually allowed three new temples to be built inside the fort. He also claims the fort now houses as many as 48 government offices that weren’t there when the ASI took over the sprawling premises. who blindly bay for blood.
The Muslims’ demand has fetched support from all the major political parties (barring the BJP, which has little political equity in Tamil Nadu). Surprisingly, some Hindutva parties such as the Hindu Munnani and the Hindu Makkal Katchi, too, have said Muslims should be allowed to pray at the fort’s 18th-century mosque. Vellore MLA C. Gnanasekaran of the Congress also supports the demand. He spoke on the issue in the state Assembly and requested Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to pressure the Centre, under whose control the ASI is, to open the mosque to the Muslims. Gnanasekaran said he will approach Union Tourism & Culture Minister Ambika Soni and seek her intervention in the Muslims’ favour. In April, the 48-member Vellore Municipality adopted a resolution urging the ASI to consider the Muslims’ demand. “All major political parties support the demand,” says Vellore Municipality chairman P. Karthi of the DMK
Church and temple authorities inside the fort, too, back the Muslims. Rev Clive Ponnuraj, presbyter at the St John’s Church, says the Muslims’ right to worship at the mosque is all the more justifiable given that Hindus and Christians are allowed inside the fort. This church belongs to the Church of South India and has about 200 families as members. Sivakumar, a priest in the Jalakanteswarar temple inside the fort, also wants the mosque to be opened: “Everyone has the right to worship their God. That’s what the law of the land says.”
A. Paramasivam, vice president and treasurer of the Jalakanteswarar temple, played an active role in reviving worship at the temple. He recalls the support lent to the Hindus by Muslim League leader, the late Abdus Samad. “There was no worship in the temple for nearly 400 years. He supported our right to revive worship. It is our duty to support the rights of the Muslims now,” he says. Paramasivam and a Christian priest, Rev Baskar, are members of the two-month-old Communal Harmony Association, whose president, Aleem, is head of all the mosques in Vellore. The association has given a memorandum to Karunanidhi on the matter.
THE TMMK, formed in 1995, has earned considerable goodwill for its social work. It actively worked for providing relief during the 2004 tsunami and the 2005 floods, and regularly organises blood donation camps. Though it hasn’t contested any election so far, it supported the DMK in the last Assembly polls in 2006. MH Jawahirullah, its founder president, was formerly associated with the now-banned SIMI and was the outfit’s state president between 1983-1985 and 1987-89.
However, there are differences among Muslim organisations on the style of the agitation, with some being unhappy at the TMMK’s belligerence. GS Iqbal, a leader of the non-political outfit Dravida Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam, feels the TMMK is politicising the issue. “The TMMK is an ally of Karunanidhi. Instead of taking to the streets, Jawahirullah should talk to the CM and ask him to use his influence at the Centre to get the mosque opened.” He also suggests that the TMMK could put pressure on the DMK by asking Tamil Nadu Waqf Board chairman Hyder Ali, who is also the TMMK’s general secretary, to quit his post if the DMK government does not cooperate.
Critics also say that the TMMK is keen to use the issue to build ground support ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections, which TMMK Jawahirullah recently said it may choose to contest. With its sizeable population of Muslims, Vellore can be a good ground for the TMMK’s political debut. Also, around the time the TMMK organised its protest in Vellore, a splinter group called the Tamil Nadu Tauheed Jamaath led by renegade TMMK leader Zainul Abedeen held a massive rally at Vallam in Thanjavur district. The TMMK is being accused of trying to divert public attention away from Abedeen’s rally. But Jawahirullah dismisses such charges saying he submitted a petition for opening the mosque to the CM nearly two years ago. “This year we decided we would wait till April 30 to see if our demands were met. If not, we decided to offer prayers at the mosque on May 9, the second Friday of the month.”
For now, the ASI is refusing to budge. It remains to be seen if the TMMK’s campaign can get past the “status quo”.
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