Ram Puniyani
(Samajweekly) Currently a sit-in is going on in front of the Jauhar University in Rampur. Azam Khan, the member of Samajvadi Party, who is in jail at present, is the chairman of the trust running the University. Students sit in to oppose the Notice of Rampur Development authority which has asked for 38 of the forty buildings of the University to be demolished. This will tantamount to the closure of the university. As per Indian Express (July 20, 2026) Mehroza Khan, a law student at the university, said “Our career and future are at stake. We have decided to stage this sit-in because we want the government to reconsider its decision to demolish the university. We would not be able to continue our studies elsewhere, especially at colleges located far away. ”The biggest thing is that we get fee concessions here. Students from SC/ST backgrounds receive a 50 percent concession. Students who have lost their parents also get concessions. There are professional courses like B.Pharma and D.Pharma, which many of us would not be able to pursue elsewhere,” the student added.
The foundation stone of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur was laid on September 18, 2006. The campus was developed over several years by the Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust. However, the exact construction timeline for various structures has become a subject of intense legal and administrative dispute.
According to the Rampur Development Authority (RDA), while the university’s Medical College and one academic block had valid approved plans, 38 other buildings across the campus were constructed without obtaining mandatory permissions from the competent civic authority. The university administration has maintained that these buildings were constructed years earlier—at a time when their location (Singankhera village) did not fall under the RDA’s jurisdiction—and were previously approved by the local zilla panchayat.
Because of these unapproved constructions and alleged land-use violations, according to the RDA, it ordered the removal or demolition of these 38 buildings. The students and many social activists/politicians plead that this demolition is unwarranted as the university is rendering a valuable service for students of various categories, and more so Muslims and SC/STs. They claim that the primary aim of the Government is to undermine the education for Muslims in particular. As such also education is one of the major areas neglected by the present regime, as the current upsurge of students and youth show. As for minority educational institutions, more obstacles are created.
The other aspect is the demolition of structures identified with Muslims identity. The Johar University is the latest in the line of demolitions, Kashi, Mathura, Sambhal, Ajmer Dargah and Saharanpur mosques are already in the queue. Recently we have seen Kamaal Maula Masjid being handed over to Hindu side on the grounds that it was the temple of Vagdevi. Other mosques face the axe on the line of Babri Mosque. These claims resemble the tactics used during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement to weaponize medieval history for political and communal objectives. These mosques and similar disputes are based on the wrong premise that historical disputes regarding temples claim that temples were destroyed to build mosques. These claims often rely on exaggerated or distorted interpretations of history, frequently citing questionable colonial-era footnotes. Permitting these claims to be entertained directly challenged the ‘Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991’, which was designed to maintain the religious status quo as it existed on August 15, 1947 except in the case of Babi-mosque.
The pattern began with the Hindu Right wing’s success in demolishing the Babri Mosque, where the claim was that Babar had destroyed the Ram Temple to build the mosque. Despite the judgements being based on ‘people’s sentiments’ and ‘God coming in the dream’ of the Honourable Judge, the judgement did regard installation of Ram Lalla idols in 1949 as a crime. Also, the demolition of the Mosque on 6th December 1992 was also regarded as a crime. This demolition paved the way for the exponential rise of the electoral strength of BJP, which in due course came to power in the Centre first in 1996 and then in 1999 and then of course in 2014.
But the rewards of the Babri Mosque demolition were very mouth-watering for RSS-BJP and the series continues with a claim here and there which the legal system ignoring 1991 Act permits to be investigated etc. and polarization is intensified benefitting the Hindu Nationalism to no end. The creative mind of thinkers of the Hindu Right wing is now aiming at a university. This proposed demolition will serve an additional purpose; that of defaming the Muslim community on one hand and pushing it in the corner by depriving education for the minority community, which is its dire necessity.
On similar lines an old mosque in the small area in Saharanpur has also been served notice to vacate on the grounds of not having adequate permissions. The law of adverse possession does not exist for Hindu right wing for Muslims. So somehow to prove the illegality of the Muslim structures, and try to get them demolished is the continuous effort . The reckless use of Bulldozers and gaining more popularity amongst sections of society is yet another way of pushing the Muslim community in the corner. Demolition seems to be their way of ‘Building the Nation’. The huge loss of social wealth through demolitions on one or the other ground is immaterial to the RSS-BJP.
Building the nation had entirely different meanings in the aftermath of Independence. The First Prime minister of India had the idea that building IITs, AIIMS, Public Sector and facilities for irrigation were the infrastructure on which we could overcome our deprivations to some extent. With the rise of Hindu right wing the direction seems to have been reversed and we are searching for temples underneath the mosques, we are looking for illegality of Muslim structures which serves to give fodder to their politics and promote hate and polarization of the society.
Can our good sense prevail and we come back to the path of ‘Nation building’ through following values of Indian Constitution and shun bull dozers and keep claiming illegality of Muslim structures by stretching some little point here or there.
