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Another Eid passed in Kashmir on June 29 as congregational prayers at the historic Jama Masjid in Srinagar, along with the Eidgah, were rejected. Since 2008, the Jama Masjid or “Grand Mosque”, the center of religion and politics in Kashmir, has often been closed to worshipers by successive governments to “prevent anti-government protests” in the valley.
It is located in Nowhatta in the old city of Srinagar – a once separatist stronghold
Known as the Gaza Valley of Kashmir due to the stone-throwing protests that erupted here – the Grand Mosque has for centuries been a testament to Kashmir’s checkered history.
Built in the first decade of the 15th century during the reign of Shah Miri Dynasty, and rebuilt several times after it was destroyed by fires, the current structure was built during the Mughal period as a mixture of Persian and Buddhist architecture. With the capacity to hold 330,000 worshipers at one time, the quadrangular structure measuring 384 by 381 feet stands on 386 wooden pillars, about 48 feet high and six feet in circumference.
The Srinagar Jama Masjid is a symbol of Kashmir’s identity and has a deep-rooted connection to Islam. For centuries, as a center for learning and understanding Islam, the relationship between people and their faith has been actively cultivated in the mosque,” ​​Hurriyat Conference President Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who has been under house arrest since August 4, 2019, told The Indian Express in his capacity as the chief priest of the valley. Members of the Mirwais family traditionally delivered Friday sermons from the pulpit of the Grand Mosque.
The first time the mosque was closed to worshipers was during the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the early 19th century. As the mosque remained closed for more than two decades, it is said to have been converted into a stable. For another 11 years since then, the mosque has only been opened for Friday prayers.
Besides imparting religious education to the people of the valley, the Great Mosque was at the center of some of the largest political events in the valley.
This mosque was the place where Sheikh Abdullah embarked on Kashmir politics and launched as the mass leader of the Muslim Conference, the first major political party in Kashmir.
On 13 July 1931, when 22 Kashmiri Muslims were killed while fighting with the Dogra Police outside the Srinagar Central Jail—the incident, which was celebrated as Martyrs’ Day in the valley, is considered the first great political awakening among Kashmiri Muslims—their bodies were taken to the Jama Masjid. Abdullah, during his political career, often recounted an incident that he said took place in the mosque where the dead and dying were brought. Here, Abdullah said, a man on his last breath told him he should not forget their sacrifice — something he leaned heavily on to assert his leadership.
When Abdullah split the Islamic Congress in 1939 and established the National Congress, which with its secular character and overtly pro-Indian stance was a complete break with his father, it pitted him against the Mirwais.
For many decades, the Grand Mosque was the center of religion and politics for the Mirwais family who were traditionally seen as pro-Pakistan. So when militancy broke out in Kashmir at the end of the 1980s, the Grand Mosque also became a center for separatist politics in Kashmir. On August 25, 1989, as fighting began in the valley, paramilitary forces raided the mosque to make arrests, sparking allegations of desecration and leading to mass protests in the valley. Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq, father of Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, was the high priest at that time.
After the assassination of Mirwaiz Farooq on 21 May 1990 by unknown gunmen, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq – barely seventeen years old – was appointed head priest. A few years later, Omar became the first president of the separatist grouping, the Hurriyat Conference, and the Grand Mosque became his religious and political platform.
It was from this mosque that separatists rallied support for the “freedom” struggle in Kashmir, and pro-Azadi protests and stone-throwing clashes with the police often followed Friday prayers.
During one such gathering, in 2017, when thousands gathered for Ramadan prayers, a mob lynched Deputy Inspector of Police (DSP) Ayub Pandit while on duty outside a mosque. Suspecting that Pandit was an intelligence officer, the mob lynched him and dumped his body on the side of the road. His identity was not confirmed until the next morning.
A year later, in 2018, a few unidentified people took the pulpit of the Grand Mosque and raised pro-Islamic State slogans and raised the group’s flag. Both the government and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have condemned the incident.
Since 2008, when Kashmir erupted in fury over the land of Amarnath, the mosque has been closed several times to worshipers by successive political governments – from the National Congress to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). However, one of the largest shutdowns came after August 5, 2019, when the center revoked J&K’s special status and transformed the state into two union territories. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest and the Grand Mosque was closed to worshipers for 136 days. While after more than four months normal prayers were allowed in the mosque, Friday prayers and large gatherings with the police were forbidden for fear of law and order situations.
While the Anjuman Endowment, established in 1975 to manage the mosque’s affairs, has described the ban on prayer in the mosque as “interfering with religion” and an attempt to weaken “the centrality of this spiritual and religious center for Muslims,” ​​political experts say the mosque and its closures have been, as always, A pioneer of the political situation in the valley.
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