By Charu Bahri

IndianMuslims.info

In a special two part report on Auqaf in India we explore the history and present condition of waqf in India.

Under Muslim rule in India the concept of Waqf was more widely comprehended as aligned with the spirit of charity endorsed by the Quran. Waqf implies the endowment of property, moveable or immovable, tangible or intangible to God by a Muslim, under the premise that the transfer will benefit the needy. As a legal transaction, the Waqif (settler) appoints himself or another trustworthy person as Mutawalli (manager) in an endowment deed (Waqfnamah) to administer the Waqf (charitable trust).

As it implies a surrender of properties to God, a Waqf deed is irrevocable and perpetual. Khalid Rashid, editor of Awkaf Experiences in South Asia has appropriately written, “Once a Waqf it always remain a Waqf.�

In consonance with the true spirit of their religion, India’s Muslim rulers generously dedicated property such as land and its revenue rights to Awqaf (plural of Waqf) created with the aim of maintaining mosques, tombs, orphanages (yatimkhanas), madrasas etc. Besides the charitable intent that clearly underlined these contributions, for instance, land could have been Waqfed for the creation of a graveyard where poor people could bury their dead. These donations to Awqaf were also done with the interest of promoting the tenets of Islam. Under Muslim rule, the presence of Islamic courts overseen by Qazis ensured that the Mutawallis discharged their duties fairly. Their mismanagement of the properties was considered breach of the trust reposed in them for which they were duly punished.

In his book, What is Wakf? former chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board Imtiaz Ahmad Khan has elucidated “Sultan Allauddin Khilji came down heavily on a number of Mutawallis. Akbar appointed an Inquiry Officer to go into the allegations of misappropriation of Waqf funds by Shaikh Hassan and removed him from Mutawalliship.�

Further, Akhtar Hussain and Khalid Rasid’s Waqf Laws and Administration in India mentions that “Ain-e-Akbari records an instance when Akbar dismissed many Qazis who had taken bribes from the holders of Waqf lands or grants.�

The end of the rule of Muslim Sultans implied a loosening of control over the administration of Awqaf. Since then, throughout the British rule and thereafter in independent India, a number of Acts have been formulated to administer Waqf property.

The current structure for the management of the estimated 300,000 registered Awqafs across India includes the presence of Waqf Boards in every Indian state, managed by a Central Waqf Board with a Central Waqf Council acting in an apex advisory capacity. All these bodies are constituted under a Department of Waqf of the Government of India. Every Waqf Board is a quasi-judicial body empowered to rule over Waqf-related disputes.

It is interesting to note that even during the British Raj, a certain measure of corruption and diminution of the worthy charitable intent behind the creation of Waqf was noted. This or the excuse of corruption led to the British confiscating Waqf properties such as the Jama Masjid and Fatehpuri Mosque in Delhi. Another practice the British came down heavily on was the attempts to create family Waqfs by wealthy Muslim families desirous of keeping their property within the family yet safe from future sell-off by irresponsible progeny. In Wakf Administration in India S Khalid Rashid narrates that in 1894 the Privy Council spoke of such efforts as “a concealed means for the aggrandizement of family,� and noted that their “provision for charity is so illusory that the poor are not entitled to receive a rupee till after total extinction of a family.�

The Privy Council invalidated the Waqf-al-Aulad (family Waqf) provision. This however, set in motion a lengthy process of politicizing the issue of Waqf management, with the Indian National Congress leading the way by instituting an inquiry into this invalidation, ostensibly to determine the accuracy of the judgment but actually to appear to champion the cause of the Muslims. The first major outcome of this was the enactment of Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s proposed bill, the Waqf Validating Act of 1913.

Of course, a section of Muslim ulema read between the lines, so to speak, and understood the games being played by politicians. As described by Rozlowski in Muslim Endowment and Society, “The controversy over endowments also pointed to the possibility that politics sometimes shaped Islam quite as much as Islam shaped politics� – implying that politicians distorted the charitable spirit behind the creation of Waqf to suit their own personal ends.

Coming soon, Awqaf in the Present Day, with exclusive interviews to www.indianmuslims.info

Further Readings:

What is Wakf? by Imtiaz Ahmad Khan, 1988.

Waqf Laws and Administration in India, Akhtar Hussain and Khalid Rasid, 1973.

Wakf Administration in India, S Khalid Rashid, Vikas Publishing House, 1978.

Muslim Endowment and Society, Rozlowski, Cambridge, 1985.