‘Liberation’ rhetoric offers easy shelter to survival politics

Mumbai: Amid the din of political parties fine-tuning the strings ahead of the upcoming electoral contest, a chorus that had started north of the Vindhyas is being resounded in the Sahyadri ranges of Maharashtra.

Not surprisingly, those who echo this chorus have also borrowed the pet word “liberation” from their counterparts in the north.

The sudden inspiration is the clamour for “freeing up” two religious sites in Uttar Pradesh: the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and the Shahi Idgah in Mathura.  

While the consecration of the grant temple in Ayodhya somewhat brought an end to the long-standing dispute over Ram Janmabhoomi, it has also helped shift the focus to other disputes having a similar fault line. And who thought that the politicians in Maharashtra would miss such an opportunity in the election season.

At stake is a centuries-old Sufi shrine, located in Malang Gad (hill fort) in Thane district of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

People of both Hindu and Muslim communities visit the shrine to seek the blessings of Haji Abd-ul-Rahman, popularly known as Haji Malang Baba, who is believed to have arrived here from Arabia in the 12th century. 

Notably, there is a huge following cutting across religious lines for two more Sufi saints in the Mumbai metropolis. 

They are Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, Makhdum Ali Mahimi.  

It is believed that Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari or Baba Haji Ali came here from Samarkand in central Asia, and the shrine in his name -- Haji Ali Dargah -- is located on an islet in the Arabian Sea, around 500 metres off Worli Seaface in Mumbai.

Similarly, the ancestors of 15th-century Sufin saint Makhdoom Ali Mahimi are believed to have migrated from Iran and the shrine in his name -- Mahim Dargah -- is located on Mahim coast. 

Among this trio, the Haji Malang shrine recently hit the headlines when Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said he would spare no efforts in “liberating” it.

Right-wing outfits have long been claiming that the Sufi shrine stands at the place of an older Hindu temple dedicated to Shree Machindranath, an incarnation of the Navanath of Nath Panth, which is a Yogic tradition. 

The shrine can be accessed from Kalyan which is a part of Thane district. 

While Shinde is an MLA from Kopri Pachpakhadi constituency in Thane, his son Dr Shrikant Shinde is an MP from Kalyan.

Shinde’s mentor and late Shiv Sena leader ‘Dharmaveer’ Anand Dighe had in the eighties started the practice of performing puja on the Malang Gad hill on the occasion of Magh Purnima. However, the issue of “liberating” the shrine never took a political centre-stage, until now.

Shinde raked up the issue while addressing a gathering at Malang Gad Harinam Mahotsav last week. 

“I am aware of the deep-rooted beliefs you hold about Malang Gad’s liberation. Let me say… this Eknath Shinde will not stay quiet till he fulfills your wishes,” the chief minister said on February 2. 

Political analysts feel Shinde is raising the issue to score political mileage ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly polls which will follow a few months later.

Facing the uphill task of fighting his boss-turned-nemesis Uddhav Thackeray, Shinde is left with no option but to prove that he is a better follower of hardline Hindutva. 

In June 2022, Shinde had effected a split in the Shiv Sena and toppled the Thackeray-headed Maha Vikas Aghadi government. 

Changing dynamics

While the Sena faction led by Shinde got the stamp of approval from the Election Commission and the Assembly Speaker, he still lacks the “legitimacy” that Thackeray carries. 

“There are various issues involved. Firstly, the tradition of puja was started here by Shinde’s mentor Dighe. Secondly, with the changing dynamics in the state, he has positioned himself as a Hindutva leader. When he had joined hands with the BJP to topple Thackeray, Shinde said he wanted to pursue the firebrand Hindutva of Balasaheb and Dighe saheb. Shinde has been accusing Thackeray of deviating from Hindutva by joining hands with the Congress,” said veteran journalist and writer Prakash Akolkar. 

Dighe, who controlled the Thane belt, was one of the close aides of late Balasaheb Thackeray.

“It is clearly a political move. The demand for liberation of Haji Malang started in the 1980s by Anand Dighe and the Shiv Sena unit of Thane,” said veteran political analyst and writer Ajit Joshi, adding that there is a tradition of people from both Hindu and Muslim communities offering prayers there. 

Shinde’s rhetoric didn’t go unnoticed. Reacting strongly to the statement, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi posted on microblogging site X: “Maharashtra CM & Deputy CM are openly celebrating criminal acts and inciting people to commit crime. This is the direct result of the civil & criminal Babri judgments. The judgments may have emboldened such acts. Men who have taken a constitutional oath feel no shame in targeting Muslim places of worship.”

For politicians simmering in election heat, the “liberation” chorus might sound like an opportunity. 

However, most of the historical records -- despite having different and contradictory narratives -- agree that the shrine is a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity and both the communities worship together at the site. 

Interestingly, one of the trustees of the management board is a Hindu, whose family has been the hereditary custodians of the shrine for several generations.