Why are Indian Muslims in Sambhal protesting?

Four Muslim men were killed as a crowd opposing the survey of the Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid in the Sambhal area of Uttar Pradesh state clashed with the police on November 24.

Tensions erupted in Sambhal, a town 158 km from New Delhi, as a dispute over the Shahi Jama Masjid—a mosque dating to the Mughal era—escalated into violence, leaving four dead and prompting the imposition of curfews and internet blackouts.

While local Muslims alleged that the three men were killed in police firing, the administration tried to suggest that they were killed in cross-firing.

The unrest stems from a petition alleging that the mosque stands atop the site of an ancient Hindu temple. The local court’s order for a survey of the mosque, despite the Places of Worship Act of 1991 that bars altering the status of religious sites, has inflamed the Muslim community.

The petition, filed by Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, claims that the Harihar temple holds significant historical and religious importance for the Hindu community.

After hearing the petition, a local court ordered a survey of the mosque which has been listed as a historical site on the town’s website. Authorities in Uttar Pradesh, which is governed by the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), conducted an initial survey of the mosque the same day.

The Muslim community in Sambhal protested against this and questioned the urgency behind the move. As the survey couldn’t be completed on Tuesday; the team went again on Sunday.

According to the police, a protest outside the mosque turned violent as protesters started shouting slogans at the survey team.

For now, the survey has been completed and the full report of findings is scheduled to be submitted by November 29.

The plaintiff, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, shared that the team “conducted a detailed examination of the site, supported by videography and photography as per the court's directives”.

Jain has filed several similar petitions, claiming there were temples where some mosques stand today in the Uttar Pradesh cities of Varanasi, Mathura, and Agra. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rules Uttar Pradesh.

“Biased and hasty attitude”

“The court passed an ex-parte order regarding the mosque without hearing its caretakers,” said Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), condemning the deaths as “not firing, but murder.”

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the petitioners, defended the survey, noting it adhered to “videography and photography as per the court’s directives.”

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, took to X, saying: “The biased and hasty attitude of the state government on the recent dispute in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh is extremely unfortunate.”

Gandhi said the BJP’s use of power to create rift and discrimination between Hindu-Muslim communities is neither in the interest of the state nor the country. He requested the Supreme Court to intervene in this matter as soon as possible and provide justice.

“The administration's insensitive action without listening to all parties further vitiated the situation and resulted in the death of many people - for which the BJP government is directly responsible,” Gandhi added.

A magisterial probe has also been ordered into the protests while the police have lodged seven FIRs in connection with the violence against Zia-ur-Rehman Barq, the opposition Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal.

Barq had opposed the survey on the grounds that the mosque was protected by The Place of Worship Act, 1991, and appealed for peace after the violence. He promised to raise his voice against “police brutality” during the winter session of the parliament.

He, along with his son, Sohail Iqbal, have since been arrested.

The district administration has imposed prohibitory orders and barred the entry of outsiders into Sambhal till November 30.

A case of revisionism

In an interview with the Press Trust of India, Owaisi, said that, “the mosque in Sambhal is not 50-100 years old, it is more than 250-300 years old.”

In the early 1990s, before the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, Indian parliament enacted the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, under which “conversion of any place of worship was prohibited”.

The act mentioned that all religious places of worship would remain the same as it was on August 15, 1947. The Act does not apply to Babri Masjid; it extends to the whole of India barring what was then the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Sambhal mosque, according to Anadolu Agency, is the only surviving Mughal-era building constructed during the time of Emperor Babar, as one in Panipat is in ruins and Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished by a mob in 1992.

The Shahi Jama Masjid, hailed locally as a historical treasure, is among a growing number of Mughal-era structures under attack from far-right Hindu groups, which are looking for pre-Islamic Hindu origins under these sites.

Earlier this year, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stirred controversy by claiming that Haji Malang dargah, a syncretic site, belonged to Hindus. At a rally, he declared his commitment to "liberate it", and “to reclaim” the shrine for Hindus.

What is happening in Sambhal right now mirrors what has been happening to historical places of worship since the 1990s, and aligns with a broader push to rewrite India’s historical narrative, adding fuel to debates over identity, heritage, and communal relations.