Mecca Masjid: a socio-political, religious and anti-colonial sanctuary Premium

Mecca Masjid: Historical mosque in India, pivotal in socio-political and religious affairs, hosting influential public meetings.

For centuries, the Mecca Masjid, with its lofty 75-foot ceiling, sprawling courtyard, and the canopy under which members of the Asafiya dynasty are buried, has borne witness to the shifting tides of socio-political fortunes. One of the largest mosques in India, it has long served as a socio-political and religious centre. In the princely State of Hyderabad, the masjid played a pivotal role as a platform advocating the country’s freedom from British colonial rule, culminating in the Turrabaz Khan-led attack on the British Residency. Post-1948, following the annexation of Hyderabad and its subsequent merger with the Indian Union, it remained a crucial space for affirming the political agency of Hyderabad’s Muslims. It sought to instil confidence among them through Youm-ul-Quran, a series of public meetings held on every Friday during Ramzan.

The year was 1958. Nearly a decade after Operation Polo, Abdul Wahed Owaisi, a lawyer, took over the reins of the Ittehadul Muslimeen. Dubbed a revival, and later, foundation, of the Majlis, Owaisi transformed the organisation into an entity that actively participated in electoral politics, and aligned itself with constitutional principles. It was during this period that Youm-ul-Quran at the Mecca Masjid began to take shape.

“The idea was to give Muslims the confidence they lacked, as they were still feeling the effects Police Action (meaning Operation Polo),” says Syed Ahmed Pasha Qadri, general secretary of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, and a former legislator from Charminar and Yakutpura. “Muslims at that time were anxious and afraid. Abdul Wahed Owaisi, father of Salahuddin Owaisi, used the Quran and Hadith (traditions of Prophet Muhammad) to explain what to do in the current context. And to tell people that the Constitution grants us the rights of equal, respectable citizens of India. Now, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi continues this tradition,” he says.

At the time, the Mecca Masjid was under the administration of the Endowments Department. It was only in the 1990s that the Minorities Welfare Department took over its maintenance and administration.

“All Jalsa Youm-ul-Quran meetings are organised only after obtaining permission from the authorities,” Mr Qadri explains.

For over six decades, speeches have been delivered from a white marble-clad a mimbar, a stepped platform, before thousands who gather under a pandal installed in the courtyard.

With changing times came political dissent. Aman Ullah Khan, a prominent leader of the AIMIM, fell out with party supremo and then-Hyderabad parliamentarian Salahuddin Owaisi. Breaking away, he formed the Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT), contested from the Chandrayangutta Assembly segment, and won. With this, he too staked claim to a speaker’s slot at Youm-ul-Quran on behalf of his party.