Waqf bill: Why Indian Muslims worry about Modi plan for $14bn endowments

A proposal by India’s ruling Hindu nationalist government to change laws governing Muslim endowments in the country has triggered fear and a backlash among the minority community.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi says it aims to root out corruption in the functioning of what are known as waqf bodies, which oversee these properties, to enhance their efficiency.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) argues that the proposed changes are necessary for reforms but critics say that the move could leave properties donated by Muslims over centuries more vulnerable to disputes and demolitions.

The properties in question include religious institutions, mosques, shops, shrines, graveyards and thousands of acres of land.

So what do we know about waqf properties and who manages them? And why does the government want to change the waqf bodies?

What is waqf?

Waqf refers to personal property – moveable or immovable – that is permanently donated by Muslims for religious or charitable purposes.

The practice common among Muslim societies across the world goes back 14 centuries and has been integral to the socioeconomic and religious lives of Muslims in India since the 12th century.

While the beneficiaries of waqf properties can vary, a waqf can be established through a formal deed or orally, or by the longstanding use of the property for religious or charitable purposes.

Once a property is declared as waqf, it is transferred to God (Allah) and it cannot be sold or used for other purposes.

“Waqf is an essential feature of Islamic civilisations,” Faizan Mustafa, an academic and legal scholar, told Al Jazeera.

“The Western idea of trust was borrowed from the Muslim concept of waqf,” Mustafa, who is based in the southern Indian state of Telangana, told Al Jazeera.

There are three kinds of waqf. Public waqf involves schools and hospitals. Family waqf allows income to be shared with families and descendants of donors. Finally, the third category involves a mix of private and public use of donations. Private waqf, for instance, allows the proceeds to be used for a specific group, such as students.

In India, waqf properties are spread across nearly 1 million acres (approximately 1562.5 square miles), nearly twice the size of Mauritius. They are looked after by 32 government-established waqf boards in the country’s states and federally run union territories.

The boards in every state comprise government nominees, Muslim legislators (current, or where none are available, former lawmakers), scholars, and caretakers (mutawallis) who oversee property administration. All must be Muslims.

The Central Waqf Council (CWC) advises the federal government and oversees state-level waqf boards across India. The members are selected by the federal government, some elected and others nominated. It has to have at least two female members.

How has waqf historically been governed in India?

The governance of waqf properties in India is currently regulated by the Waqf Act of 1995.

However, there has been a legal framework in place since 1913, with the enactment of the Mussalman Waqf Validating Act under the British colonial rulers. This was followed by the Mussalman Wakf Act of 1923.

After India gained independence, the Central Waqf Act of 1954 was introduced, which was eventually replaced by the Waqf Act of 1995 to streamline the governance of these properties.

The last amendment in the Act took place in 2013 to strengthen protections for waqf properties. The amendments introduced penalties like imprisonment for encroachment and explicitly banned the sale, gift, exchange, mortgage or transfer of waqf properties.

It also widened the scope of waqf to include property donated by any person, including non-Muslims. But the current bill reverses this provision.

Framers of India’s constitution granted special provisions for religious minorities aimed at preserving their identity and culture. Article 26 of India’s constitution allows minorities to form and run religious and charitable institutions. Moreover, the state is not allowed to interfere with personal matters of religious minorities in the areas of marriage, divorce, inheritance and family relations.

But India’s ruling BJP says Muslims’ personal laws, which are based on Sharia (Islamic law), are a violation of Article 14, which calls for equality before laws.

What are the proposed amendments?

The bill proposes more than 40 amendments aimed at shifting the governance of waqfs from the boards to the state governments.

While waqf board members and their CEOs are currently required to be Muslim, the proposed amendment seeks to allow non-Muslims as members.

In the case of other religious and charitable trusts, however, CEOs are required to belong to their respective religion.

The Waqf Act mandates that disputes over waqf properties be resolved by a state-constituted tribunal with a judicial officer, a civil services officer and an expert in Muslim law. It is similar to a court but deals with only matters related to waqf.

Under the new bill, the tribunal’s decision could now be challenged in a high court. Under existing laws, tribunal decisions are final. Using an expert on Muslim law has also been removed from the tribunal, under the proposal.

Syed Mahmood Akhtar, a former official with India’s Ministry of Minority Affairs, said the waqf tribunal was created to take the burden off regular courts.

“The idea was to create a judicial body as strong as courts with a single work of only deciding waqf matters,” Akhtar, who framed the 2013 amendment, said.

The data shows that 40,951 cases are pending in tribunals, from which 9,942 cases were filed by the Muslim community against the institutions managing waqf.

Another proposal that has alarmed the Muslim community is the removal of waqf by users. These are considered waqf properties because of their use for decades, even centuries, but they do not have formal documents. Up to 60 percent of waqf properties fall into this category, according to experts.

“Since many waqfs are 500-600 years old, proper documentation may not be there,” Mustafa, the legal expert, said, adding that Muslims fear that their graveyards, mosques and schools will be subjected to legal disputes now.

Government property identified as waqf will cease to be treated as waqf, according to the bill.

Malik Motasim Khan, the vice president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, a religious organisation in India, says waqf properties are already governed by law under the supervision of the central and state governments.

“Each and every thing is finalised under the supervision of law and government. The problem is the mind of the government,” Khan said.

Why does the Indian government want to reform waqf laws?

The government has cited a lack of diversity in the waqf boards, alleged corruption and irrevocability of waqf properties, which means no changes could be made to a waqf property, as some of the reasons behind the proposed amendments.

The bill also takes away the power of waqf bodies to file cases against encroachment. At least 58,929 waqf properties have been encroached upon, according to government data.

Many Muslim scholars and activists concede that mismanagement and corruption are rife within waqf boards leading to low revenue generation.

But instead of addressing those issues, the government proposal tries to change the basic structure of the waqf bodies to ensure state control, they say. If the amendment goes ahead, the waqf boards and central Waqf Council could be allowed to have non-Muslims in the majority.

The government introduced the bill in the parliament in August, but it was referred to a joint parliamentary committee after opposition protests.

The committee, composed of both the governing party and opposition members, was set to submit its report by December 20 but now an extension has been granted on the request of members until the budget session in February 2025.

Atif Rasheed, the BJP’s representative for Pasmanda Muslims – an economically disadvantaged subgroup within the minority community – said that fears among Muslims are misplaced.

“Claims that mosques or graveyards will be taken over are unfounded, as no such provisions exist in the proposed amendments,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The changes, he said, are aimed at “ensuring more accountability by digitising and auditing properties.

“Many waqf properties are rented out, but corruption has plagued their management. The income from these properties must be held accountable.”

Rasheed also defended the provisions to include non-Muslims as members of waqf boards in line with India’s secularism.

“If anyone has concerns, they can submit their suggestions to the JPC instead of politicising the issue,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to the parliamentary committee studying the bill.

After the bill was introduced, Minister of Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju said that misinformation was being spread regarding the amendment bill.

“Some sections are spreading false propaganda that the government wants to take over the land of Muslims. It has to stop at the earliest,” the minister said, according to reports.

“Several Muslim organisations have approached me and supported the bill because it deals with mismanagement and illegal land possession. The centre has good intention behind introducing the bill and we will go through the responses the committee has received,” he said.

Arshad Madani, the president of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, while addressing a gathering in Bihar’s capital Patna, said that “India’s secular constitution has given Muslims full freedom to follow personal laws based on Quran and Sunnah”.

Madani expressed his astonishment at the prime minister’s recent statement regarding waqf, in which Modi claimed that there is no place for waqf in the constitution.

“If the prime minister has said this about waqf today, tomorrow he may also claim that prayer, fasting, Hajj, and zakat are not mentioned in the constitution, and therefore, they should be banned.”

Why are Muslim organisations protesting against the waqf reform bill?

Muslim leaders and activists say the changes aim to remove the constitutionally guaranteed rights of Muslims to run their institutions and could see the seizure of thousands of acres of land.

“There are currently management issues with the waqf properties everywhere but it does not mean Muslims should be entirely stripped of their religious rights over these institutions,” Sadia Khan, 28, a New Delhi-based social science student, told Al Jazeera.

“There is a need for better reforms but not without the consultation of stakeholders,” she said, adding that Muslim community members have not been consulted on the amendments.

Mujibur Rehman, author of Shikwa-e-Hind: The Political Future of Indian Muslims, says waqf bodies require reforms – but not those which the BJP is offering.

“My view is there is a need for reform from the point of view of governance. Can that reform be possible in the existing laws? Yes.”

Kamal Faruqui, spokesperson of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, which works to safeguard Islamic law in India, agreed with Khan.

The purpose of the government, he said, is not to end corruption and mismanagement but to “demolish all those institutions that are contributing to the betterment of Muslims”.

Faruqui, a former auditor of waqf boards, said the government aims “to humiliate the largest minority to appeal to their majority vote bank. This is a plan to polarise the whole country.”

Rehman, who teaches at Jamia Millia Islamia University, also pointed out the dangers of Muslims being targeted.

“In states such as Uttar Pradesh, the state government, which has been hostile to Muslims, might use the amendments to go after Muslim places of worship as a good number of mosques might not have land records,” he said.

The state is home to 40 million Muslims and holds the largest bank of waqf land in the country. Data shows that Uttar Pradesh has 162,229 waqf properties. The state is run by BJP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, under whose rule Muslims have alleged institutional bias and increased polarisation.

Mustafa, the legal expert, said that the proposed amendments will drastically curtail the powers of the waqf boards.

“The proposals rather than improving the efficiency of administration of waqf may go in the opposition direction,” he warned.

“Many people ironically believe that waqf boards are some private Muslim bodies. Waqf boards are the statutory bodies of the government. Almost all the members of the waqf board, except a few elected people, are nominated by the government.”

How valuable are waqf properties?

The government data shows that there are 807,000 properties across 904,000 acres. These assets are estimated to value approximately $14bn.

Most of the properties are located in states such as West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Experts note that a large number of these properties are located in urban areas, particularly in city centres, and their market value is several times higher than their book value.

For instance, the 2006 Sachar Committee Report on inequality, headed by Justice Rajinder Sacher, found that in New Delhi alone, the value of waqf properties then exceeded $720m. However, despite these properties’ considerable size and value, they generated only $19.5m in annual income – or about 2.7 percent.

There has been no subsequent evaluation of waqf properties since the 2006 report, but land values have soared in the country – and analysts expect the value of waqf properties would have risen, too.