Centre wants Krishi Bhawan mosque removed. How did Qadeemi Masjid get there?

The Qadeemi Masjid, located on the premises of the Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi, predates India's Independence. The Centre wants it removed for the Central Vista project. But how did a mosque come to exist inside a government complex in the first place?

The Centre on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that a century-old mosque, located inside the Krishi Bhawan complex in New Delhi, must be removed to make way for new government buildings under the Central Vista redevelopment project. It also said that retaining the structure within the office complex is "impermissible and incompatible with the secular character of government property".

The Krishi Bhawan is a Nehruvian-era government building located on Doctor Rajendra Prasad Road in New Delhi's Central Secretariat. Built after Independence, it hosts several central government ministries and departments, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Department of Rural Development, and Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying.

The Krishi Bhavan building is set to be demolished as part of the Centre's plan to redevelop Central Vista, India's central administrative area located near Raisina Hill in New Delhi. And alongside the Krishi Bhawan, the century-old Qadeemi Masjid also faces possible demolition.

So, how did a mosque come to be located inside a government office complex in the heart of the national capital? The history of Qadeemi Masjid, as presented by its caretakers in court, goes back to the time before Krishi Bhawan was built.

In an affidavit in the High Court, the Centre said a permanent religious structure within a government office complex was not permitted and was incompatible with the secular character of government property. The mosque stands on the site where Common Central Secretariat Buildings 4 and 5 are to be constructed, said the Centre.

A MASJID OLDER THAN INDEPENDENT INDIA?

In a petition filed before the Delhi High Court in September this year, seeking protection for the mosque, the caretaking committee of Qadeemi Masjid claimed that the structure is more than a century old and predates the present government complex. The committee said its existence was "documented by various historical records, going as back as 1945." India got independent in 1947, two years later.

"Qadeemi" comes from the Urdu word "qadeem", meaning ancient or old.

The September 17 order by Justice Anish Dayal of the Delhi High Court recorded the submissions made by senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for the petitioners. According to the order, Khurshid told the court that the mosque "is a structure of considerable antiquity and has been in existence for more than a century".

He further said, "Its existence predates the establishment of the present government complex and is documented by various historical records, going as far back as 1945."

The petitioners also told the court that the Delhi Waqf Board notified the property as Waqf property in 1970 and recorded its antiquity. They submitted that the mosque was already there when Krishi Bhawan, Shastri Bhawan and neighbouring government offices were built during the 1950s and 1960s, under the PM Jawaharlal Nehru government.

The care-taking committee acknowledged that the land beneath the mosque belongs to the government. Its concern, it told the court, was that the structure could be removed as redevelopment work progresses.

The petitioners also submitted that Qadeemi Masjid had long been used by employees of Krishi Bhawan and neighbouring Central government offices for prayers. They argued that it had become an established place of worship for those required to pray in or around their workplaces during working hours.

The committee further invoked Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice and propagate religion, subject to constitutional restrictions.

CENTURY-OLD MOSQUE HAD AN AGREEMENT WITH THE GOVERNMENT

The Centre has cited an agreement dated November 8, 1940, to argue that the managing committee of Qadeemi Masjid was allowed to use the site but was never granted ownership of the land.

According to the government's status report filed through the Land and Development Office (L&DO), an agreement was signed in 1940 between the then administration, which owned the land, and the secretary of the Jama Masjid managing committee. Under its terms, the committee was granted permissive possession of the premises exclusively for use as a mosque.

The agreement also placed restrictions on what the committee could do with the property. It prohibited alterations, repairs to existing buildings, the construction of graves or the raising of any new structure, even temporarily, without prior written approval from the government. It also allowed the authorities to take back possession if the committee breached its conditions, according to the Centre's submissions.

The Centre has argued that the arrangement did not confer any ownership rights, title or other interest in the land on the mosque's managing committee. It maintained that the land remained government property and that the committee cannot claim ownership or insist that the mosque be retained as the site is redeveloped.

The distinction is important. The 1940 agreement allowed the committee to use the government-owned premises as a mosque. It did not give it ownership of the land or an unrestricted right to retain the structure.

HOW DID THE MOSQUE COME TO BE THERE?

The 1940 agreement offers a crucial clue to the mosque's history. It shows that Qadeemi Masjid existed at least as early as November 1940, nearly 17 years before Krishi Bhawan was completed in 1957. More importantly, the agreement establishes that the mosque was not an unauthorised encroachment on government land, and the administration of the time permitted to operate there.

So, while the agreement does not independently establish the mosque's precise age, it does show that its use as a place of worship predates Independence. The mosque appears to have remained in place as the government complex grew around it, under an arrangement that allowed its continued use but did not transfer ownership of the land.

The British announced the shifting of India's capital from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi in 1911, following which New Delhi was developed with landmarks such as present-day Rashtrapati Bhavan and the North and South Blocks (completed by 1931), according to the New Delhi Municipal Council. After Independence, the government of PM Jawaharlal Nehru expanded the Central Secretariat, with Krishi Bhawan, Udyog Bhawan, Nirman Bhawan, Shastri Bhawan and Rail Bhawan, which came up between 1956 and 1968, according to the Central Vista website.

The Qadeemi Masjid was not the only mosque in the area that predated these offices. Zabta Ganj Masjid near India Gate and Sunehri Bagh Masjid near Udyog Bhawan are also older than the government buildings around them. The April 16, 1970, Delhi Gazette recorded both mosques as over 100 years old.

Now, 86 years after the 1940 agreement, the Centre's Central Vista redevelopment plans have brought the mosque's future into question. Not just its antiquity, the agreement on which it was built will be crucial in determining its future.

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(Written by Shounak Sanyal)