In every corner of the Kashmir Valley, there are shrines, mosques, seminaries and Sufi lodges. Like many other places, in Kashmir too, religious and charitable land was often created through oral trust-based agreements. A Sufi lodge might have been built where a mystic often stopped to pray and share his teachings with the local community.
According to data from the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, over 32,000 kanals of land fall under its administration—one kanal is about 5,445 square feet. Yet, large portions of land remain undocumented or partially registered. The ‘waqf by user’ principle allowed such properties to be legally recognised based on their consistent communal use, even in the absence of formal documentation. With the new Waqf law to govern Muslim properties—that gives the government a larger role in validating their landholdings—there’s a fear among the local people that these sacred spaces might be reclassified, disputed or even quietly erased.
Reporter: Toibah Kirmani
Camera: Yasir Iqbal
Editor: Sudhanshu
#Kashmir #WaqfBoard #ReligiousHeritage #SacredSpaces #WaqfLaw #Muslim #Properties #CulturalErasure
According to data from the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, over 32,000 kanals of land fall under its administration—one kanal is about 5,445 square feet. Yet, large portions of land remain undocumented or partially registered. The ‘waqf by user’ principle allowed such properties to be legally recognised based on their consistent communal use, even in the absence of formal documentation. With the new Waqf law to govern Muslim properties—that gives the government a larger role in validating their landholdings—there’s a fear among the local people that these sacred spaces might be reclassified, disputed or even quietly erased.
Reporter: Toibah Kirmani
Camera: Yasir Iqbal
Editor: Sudhanshu
#Kashmir #WaqfBoard #ReligiousHeritage #SacredSpaces #WaqfLaw #Muslim #Properties #CulturalErasure
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LearningTranscript
00:00This is Khan Kaimala, a 650-year-old shrine in the middle of Srinagar, built in memory of Shahi
00:06Hamdan, a Sufi scholar, poet and saint from Iran's Hamdan province. Yasin Zahra is the Mujahver,
00:14the traditional caretaker of the shrine like his father, his grandfather and generations before
00:20him. But in 2022, Zahra charity box was taken away. The Jammu and Kashmir work board, now under
00:28central control, banned Nasruniyahs, the age-old practice of devotees offering alms to shrine caretakers.
00:48The board currently administers over 32,000 canals of land, yet much of it remains undocumented.
00:56Earlier, the work-by-user principle allowed recognition of land simply through consistent
01:01community use. Now, under the new central workflow, those unwritten bonds face legal invalidation,
01:09people fare, their sacred lands might be disputed, reclassified or quietly erased.
01:15In parliament, BJP minister Kiran Rijuju praised the board's work, citing Rs. 40 crore
01:22in revenue, under Dr. Dharakshan Andhra B, a BJP-appointed tapison of the Jain Kivak board.
01:28The first time we had problems here, we had to end it.
01:33Three years ago, there was a new change. There was a new change.
01:36There was a new change that people had first time in Jammu and Kashmir,
01:41that the work board was working and the work was popular.
01:46The work was not popular here. We had no return to our employees.
01:49We didn't give any rent. We didn't give any rent.
01:52But small shopkeepers say the hikes were back-breaking. Some in Srinagar say their rents jumped by a thousand percent.
01:57But small shopkeepers say the hikes were back-breaking. Some in Srinagar say their rents jumped by a thousand percent.
02:05Newly elected Srinagar MP Rahula Mehdi said that transparency is not the problem.
02:21This is an infringement upon, encroachment upon the rights of Muslims, the religious rights of Muslims.
02:27This is an infringement upon, encroachment upon the rights of Muslims, the religious
02:33rights of Muslims.
02:34The Section 26 of the Constitution categorically says that any property belonging to a religious
02:42denomination, to a religion, has to be run and managed by the people of that religion.
02:50It is the Constitution.
02:51So you can have a mechanism to check the corruption.
02:55It is the system, monitored, created and monitored by the government itself.
03:00On April 7, as protests broke out in the assembly of the Waqq bill, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
03:06posed with BGP Minister Kiran Rajuju in the Dilif Garden.
03:11The opposition criticised him.
03:13How can the Chief Minister welcome the very man who introduced a bill to disempower Muslims?
03:18They asked.
03:19The chaos exposed rifts even within Kashmir-based political parties.
03:24People of Jumayen Kashmir needed to express their opinion about this bill and Jumayen
03:29Kashmir assembly was one of the best platforms after the parliament to express their opinion
03:36through a democratically elected government representing the aspiration of the people of Jumayen Kashmir.
03:45The opposition MLA's accused the ruling National Conference of drama and failing to stand up for the Muslim community.
03:51Why it was not allowed to happen, I'm surprised, I don't have an answer for that.
03:56Opposition MLA's accused the ruling National Conference of drama and failing to stand up for the Muslim community.
04:03Rwama MLA Vahirpara called it a fixed match.
04:07I think the whole issue about Waqq in Jumayen Kashmir or the Waqq in whole of the India is
04:12that whether the custodianship of Muslim properties, Muslim assets, Muslim heritage, mosques, graveyards or Muslim ziyarths
04:21will lie with the Muslims or with the non-Muslims.
04:25This is not an issue about transparency. This is not an issue of bringing more eroding corruption in the Waqq properties.
04:32We may rationalize it, but there are Muslims who are capable of bringing transparency also.
04:37This is an issue of faith for us and we do not want non-Muslims to be fiddling with the issues of faith.
04:43The opposition also pointed to states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which passed resolutions against the bill
04:50and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee for taking a clear stand.
04:54In comparison, they say the National Conference had betrayed Kashmiri Muslims.
04:59The JNK Assembly has 50 Muslim MLA's out of total 90.
05:04The NC spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq defended the party.
05:08The only assembly in this country which stood, which protested peacefully, which asked for opposing the Waqq amendment bill
05:18and for three days, there was a message from the assembly that not only the National Conference,
05:24the House opposes the Waqq amendment bill.
05:27And just after the House was adjourned, we went out and we said our fight here is over.
05:34Now our fight will be in the Supreme Court.
05:36This secular country has many religions.
05:39Why only single out Muslims in that? Nobody can answer me that much.
05:43The day the BJP or the people answer me this, why Muslims? Why not Christians? Why not Sikhs?
05:50Why not Hindus? Why not any other religion? Why only Muslims?
05:54This should tell you what the actual idea or what the actual scheme of things are.
06:00Change has come coitely to Kashmir's sacred spaces.
06:03But on the ground, between what's written in law and what lives in practice,
06:08the question remains, who controls the sacred?