India, which was once known globally as the world’s largest democracy, has historically upheld a secular constitution and pluralistic traditions in the past. However, under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s secular framework is increasingly under siege. The passage of the Waqf Properties (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Bill, commonly known as the Waqf Bill, is not merely a legal reform—it represents a deeper, more insidious strategy: the use of law as a weapon to coerce and suppress the Muslim minority in India.
What is the Waqf Bill?
Waqf properties are religious endowments established by Muslims for charitable, educational, and religious purposes, including mosques, schools, graveyards, and orphanages. Managed by state Waqf Boards under the Waqf Act of 1995, these properties are meant to serve the community in perpetuity.
The newly introduced Waqf Bill gives sweeping powers to Waqf Boards to evict individuals from Waqf properties without civil court intervention. Tribunals, often politically influenced, will handle disputes, and civil courts are explicitly barred from jurisdiction.
Why Is It Being Opposed?
Muslim organizations, scholars, legal experts, and civil rights activists across India view the Waqf Bill as a tool of state coercion—designed not to protect Waqf lands, but to centralize control, disrupt religious institutions, and eliminate legal resistance.
Elimination of Judicial Recourse: The bill bars access to civil courts for eviction disputes, effectively denying citizens the right to a fair trial and placing Muslims at the mercy of politicized tribunals.
State Seizure of Muslim Heritage: Waqf properties include centuries-old mosques and schools serving marginalized communities. The bill enables the state to seize these properties arbitrarily, often under the pretext of encroachment or unauthorized occupation.
Coercion Through Legal Mechanisms: By undermining judicial oversight, the bill creates a climate of fear, discouraging the Muslim community from asserting its rights or expanding its institutions.
A Pattern of Suppression
Since entering politics through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—a Hindu nationalist organization—Narendra Modi has pursued a political ideology rooted in Hindutva, a vision of India as a Hindu-only nation. His rise to national prominence has been accompanied by a systematic targeting of Muslims through policies, rhetoric, and institutional control.
Gujarat Pogrom (2002): The Genesis of a Political Strategy
As Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2002, Modi presided over one of the bloodiest communal riots in India’s history. Over 2,000 people—mostly Muslims—were killed, thousands displaced, and entire neighborhoods destroyed. Multiple reports, including those from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, documented state complicity and police inaction. Survivors accused the administration of inciting mobs and shielding perpetrators.
Though the Indian Supreme Court later cleared Modi, many believe that his silence during the carnage was calculated, consolidating the Hindu vote and setting a precedent for electoral gains through communal polarization.
Based in Islamabad, the writer is the founding chair of GSRRA, a researcher at the Global South Economic and Trade Cooperation Research Center, and a non-resident fellow of CCG. He can be reached at awanzamir@yahoo.com
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