Dargah or Hindu temple? Karnataka decides to protect syncretic nature of Bababudan Dargah

Is it a Muslim Dargah or a Hindu shrine? It is to be probably treated as both, as per an expert committee formed to decide the future status of the place of worship.

The Sri Guru Dattatreya Bababudan Swami Dargah near Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka has been in dispute as regards its nature and religious belonging. The State government appointed an expert committee headed by Justice Nagamohan Das who presented their report: it cannot be declared as an exclusive Hindu place of worship. The State government has decided to accept the report and thus the pilgrimage spot will maintain its syncretic nature as a dargah venerated by both Hindus and Muslims.

With the State Cabinet decision taken last week to accept the committee's report with the recommendation not to allow any rituals based on the Agama tradition, will mean the rejection of such a demand, as per a report in The Hindu newspaper. The Committee held that any change in the nature of the shrine would be a violation of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. The report also recommended that the administration of the shrine will be made by the government on the same lines as of any other religious institution in the State.

The terms of reference of the committee constituted in July last year stated that it would go through the Endowment Commissioner’s recommendations on the rituals to be followed at the shrine, submitted to the Supreme Court on March 10, 2010. In addition, the committee also had to consider the objections to the recommendations and the petitions filed before the government following the apex court’s final order, which was pronounced on September 3, 2015. The court had directed the government to take a call on the Endowment Commissioner’s recommendations.

In the hearings by the committee in Bengaluru, several groups, including Hindutva activists demanding that the shrine be declared a Hindu place of worship, supporters of Ghouse Mohiyuddin Shah Khadri, the hereditary administrator of the shrine, and representatives of the Komu Souharda Vedike, submitted documents before it.

Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra said the State would submit this report to the Supreme Court, which recently ordered issue of notice to the government over a contempt petition filed by Shah Khadri alleging that the government had not complied with the apex court’s order. Shah Khadri is reported to have informed some pressmen that he did not wish to make comments on the issue at that moment as he was yet to go through the report.

The dispute about the site started in 1975 when the State government decided to transfer the shrine from the Muzrai Department to the Wakf board. Till then, Bababudangiri had been a pilgrimage centre visited by both Hindus and Muslims. Hindus treated it as the abode of Dattatreya Swamy, while for Muslims it was important as the place of Dada Hayat Mir Qalandar.

The BJP and other Hindutva groups have been clamouring for the declaration of the shrine as a Hindu place of worship and appointment of a Hindu priest. For years, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has been mobilising support by organising Datta Jayanti and Datta Mala Abhiyan. However, the expert committee has rejected this demand citing lack of evidence to support the claim that it was a temple.

The committee is also said to have taken the view that changing the nature of the place would be against the law, since any change in the nature of the shrine would be a violation of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which prohibits the conversion of the religious nature of any place of worship from its existence as on the day India got independence. Therefore, the committee concluded, there is no room to appoint a priest to the shrine. Komu Souharda Vedike, one of the petitioners, welcomed the government’s move to accept the report. Shivasundar, a member of the forum’s State committee also saw the recommendation as a victory for the forum’s long battle, in which Gauri Lankesh, who was murdered last year, played a big role.