Waqf boards are India’s big urban landlords. But whose interest are they serving?

Waqf boards are the third largest landowners in India, after Armed Forces and Railways. But India’s Muslim community is still struggling for basic needs.

The main purpose of the huge waqf board universe in India is to serve the Muslim community. But even as the waqf board has emerged as the third largest owner of land in the country, Indian Muslims are struggling for basic needs and fare worse than Dalits on several socio-economic indicators. Waqf owners today are India’s largest urban landlords.

Waqf is a type of charitable endowment in Islamic law where the ownership of a property is transferred to Allah and the property is permanently dedicated for religious or charitable purposes. The person making the waqf (known as waqif) may specify the purposes for which the income generated by the property should be used. This could include supporting the poor and needy, maintaining a mosque or other religious institution, providing education, or funding other charitable causes.

In this way, waqf is considered a form of religious charity that allows individuals to contribute to the welfare of society and earn spiritual rewards. Waqf properties are managed by a waqf board, which is responsible for ensuring that the income generated by the property is used in accordance with the wishes of the waqif and Islamic principles.

The concept of waqf has its roots in early Islamic history, with the practice established during the time of Prophet Muhammad. During the Islamic Golden Age, waqf institutions played a critical role in the development of Islamic scholarship and education. Many of the world’s oldest universities, such as Al-Azhar University in Cairo (Egypt) and the University of Al Quaraouiyine in Fez (Morocco), were founded as waqf institutions.

History of waqf in India

Waqfs in India date back to the beginning of the Delhi Sultanate. In Waqf Laws and Administration in India (1968), authors S Athar Husain and S Khalid Rashid provide an overview of the history of waqfs. According to them, Sultan Muizuddin Sam Ghaor dedicated two villages to the Jama Masjid of Multan.

However, during the British Raj, a dispute over a waqf property ended up in the Privy Council of London. The four British judges who heard the case described the waqf as “a perpetuity of the worst kind” and declared it invalid. It is important to note that the decision of the four judges was not accepted in India, and the Mussalman Waqf Validating Act 1913 saved the institution from destruction. Today, after the Armed Forces and the Railways, the waqf is the largest landowner in India.

In 1954, the Jawaharlal Nehru government passed the Waqf Act, which led to the centralisation of waqfs. Under the Act, the government established the Central Waqf Council in 1964.

In 1995, the law was amended to allow the formation of waqf boards in each state and union territory. The Central Waqf Council serves as an advisory body to the Centre on matters related to waqf properties. Any dispute is decided by a waqf property tribunal headed by a member of the state service and two other members (not necessarily Muslims). Some states like Bihar have separate Shia and Sunni waqf boards.

Pasmanda Muslims bear the brunt

The dismal performance of waqf boards raises a question on the purpose of these institutions.

Waqf properties are not generating enough profit for the community, and there have been several allegations of corruption and mismanagement since Independence. Each state has its own story to tell, from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal. In September 2022, AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, Delhi Waqf Board chairman, was arrested for alleged misappropriation of waqf funds and other irregularities. Last month, the Centre seized 123 waqf properties.

These are just a few examples that show how the waqf board has become a tool to save the interest of elite (Ashraaf) Muslims and ordinary Indian Muslims get nothing out of it.

Ashraaf have been serving their own interest by using the numerical strength and marginalised status of Pasmanda in the name of minority politics. The waqf board is no exception. Like all other Muslim institutions in India, waqf boards are also ruled by Ashraafs and have negligible participation of Tribals, Dalits and Backward Muslims.

Pasmanda Muslims also bear the brunt of reaction coming from other communities over special privileges given to waqf boards by the 1995 Act. No other minority group has so much land for the place of worship. In fact, Hindu temples and their land still belong to the State. Additionally, waqf making claims on others’ lands only adds to the fault lines among communities and affects Pasmanda Muslims more than anyone else.

Time has come to re-examine the purpose of waqf boards and whose interest they really serve.

Who are the Pasmanda Muslims?

A Persian word, ‘Pasmanda’, means the ‘ones left behind’, and is used to describe depressed classes among the Muslims, while underlining their deliberate or conscious exclusion.

• Pasmanda has become an umbrella identity used by backward, Dalit, and tribal Muslims to push back against caste-based discrimination against them within the community.
• The term ‘Pasmanda Muslims’ was first used in 1998 by Ali Anwar Ansari when he founded the Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz.
• According to the founder, Pasmandas include Dalits as of now, but all Pasmandas are not Dalits.

What is the history of the Pasmanda Movement?

• The movement to ensure social justice for Pasmandas, and the recurrent use of the term, gathered pace in the post-Mandal era.
• Its best known flag-bearers in the period before Independence were Abdul Qayyum Ansari and Maulana Ali Hussain Asim Bihari, both of whom belonged to the julaha (weaver) community.
• Both these leaders opposed the communal politics being propagated at the time by the Muslim League, and challenged the League’s claim to represent all Muslims.
• The movement actually began in 1910 onwards. These were reformist in nature, but also acted like pressure groups led by upwardly mobile lower caste communities.

Are Muslims divided along caste lines in India?

• Muslim society in India consists of several status groups or biradaris that are broadly sorted in three categories:

1. The Ashrafs (the ‘noble’ elite or the ‘honorable ones’),
2. The Ajlafs (backward Muslims), and
3. The Arzals (Dalit Muslims).

• Ashrafs – They are Muslims who either claim to have a foreign pedigree, descendants of Muslims from Arabia, Persia, Turkey, Afghanistan (Syeds, Sheikhs, Mughals and Pathans), or who are upper-caste converts from Hinduism (Rajput, Gaur, Tyagi Muslims among others).
• Ajlafs – They are middle-caste converts, who were into ritually “clean” occupations.
• The momins (weavers), darzi or idiris (tailors), rayeens or kunjaras (vegetable sellers) fall in the Ajlaf bracket.
• Arzals – They are from the lowest, “untouchable” castes like halalkhors, helas, lalbegis or bhangis (scavengers), dhobis (washer-men), nais or hajjams (barbers), chiks (butchers), and faqirs (beggars).
• They were first recorded in the 1901 census.

While Islam does not mandate the creation of such groups, these caste categories are a lived reality for Muslims across the country

What is Rajinder Sachar Committee Report?

• It was formed in 2005 to study social, economic and educational condition of Indian Muslims.
• According to his report, one can discern three groups among Muslims:

1. Those without any social disabilities, the Ashrafs;
2. Those equivalent to Hindu OBCs, the Ajlafs, and
3. Those equivalent to Hindu SCs, the Arzals.

• Those who are referred to as Muslim OBCs combine Ajlafs and Arzals.

What is the Constitutional status of those muslims?

• The Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950, had restricted Scheduled Caste (SC) status to Hindus, keeping Dalit from other religions out of its ambit.
• The order was later amended (in 1956 and 1990) to include Sikhs and Buddhists.
• The implementation of the report of the Mandal Commission brought the non-Ashrafs, Ajlafs, and Arzals, under the OBC category.
• The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, known as the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission, which submitted its report in May 2007, acknowledged that the caste system impacted all religious communities in India, including Muslims.

How they are demographically distributed?

• In the absence of a caste census, a clear estimate of the present-day numbers and demographic distribution of Pasmanda Muslims is not available.
• The Sachar Committee in its report put the number of OBC and SC/ST Muslims at 40% (all India 2004-05).
• Pasmanda activists and scholars do not agree with this figure.
• They claimed that pasmandas’ make up 80-85% of the total Muslim population in India.
• This broadly tallies with the 1871 census that said only 19% of Muslims in India were upper caste, while 81% were made up of the lower castes.

What are the demands of the Pasmanda Muslims?

• Pasmanda Muslims say that despite their overwhelming numerical strength within the community, they are under-represented in jobs, legislatures and government-run minority institutions, as well as community-run Muslim organizations.
• Pasmandas are also opposed to the demand for giving religion-based reservation to the entire Muslim population, arguing that it ignores unequal access to state resources within the community.
• The major Pasmanda demands include conducting a caste census, restructuring of the existing reservation categories, and state support for artisans, craftsperson, and agricultural laborers, who are among the most impoverished groups in the community.
• They demanded that Dalit Muslims be included in the SC list and the OBC quota be redesigned to create an Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs) category at the Centre and the state level to include the most backward Muslims along with Hindu EBCs.
• As an example, the Pasmandas hold up the Bihar model, where a separate MBC category was carved out within the OBC list and most backward Muslim castes, according to the Sachar committee was placed in that category.
• Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP — these five states have Meo Muslims who need to be included in the ST category.