By Fahad Zuberi
The New Delhi Municipal Council’s plan to demolish Delhi’s Sunehri Bagh Masjid has triggered an uproar. While the Delhi High Court is hearing another petition challenging the status quo, a section of the media has already begun linking objections – especially those by political leaders such as AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi – to an attempt to either “appease” or “provoke” Muslims.
But architects understand that buildings are not just material; they are not just a pile of brick, mortar, and concrete. Just as a humble house has meaning for the person who builds it and lives in it, historic public structures such as the Sunehri Bagh Masjid hold even deeper meanings.
In its public notice inviting suggestions, the NDMC had pointed to an alleged need to ease up traffic congestion. And this writer wrote to the civic body on December 29 last year with the following objections and suggestions.
Recognised heritage
Sunehri Bagh Masjid is recognised heritage – it belongs to the Mughal Era and is a Grade III heritage building. India has prided itself on its heritage conservation and has reaped great economic and cultural benefits from its heritage sites. UNESCO has recognised 42 world heritage sites in India, 34 of which are cultural and three of which – Qutub Minar Complex, Red Fort and the Humayun’s Tomb – are in Delhi.
Moreover, India is a signatory to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972 and demolishing a Mughal Era Mosque that shares its period and construction with our world heritage sites would be a matter of great shame for India in the international forum. It will be a significant and adverse deviation from our culture of preservation and promotion of heritage – both built and unbuilt.
Colonised usually don’t demolish what even coloniser saved
The Sunehri Bagh Masjid is a living site of medieval history that even the British recognised. Much before its official recognition as a Grade III heritage building in 2009, the mosque has lived through histories of colonial occupation, the building of the imperial city of New Delhi by Edwin Lutyens and has been a site of history in India’s anti-colonial struggle.
This story was originally published in newslaundry.com. Read the full story here .