Indian court declares medieval Dhar mosque a Hindu temple The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ruled that the Bhojshala complex in Dhar, home to the Kamal Maula mosque for centuries, is a Hindu temple dedicated to Vagdevi, the Goddess of Speech, effectively barring Muslims from a site where they have worshipped for generations. The ruling, based largely on an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey conducted two years prior, dismissed Muslim petitions and offered the community alternative land to construct a new mosque.
The verdict has drawn sharp condemnation from legal experts and historians. Audrey Truschke, a historian specialising in the Indian subcontinent, stated that "the current trend of targeting mosques in India is part of the entrenched Islamophobia of Hindu nationalism," calling India's restrictions on Muslim religious freedom "appalling." Lawyer Ashhar Warsi, who argued for the Muslim side, described the judgment as "a clear violation of the established rule of law," pointing to India's Places of Worship Act, 1991, which legally freezes the religious character of all worship sites as they stood at independence.
Parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi drew direct parallels to the Supreme Court's 2019 Babri Mosque ruling, warning that it "opened the floodgates for all these claims." Meanwhile, Hindu nationalist Gopal Sharma framed the ruling in civilisational terms: "Secular politics does not run India any more. Modi's Hindutva does."
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