Demolitions Undermine the Nation

Currently, a sit-in is going on in front of the Mohammad Ali Jauhar UniversityMohammad Ali Jauhar UniversityA private university located in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India, founded by Azam Khan. It has been at the center of legal and administrative disputes regarding land ownership and building permissions. in Rampur. Azam Khan, a member of the Samajvadi Party, currently incarcerated, is the chairman of the trust running the university. Students are staging a sit-in to oppose the Rampur Development Authority’s notice, which has called for 38 of the university’s forty buildings to be demolished. This would tantamount to the closure of the university. As per the Indian Express (July 20, 2026), Mehroza Khan, a law student at the university, said, “Our careers and futures 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.” She added, “The biggest thing is that we get fee concessions here. Students from SC/STSC/ST (Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes)Constitutionally recognized groups in India that have historically faced social and economic discrimination. The government implements affirmative action policies, including reservations and concessions, for their upliftment. 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 foundation stone of the university 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 panchayatZilla PanchayatA district-level local self-government body in India, responsible for rural administration and development within a district. It operates under the Panchayati Raj system..

Because of these unapproved constructions and alleged land-use violations, the RDA ordered the removal or demolition of these 38 buildings. Students and many social activists/politicians argue that this demolition is unwarranted, as the university renders a valuable service to students of various categories, especially Muslims and SC/STs. They claim that the primary aim of the government is to undermine education for Muslims in particular. Education, as such, is also one of the major areas neglected by the present regime, as the current upsurge of students and youth shows. As for minority educational institutions, even more obstacles are created.

The other aspect is the demolition of structures identified with Muslim identity. The Jauhar University is the latest in a 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 similar to the Babri Mosque.. These claims resemble the tactics used during the Ram Janmabhoomi movementRam Janmabhoomi MovementA Hindu nationalist movement advocating for the construction of a Ram Temple at the site of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, claiming it to be the birthplace of Lord Rama. to weaponize medieval history for political and communal objectives. These mosque and similar disputes are based on the wrong premise: that historical claims regarding temples assert 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 challenges 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 the Babri Mosque.’, 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 judgments being based on ‘people’s sentiments’ and ‘God coming in the dream’ of the Honourable Judge, the judgment did regard the installation of Ram Lalla idols in 1949 as a crime. idols in 1949 as a crime. Also, the demolition of the mosque on December 6, 1992, was also regarded as a crime. This demolition paved the way for the exponential rise of the electoral strength of the BJP, which in due course came to power at the Centre first in 1996, then in 1999, and then, of course, in 2014.

But the rewards of the Babri Mosque demolition were very mouth-watering for the RSS-BJP, and the series continues with claims here and there which the legal system, ignoring the 1991 Act, permits to be investigated, etc., intensifying polarization and benefiting Hindu Nationalism to no end. The creative minds of Hindu Right-wing thinkers are 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 into a corner by depriving the minority community of education, which is its dire necessity.

On similar lines, an old mosque in a 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 the Hindu Right wing when it comes to Muslims. does not exist for Hindu right wing for Muslims. So, the continuous effort is to somehow prove the illegality of Muslim structures and try to get them demolished. The reckless use of bulldozers and the gaining of more popularity among sections of society is yet another way of pushing the Muslim community into a corner. Demolition seems to be their way of ‘Building the Nation’. The huge loss of social wealth through demolitions on one ground or another 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, the public sector, and facilities for irrigation constituted the infrastructure on which we could overcome our deprivations to some extent. With the rise of the Hindu Right wing, the direction seems to have been reversed; we are searching for temples underneath mosques, and we are looking for the illegality of Muslim structures, which serves to give fodder to their politics and promote hate and polarization in society.

Can our good sense prevail, and can we return to the path of ‘Nation-building’ by following the values of the Indian Constitution, shunning bulldozers, and ceasing to claim the illegality of Muslim structures by stretching some minor point here or there?

The Article first appeared on the Countercurrents