As the sun sets on a Friday in Srinagar’s old city, 82-year-old Yaseen Zahra is awaiting the azan (call to prayer) at the entrance to the 600-year-old shrine of Shah Hamdan, which is dedicated to Persian saint Mir Sayyid Ali Hamdani, who propagated Islam in Kashmir in the 14th century.
Mr. Zahra is among the hundreds of ‘mujavirs’ (traditional caretakers of shrines) who were ousted after the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, in an unprecedented move, issued a directive on August 18 banning “forcible donations across the shrines of J&K UT (Union Territory) with immediate effect”. The move brought to an end the centuries-old practice of ‘Nazr-o-Niyaz’— offerings from devotees to ‘mujavirs’, which is similar to the ‘chadhava’ given to priests who perform rituals in Hindu temples. The authority said the ban was imposed after several complaints from devotees about purported corruption.
Within 48 hours, scores of donation boxes were seized and over 100 ‘mujavirs’ and their belongings removed from prominent shrines in the Valley — including 36 caretakers from the Ashmuqam shrine in Anantnag, 20 from the Charar-e-Shareef shrine in Budgam and eight from the Khawaja Naqshband Sahib shrine in Srinagar. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and J&K Waqf Board chairperson Dr. Darakhshan Andrabi, 48, described the ban as “a cleanliness drive”. “The era of transparency has begun in the Waqf Board,” she said.
