Latest news with #SreeNarayanaManavaDharmamTrust
Indian Express
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
‘We do not identify as Hindu… no stake in Waqf issue but fighting in SC for Muslims': Founder of Kerala trust
Kerala-based Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act. The trust, which propagates the teachings of social reformer Sree Narayana Guru, has said the changes to the Waqf Act 'threaten the very existence of the Muslim community in India'. Founder-chairperson of the trust and former director of the National Judicial Academy Dr G Mohan Gopal speaks to The Indian Express about the Waqf Act and their decision to go to the Supreme Court, among other issues. Excerpts: Firstly, we reject the Hindu label and do not identify ourselves as a Hindu trust. We follow the principles of Sree Narayana Guru, who advocated one caste, one religion and one God. He had rejected the concept of Hinduism as a religion. Our trust, which was founded in 2023, should be seen as the voice of the Sree Narayana community in Kerala. We are against projecting Guru as a Hindu figure. *So are you against the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, seen to be the most powerful outfit of the Sree Narayana (Ezhava) community in Kerala? We are not against any organisation. A section of the SNDP Yogam has gone against the Guru's teachings and embraced Hinduism. However, many members still follow his teachings. We are a clarifying force rather than a corrective one, and are getting people to reach the Guru directly instead of depending on interpretations. We are conducting programmes to ensure this happens, and social peace and harmony prevails. As a trust, we do not have any stake in the issue, but we are fighting for the cause of Muslims. Many people have appreciated us, but those who want to polarise society and isolate minorities are not happy. The amendment has abolished the very mechanism of Waqf and replaced it with a State system. It violates four features laid down by the Prophet. By handing over the administration to non-Muslims, it is breaking the laid-down foundation that Waqf must be administered in accordance with Muslim traditions. The Act tampers with the fundamentals of the Waqf system and will destroy the system which was put in place to look after poor Muslims. The Act imposes several restrictions on the creation of Waqf, impacting the flow of funds. The creation of Waqf is not possible verbally and needs to be done only through deeds. Dedication of property is vital for Waqf. Besides, the definition set by the government is so wide (as to) enable any government or its organisation to stake claim on a property. A district collector can now walk into any property… The matter of indiscriminate powers to the Waqf boards is a separate issue. The effects will be felt in 20 years. Muslim institutions will start feeling the paucity of funds. There may not be enough money to even run a madarsa. When there is not enough money to run religious institutions, the existence of the religion will be in trouble. … It is a big risk. You are attacking the viability of religious institutions and therefore the financial viability of a religion. To practise religion, one needs financial resources. Cutting of financial resources means suffocating the practice of religion. People are not going to accept it. Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. It is an issue of facts and there is a mechanism to determine facts. If a Waqf board decision is wrong, there is a remedy in the Waqf tribunal, over which the High Court has jurisdiction. Munambam is not in the larger scheme of things. It is being used to create Islamophobia. How many temples have (similar) land disputes? However, these disputes have never been used to target a community. The Munambam land row is being used to attack Muslims.
Mint
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Kerala Hindu body moves SC against Waqf Act - ‘threatens the very existence of the Muslim community'
A Kerala-based Hindu organisation, has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, arguing that the law threatens the very existence of the Muslim community in India, legal news website Bar and Bench reported. The organisation, Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust, established in 2023 to study and dissemination of the values and teachings of the sage and philosopher Sree Narayana Guru, has sought to intervene in the batch of petitions challenging the provisions of the amended Waqf law. "Given the teaching of Sree Narayana Guru about the inter-dependent nature of the well-being of all persons and communities, the 'Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust' cannot be an idle spectator to the devastating impact of the impugned Act taken as a whole on the Muslim community of India and to social justice in our country," it has told the top court, Bar and Bench, reported. On 5 May, Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna bowed out of the Waqf law case, with four working days left in his tenure ahead of retirement on May 13, saying he did not want to reserve or pass any interim orders. The hearing on Waqf petitions will has been listed before a bench headed by justice Bhushan R Gavai on 15 May. The Centre has filed its 1,332-page preliminary affidavit in the Supreme Court seeking dismissal of petitions, pointing out a "mischievous false narrative" surrounding certain provisions of the law. On 17 April, the SC granted the Centre a week's time to file a response to the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the controversial law. The government then assured the apex court that it would neither denotify waqf properties, including "waqf by user", nor make any appointments to the Central Waqf Council and boards till 5 May. "The impugned Act explicitly but erroneously treats the Waqf mechanism as a non- religious institution, thus deleting in its entirety the body of Islamic law as the basic governing law of Waqf, replacing Islamic law with the law laid down by the Impugned Act," the application by Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust says. It argues that the amended law imposes on the entire Muslim community of the country "an unconstitutional sui generis state-designed and state-imposed scheme" for controlling charitable donations by Muslims. "The Impugned Act is un ultra vires because the Parliament has no power to impose such a scheme on any section of the people and is therefore a fraud on the Constitution. This sui generis state-designed and state-imposed scheme violates the constitutional rights of the Muslim community under Articles 21, 25, 26 and 29(1)," the plea adds. The petition has also argued that Muslim community will be left without the economic and financial wherewithal to sustain the practice of their religion as a result of the government takeover of the Waqf mechanism. "The Impugned Act thus threatens the very existence of the Muslim community in India which depends for its survival on the Waqf mechanism which has been for centuries, and continues to be, the most important source of economic and financial resources essential for the practice and survival of Islam in India. As the Impugned Act will liquidate the economic and financial foundations of the Muslim community," the plea states. The top court recently refused to entertain any fresh plea against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, saying it had already been made clear that the court would hear only five of the over 70 litigants on the issue. The Centre notified the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 last month after it got President Droupadi Murmu's assent on April 5. The Impugned Act threatens the very existence of the Muslim community in India which depends for its survival on the Waqf mechanism. The top court recently refused to entertain any fresh plea against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, saying it had already been made clear that the court would hear only five of the over 70 litigants on the issue. The Centre notified the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 last month after it got President Droupadi Murmu's assent on April 5. First Published: 5 May 2025, 05:21 PM IST
