Despite a reduced majority in Parliament, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pushed through a contentious amendment that has dealt another blow to multireligious India and enraged the Muslim community. In early April, after a heated debate, lawmakers passed a controversial bill reshaping how Muslim-donated properties – known as waqf – are governed, triggering protests and fierce political opposition. After its introduction, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi tore up a copy of the bill in the Lok Sabha.
What Is a Waqf Property?
“Waqf” refers to properties donated by Muslims to the community for religious, educational, or charitable purposes – a tradition deeply rooted in Islamic societies and widespread in India. This practice dates back centuries. A property can become waqf through a formal deed, a verbal declaration, or simply by long-standing communal use. Waqf properties typically include mosques, shrines, religious schools, graveyards, and thousands of acres of land.
In India, these properties are managed by the waqf boards of the states and union territories. The boards are composed of government nominees, Muslim legislators, scholars, and caretakers – until now, all of whom were required to be Muslim. The Central Waqf Council, operating under the Ministry of Minority Affairs, advises the federal government and oversees the functioning of state waqf boards. Muslim leaders and activists argue that the new law threatens the community’s (constitutionally protected) right to manage its own religious institutions and could pave the way to the seizure of thousands of acres of waqf land.
Protests against the Waqf Bill
Protests over the Waqf amendment bill escalated in mid-April in West Bengal’s Muslim-majority Murshidabad district: three people were killed and over 150 were arrested. In response to the violence, local authorities deployed paramilitary forces to restore order. Despite Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee repeated assurances that the bill would not be implemented in West Bengal and that minority rights would be protected, unrest continued for several days.
Muslim leaders and opposition parties claim that the bill is unconstitutional and infringes on the rights of India’s Muslim minority, which makes up over 14 per cent of the population. The government, however, maintains that the bill is aimed at improving transparency in the management of waqf properties and combating corruption. Owaisi filed one of the 73 petitions to the Supreme Court that challenge the constitutionality of the Waqf Act.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hailed the passage of the bill, which amends a 1995 law governing Muslim charitable and religious properties, as a “watershed moment” for the country. According to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the proposed changes are compulsory for reforms, yet critics insist they would make these properties vulnerable to disputes and demolitions. They claim that the law would dilute the rights of Muslims to manage religious endowments. According to government data, there are roughly 807,000 properties across 904,000 acres in India: assets estimated to be worth approximately 14 billion US$.
What the Bill Will Introduce
One of the key changes introduced by the new bill is how a waqf property is recognized. Traditionally, many properties were verbally donated or deemed waqf due to their continuous use by the community. Under the new law, waqf boards must provide valid documents to claim a property as waqf. In case of disputes – especially over government-owned land – the final decision will be rest with the government.
The bill also permits the appointment of non-Muslims to waqf boards and tribunals, a move that Muslims perceive as discriminatory, since other religious groups retain the right to manage their own institutions under Article 26 of the Constitution. Additionally, the bill allows regular judicial courts to intervene in waqf-related disputes, overriding waqf tribunals. The bill proposes a centralized registration system and will also give the government a much bigger role in surveying waqf properties.
Awaiting the judicial verdict
“The Muslim community is largely very disappointed because they fear that their mosques and dargahs will be taken over. In India, the documentation is poor, so they are all very worried – explains Faizan Mustafa, vice chancellor of Chanakya National Law University in Patna – there are a few things in this law which, in my opinion, are good, and others that are controversial and can be reviewed. And I am sure that the government may bring about some kind of amendments. No law is written in stones, the law has also been challenged in the Supreme Court, which has also expressed similar anxiety about some of the controversial provisions. We welcome that the government of India has offered that they will not implement certain provisions till the next hearing. We should await the judicial verdict.”
According to the academic and legal scholar, one of the major criticisms of the new bill is to reduce the powers of the regulator – the waqf board, which is a government body – and also those of the waqf tribunal, whose members are nominated by the government. “If you are going to reduce the power of the regulators, how can they improve the efficiency of administration?” he asks. “I believe that one of the biggest criticisms of the Waqf bill is also that it negates the ‘one nation, one law’ principle. Because ideally, the government should have brought one law for the religious properties of all the communities. It would have strengthened their argument of ‘one nation, one law’, and it would have also initiated some kind of uniform civil code. But they missed this opportunity”.
When asked whether the bill is a way of targeting the Muslim community in their own assets he categorically said: “No, I will not buy any political argument. I personally believe we should trust our government, and presumption should ideally be positive rather than negative”. Other scholars are less optimistic about the trustworthiness of Narendra Modi’s claims that the amendments are only aimed at bringing transparency and fighting corruption. Modi’s records in the last decade have seen his growing role as a muscular advocate of the Hindu majority: under his tenure, religious polarization exacerbated, and majoritarian policies benefited his party. Critics call the Waqf bill yet another planned attack on the Muslim community.
BJP’s tyranny against minorities
“This is not mere ‘reform’ – it is a paradigmatic shift that subordinates a religious institution to the operational codes of neoliberal governance,” argues Ghazala Jamil from the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University in an articulated piece titled “With the Waqf Bill, the state brings a legal bulldozer to minority rights,” where she thoroughly analyzes the Joint Committee report. She argues that “by centralizing control, removing recognition of long-term customary usage, and making registration and documentation the litmus test of legality, the state is creating the perfect conditions for dispossession without appearing coercive.”
“Let the truth be laid bare. The amendments to the Waqf Act are not about transparency. They are about tyranny. These amendments give the government sweeping powers to take over waqf land, override waqf boards, and reduce centuries-old institutions into state-controlled shells. It turns mosques, dargahs and charitable trusts into ‘assets’ to be mined, not spiritual legacies to be preserved”, wrote advocate Shriya Handoo, a Hindu Kashmiri Pandit.
“This is not a Muslim issue. It is a moral issue. […] And to those watching in silence: when the law begins to target faith, remember that it will not stop with Muslims. Power unchecked is never satiated – she continues – Today, it’s the waqf. Tomorrow, it could be your temple, your trust, your freedom. Rise. Resist. Remember who we are. This land was never meant for one religion, it was built for all. When the law becomes a weapon in the hands of the powerful, it no longer governs; it conquers. And when conscience dies in silence, tyranny marches in the robes of legislation.” A chilling warning for the many minorities of an increasingly polarized country, where some religions are more equal than others.
Cover photo: Supporters of the Indian Secular Front (ISF) shout slogans and participate in a protest rally against the recently enacted Waqf Act that amends laws governing Muslim land endowments in Kolkata, India, on April 14, 2025. (Photo by Debajyoti Chakraborty) (Photo by Debajyoti Chakraborty / NurPhoto via AFP)
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