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Mosque As Monument: the Afterlives of Jama Masjid

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This article was downloaded by: [Hilal Ahmed] On: 23 April 2013, At: 21:27 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK South Asian Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsas20 Mosque as Monument: The Afterlives of Jama Masjid and the Political Memories of a Royal Muslim Past Hilal Ahmed a a Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi To cite this article: Hilal Ahmed (2013): Mosque as Monument: The Afterlives of Jama Masjid and the Political Memories of a Royal Muslim Past, South Asian Studies, 29:1, 51-59 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2013.772814 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. South Asian Studies, 2013 Vol. 29, No. 1, 51–59, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2013.772814 Mosque as Monument: The Afterlives of Jama Masjid and the Political Memories of a Royal Muslim Past Hilal Ahmed* Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi This article examines various political images of Jama Masjid of Delhi to find out the ways in which historic buildings are transformed into monuments of various kinds. More specifically,it studies a particular event of 1987 when Jama Masjid, a functional Muslim religious place of worship, was closed by its own Imam. The paper makes a broad argument that the afterlives of historical objects produce various kinds of monumentalisation. In the case of postcolonial Muslim politics, especially in north India, the commemorative capacities of historic mosques are politically evoked, not merely by stressing their religious significance as religious places of worship but also by highlighting them as a Muslim contribu- tion to the making and remaking of the official postcolonial idea of ‘Indian heritage’. Keywords: mosque; Muslim; monument; monumentalisation; heritage; commemoration; afterlives The afterlives of historical objects as a conceptual cate- religious place of Islamic worship goes alongside an gory draw attention to multiple modes by which these equally infinite afterlife of state protection. objects are seen, interpreted, represented, discovered, The virtual conversion of Jama Masjid into a ‘centre’ classified, categorized, and even destroyed. This concept of Muslim politics in postcolonial India symbolizes questions the neutrality of historical objects and points another kind of afterlife for this mosque.1 The eleventh towards diverse socio-political processes, which trans- Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Abdullah Bukhari, form them into various conflicting categories: monu- who is still remembered for his election fatwas of the ments, museums, memorials on the one hand, and 1970s and 1980s, re-discovered the political potential of mosques, temples, graveyards, and maqbaras (tombs) this historic mosque. Bukhari made some crucial changes on the other. This paper is about the production and to the public presence of this mosque: he installed a reproduction of these diverse categories. It focuses on notice board in Urdu narrating the painful story of Jama Masjid of Delhi, one of the most famous mosques India’s minorities, especially Muslims, and introduced of South Asia, to investigate the question: how do the some interesting political rituals such as issuing farmans conflicting afterlives of historical objects produce var- (decrees) to mobilize the public for his speeches and ‘ ’ Downloaded by [Hilal Ahmed] at 21:27 23 April 2013 ious kinds of political memories ? sermons. He started wearing a particular kind of clothing Two conflicting afterlives are examined here. Firstly, to establish a direct link between his political activities this essay considers the transformation of Jama Masjid and the memories of a Muslim rule in India. Thus, Jama into a historical monument of a specific kind. Technically Masjid, which had already been monumentalized, found speaking, Jama Masjid is not a protected monument in a new afterlife as a Muslim political centre.2 the strict legal sense. Yet, its representation as a symbol In order to examine these two conflicting afterlives, of medieval Muslim heritage in postcolonial India con- I focus on an important political event – the closure of verted it into an officially recognized ‘historical object’. Jama Masjid for regular prayers in 1987. I choose this Precisely for this reason, the Archeological Survey of event for two reasons. Firstly, this event signifies an India (ASI) was directed by the government to provide interesting political act – the closure of a mosque. special funds and technical support for the proper upkeep Usually, mosques in India are used for mobilizing and maintenance of the building of this historic mosque. Muslims for socio-religious and even political activities. This specific form of monumentalisation offers an offi- The demand that historical mosques under the protection cial identity to Jama Masjid. The mosque continues to of the ASI should be opened for regular prayers had been function as a religious place of worship despite the state’s an important political agendum for Muslim groups in the direct involvement in the conservation of its built struc- 1980s. The Imam of Jama Masjid, on the other hand, ture. So, Jama Masjid’s eternal life as a functional decided to close the mosque to the public, and so *Email: [email protected] © 2013 The British Association for South Asian Studies 52 Hilal Ahmed highlighted the secular status of Jama Masjid as an his- the Muslim legal-constitutionalists, particularly the lea- torical monument. This secularization of Islamic politics ders of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat in postcolonial India makes this event very significant. (AIMMM); the Muslim radicals led by Imam Bukhari; Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, this event is and the ulema of the All India Muslim Personal Law also linked to a memory of a royal Muslim past. The Board (AIMPLB). Imam closed the gates of Jama Masjid precisely to The case of Babri Masjid was full of potential for all demand that the gates of Babri Masjid should be opened of them.5 Firstly, the Babri Masjid dispute was primarily for Muslims. Jama Masjid was thus linked to another a legal case in which the question of the right to worship Mughal mosque, Babri Masjid, which had been forcibly was involved. The physical existence of a mosque under occupied by a section of local Hindus in Ayodhya in 1949 the control of the state could have been shown as a form and opened for restricted worship for Hindus in 1986. of legal injustice and infringement of minority rights by Thus, both mosques – Jama Masjid and Babri Masjid – the legal-constitutionalists. Secondly, the dispute over were politically represented as monuments by the Imam Babri Masjid was related to medieval Muslim rule. The in order to redefine the memories of a royal Muslim past Hindutva claim – that Babri Masjid was actually built on in an interesting way. This article makes the broad argu- the very site of a temple built by Mughal Emperor Babar ment that the commemorative capacities of historic mos- and therefore that the site should be given back to Hindus ques are politically evoked by Muslim political groups in – could have been the most attractive aspect of the case postcolonial India, not merely by stressing their religious for the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid. It was possible for significance as places of worship but also by highlighting him to establish a link between Jama Masjid and Babri them as Muslim contributions to the larger post-colonial Masjid. He could have portrayed Babri Masjid as a sym- Indian heritage. bol of Muslim subjugation in contemporary India. And, I would like to make two important clarifications finally, Babri Masjid was a mosque, which had a specific here. I use the term ‘political memory’ to understand the wakf status under Islamic Sharia. The issue could cer- ways in which the ‘past-consciousness’ of a social group tainly be approached by the ulema from a Sharia point of is transformed into what Jan Assamann calls ‘actual view. They could have ‘exposed’ the crisis of Islam and memory’–the memories that are generated when histor- the virtual dominance of Hindus in secular India. ical objects are given new meanings in public dis- These issues were closely related to each other and it courses.3 In this sense, I make an attempt to explore was not possible, at least at that date, for these political various contending modalities – history, memory, myth forces to focus on any single aspect of the case. The – to trace the political meanings of Jama Masjid as an legal constitutionalists were incapable of mobilizing historical object to make sense of the discourse of a ‘royal common Muslims simply by projecting the Babri Muslim past’. The second clarification is about the term Masjid case as a ‘constitutional matter’.Theyhadto ‘monumentalisation’. I make a conceptual difference rely on people like Shahi Imam for popular politics between ‘historic architecture’ and a ‘monument’ to and ulema for acquiring a ‘religious’ sanction for their understand the process by which a particular building political moves.
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