A case has been filed in the Mathura Court by a group of followers, for the demolition of a mosque that was built in the 17th century by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and is situated right next to Lord Krishna’s temple.
Mathura is a holy city located in Uttar Pradesh. It is also the birthplace of Hindu God- Lord Krishna and is the heart of Braj Bhoomi.
The devotees want the ownership of the entire area of 13.37 acres and seek the removal of Shahi Idgah Masjid built, as the place is holy for the Hindus. In the suit that was filed stated that the alleged Trust Masjid Idgah, have usurped the land that belonged to the deity and built the Mosque illegally. It is also included that the Trust Masjid Idgah fraudulently played the court with the intention of grabbing the land.
People said that the land belongs to Lord Krishna, also in the Mathura government records, the owner of Katra Keshav Dev is Lord Keshav Dev, Lord Krishna. The taxes are often levied on behalf of the God. It was surprising, too, that a mosque was constructed next to the temple, common people said. It is an insult not only to the religious sentiments of the Hindus, but also to the other religion.
In 1968, a compromise had taken place between the Shree Krishna Janmabhoomi Seva Sangh, Mathura and the Muslim trust. They had demarcated their respective share of land whose power vested with another trust ‘ Shree Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust’. The devotees believed that it is not binding legally and will not tolerate any compromise in their religious beliefs. They filed the case seeking annulment of the Mathura court ruling of 1968.
The followers claim that underneath the Mosque is the dungeon, the birthplace of Lord Krishna. After the 1968 treaty, an artificial prison was set up to conceal it from the public. They asked the land to uncover to prove the same.
Under Article 26 in the Indian Constitution, devotees have the right ‘to preserve and protect the cultural heritage of Lord Shree Krishna associated with His Birth Place’. The case gained importance as the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, was enacted in 1991 in the conflict of the Ram Janmabhoomi and the Babri Masjid where the then government ruled that a religious place would continue to exist as it was on 15 August 1947. However, the petitioners do not agree with the Act and said that it restricts their right to seek justice.
When the conflict of the Ram Mandir dispute was settled on 9 November 2019, the Hindu devotees celebrated and believed that their religious sentiments that were lost are now restored. In order to restore all such religious places, people have filed a petition for the same.
They also stated that a Krishna temple was built in 1618 on the land where the Mosque lies. It was in 1669, Aurangzeb ordered for the demolition of several places of Hindus worship and forcibly built the Idgah Mosque. The demolition of the original temple was recorded in several books of History, namely Akhbaraat of January 1670, also by an Italian traveller, Niccola Manucci from 1653-1708.
After the mentioned land was auctioned in 1915, there was no construction on the land but a broken-down structure. It was then, the Muslims called it a Mosque and as per the compromise of 1968, it was named as the Shahi Masjid Idgah.
After the Ram Mandir verdict, people of a ‘certain community’ had attacked some Hindus in Uttar Pradesh for celebrating the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan. The court is subjected to rule the verdict in a way that the sentiments of both communities are not hurt and it restores their beliefs. In the Ram Mandir verdict, the Supreme Court backed Ram temple in Ayodhya and gave the Muslims nearly twice the disputed land for the mosque. There always remains a belief ‘victory of faith over facts’.
