Strong Reaction in Kashmir to Proposal on Friday Prayer Sermons Across Mosques

Political and religious critics accuse Modi's government in India of restricting religious freedom and freedom of expression in Kashmir.

A proposed move by the Waqf Board in Indian-administered Kashmir to hold uniform Friday prayer sermons in mosques across the region has drawn a backlash from politicians and religious leaders, who have accused the government of trying to exert control over Muslim religious spaces.

The Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board is headed by Darakshan Andrabi, a local leader linked to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's majority Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose government stripped the region of its previous semi-autonomous status in 2019. Jammu and Kashmir was also divided as a region as a fully federal state. to

The body, which oversees Muslim religious endowments, announced the controversial move last weekend as leading Muslim scholars in the region condemned the proposal as "irresponsible interference in the religious affairs of Kashmiri Muslims".

Defending the imposition of uniform sermons, Andrabi told a leading Indian newspaper that a proposed committee set up under the panel "will be solely responsible for identifying the issue of uniform sermons... [This step] is necessary to address issues in [the region], particularly social ills, including drug abuse."

Andrabi told the media that religious scholars confirm the Friday prayer sermons and that no government official has a role in this decision.

On Sunday, the Waqf Board had summoned about 1,500 of the top scholars and missionaries of the Kashmir region. While some of the leaders were present on site, others from far away regions participated in the meeting virtually.

A scholar from the mountainous region of Rajouri, 180 kilometers (110 miles) from the region's largest city, Srinagar, who attended the meeting online, told Al Jazeera that Andrabi had adopted guidelines stating that only a pre-approved sermon delivered by a committee of senior scholars would be recited uniformly in the mosque.

He said they had not been told exactly who would be part of the committee.

This scientist, who asked not to be named, said: "When we objected and said that if the sermon was found to be against Islamic teachings, we would not abide by the orders, he dismissed our concerns and did not let us speak." He [Andrabi] said that their decision is final because it has been four years since the decision was made.

A disputed territory claimed by India and Pakistan, Kashmir has been at the center of political turmoil for four decades. Years of peaceful calls for a referendum to determine which state Kashmiris would choose turned into an armed uprising against Indian rule in 1989 in response to allegations of election-fixing.

In 2019, India revoked Kashmir's semi-autonomous status and imposed direct federal rule. Elections did not take place until 2024, when the local government was re-elected, albeit with a narrow mandate. De facto powers remain with the New Delhi-appointed administrator.

The special conditions provided under this previous status protected land and residency privileges while allowing Kashmiris to make their own laws.

One consequence of the 2019 decision was that the local legal arrangements that governed the administration of waqf, the charitable bequests that Muslims undertake for the greater public good, were replaced by those prevailing across India.

The new system gave extensive powers to the federally controlled bureaucracy in managing local religious bodies such as endowments.

Since then, the Waqf Board has been repeatedly accused by local Kashmiri leaders of trying to undermine their religious freedoms or interfere with how traditional religious practices have been carried on for generations.

Former education minister Naeem Akhtri said: "Khtaba or focused sermons were given in the middle ages in the name of sultan or khalifa (Islamic caliph). But it was sanctified because Kashmir [then] was an Islamic state. Today we are supposed to live in a secular state." The government told Al Jazeera when its special status was still operational.

"As long as he has an audience, every cleric is free to speak on any subject he chooses. This freedom is enshrined in the basic principles of the law," he added.

Akhtar said the new instructions were coming from an office-bearer linked to the BJP, which is why the latest move has sparked angry reactions. "The board's duties are only administrative. It oversteps its mandate by trying to preach or guide the clergy on how to perform their duties. Can a Muslim political party in India dictate how a Hindu pujari should conduct prayers or how a Christian priest should deliver a sermon on Sunday?"

On Tuesday, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the religious leader of the region's Muslims, warned that such a move would amount to "direct intervention".

"Determining the content of the sermon is the responsibility of Islamic scholars, not an administrative body," said Majlis Ulama, a joint body of several religious organizations he leads.

This condemnation was shared by Umar Abdullah, the region's president-elect and a member of the National Conference Party, which supports joining India, albeit with autonomous powers that New Delhi revoked seven years ago.

Following these reactions, Andrabi, the head of the endowment board, retracted his statements and said that talking about social issues such as the increase in suicide, psychological injuries, drug abuse and other cases is left to the discretion of "independent scholars, preachers (and) sermons".

Exercising control over religious institutions

This is not the first time that the BJP-led government has been accused of trying to exert control over local religious institutions.

In early January, Muslim Kashmiri investigators accused the government of discriminatory practices after police distributed a four-page form titled "Mosque Profiles" that contained intrusive details about imams, muezzins and preachers at mosques across the disputed region, including their biometric information.

For years, Muslim groups in the region have faced various restrictions on prayer, with Srinagar's 600-year-old Jama Masjid often being closed for important religious events such as Eid prayers or Shab al-Qadr, the most revered night of the Islamic calendar, which falls during the month of Ramadan.

The government argues that the restrictions are imposed to ensure peace, but religious leaders insist that such restrictive measures are a "systematic attack on the religious identity, dignity and fundamental rights" of Kashmiri Muslims.

Farooq, a senior researcher, has himself repeatedly been subject to such restrictions on his mobility, preventing him from delivering Friday sermons where he is expected to address topics such as Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Earlier, the waqf board had also sought a ban on the distribution of yellow rice inside the precincts of major shrines in the region, a centuries-old tradition associated with Sufi missionary gatherings promoting Islam in Kashmir.

Religion has been the factor of political mobilization

In 2022, the board also banned the old method of voluntary collection of vows and needs. It cited new federal laws as a reason for direct control of all fundraising and the installation of new endowment funds where all proposals would go to the board.

Noor Ahmad Baba, a veteran Kashmiri political expert and historian, said religion has always been a factor in political mobilization in Kashmir, which is why attempts to manipulate or change traditional religious arrangements have sparked political outrage.

Referring to the BJP, Baba told Al Jazeera: "The kind of political exemption we have and the kind of policy it has had towards Muslims is what makes the whole exercise questionable." "If standardization, for example, came from clergy with public acceptance, it wouldn't become an issue. No one can deny the need for religious leaders to talk about issues like drug addiction, late marriage, climate change, social harmony and more."

A Srinagar-based political analyst who has written about the Kashmir conflict for four decades said such decisions reflect efforts to preemptively contain protests in Kashmir amid a rising tide of Hindu nationalism in India.

"The recent spate of mosque demolitions in cities like Ujjain and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh has shown the intensity with which far-right factions are re-emerging in India's ruling establishment," the analyst told Al Jazeera. On condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, the Modi regime's renewed collective stance was enough to provoke reactions in a place like Kashmir. Efforts to exercise control over mosques should be seen in this light.