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Tensions remain high in the central Indian city of Ujjain after authorities partially demolished a prominent mosque to widen a road ahead of a major Hindu pilgrimage festival, with Muslim residents saying they were forced to take down parts of the structure with their own hands to prevent an outright razing.
The dispute centres on the Shahi Mosque in Ujjain's Chhatri Chowk area, roughly 200 kilometres (124 miles) from Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state. The state has been governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2003, apart from a brief 15-month stint by the opposition Congress.
According to Zeeshan Khan, a 30-year-old digital marketing entrepreneur who joined protests outside the mosque, the controversy began about two months ago when the Ujjain Municipal Corporation issued a notice stating the mosque would have to be acquired because the road needed widening. The government's stated objective is to clear and expand the route for the Simhastha Kumbh Mela, a Hindu pilgrimage held every 12 years on the banks of the Kshipra River, with the next edition scheduled for 2028.
Khan told Al Jazeera that municipal authorities initially set a September 10 deadline for the community to "remove the structure ourselves," warning that the government would otherwise take strict action. The notice sparked alarm among Ujjain's Muslim population, who feared a repeat of demolitions seen elsewhere in BJP-governed states.
Those fears were not unfounded. Hundreds of Muslim religious sites, including mosques, shrines, graveyards and madrasas, have been partially or fully demolished by authorities in several BJP-ruled states in recent years, often under the cover of darkness. In numerous instances, the demolitions proceeded even while legal challenges remained pending in courts. The BJP has consistently been accused of waging a deliberate campaign against Muslim religious structures, claiming they were either illegally constructed or built atop former Hindu temples.
A petition filed by members of the Muslim community before the local High Court, seeking to halt the demolition, was dismissed. According to Khan, the court accepted the government's argument that the 2028 pilgrimage would draw large crowds from outside the region and that public interest in managing traffic had to take precedence. "Their argument was that a lot of people would be coming from outside and that the public should not face problems," Khan said. "So public interest had to come first."
Following the court's rejection, the mosque management entered several rounds of negotiations with district authorities. Those talks yielded a partial concession: officials agreed to reduce the required clearance from more than seven feet of the structure to three feet from the street. Despite this, anxiety persisted within the community about a possible nighttime demolition.
On Sunday night, as the administration moved bulldozers near the mosque, thousands of people gathered at Chhatri Chowk to prevent what they believed was an imminent demolition. Authorities later claimed that AI-generated social media posts by some Muslim men had spread rumours that the mosque was about to be torn down, triggering the night-long demonstration. Khan, however, described the gathering as a spontaneous response to a credible threat. "The administration blocked the area and told the community: 'Either you demolish the mosque yourselves, or we will demolish it,'" he said. Khan added that he had not slept properly for three consecutive nights since the vigil began.
Tensions escalated sharply on Monday morning when police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters. Media reports indicate that demonstrators threw stones at police, who responded with a baton charge. At least a dozen people were injured in the clashes, and several men were arrested. Images from the scene showed police officers attacking demonstrators near the mosque, underscoring the volatility of the situation.
Fearing that bulldozers would move in and level the entire structure, the mosque committee ultimately agreed to remove part of it voluntarily. Dozens of Muslim men began dismantling the platform alongside the mosque using hammers and rods. "We demolished it with our own hands," Khan said. "It hurts us deeply." On Tuesday, authorities proceeded to remove part of the mosque's minaret, though Khan noted that no demolition work had yet begun inside the main prayer hall.
The Ujjain district administration has since sealed off the area around the Shahi Mosque and deployed heavy security personnel to maintain order. The city remains on edge, with a significant police presence visible in the Chhatri Chowk neighbourhood where the mosque stands.
The unrest in Ujjain has reverberated beyond Madhya Pradesh. On Tuesday, a Muslim organisation held a protest in the national capital against what it described as continued action and demolition targeting mosques and places of worship. The demonstration, organised by the Monitoring Committee of Indian Muslims, drew participants including several Muslim parliamentarians, signalling that the issue has become a focal point for broader concerns about the treatment of religious minorities in India.
The Ujjain episode reflects a wider pattern that has alarmed rights groups and Muslim communities across the country. In recent years, numerous mosques and other Islamic structures have faced demolition or acquisition orders, frequently justified on grounds of illegal construction or road-widening for infrastructure projects. Critics argue that such actions disproportionately target Muslim sites and are often carried out with undue haste, sometimes before legal proceedings conclude.
For the residents of Ujjain, the partial demolition of the Shahi Mosque represents both a material loss and a profound emotional wound. The sight of community members dismantling their own place of worship to forestall a more sweeping destruction has become a symbol of the pressure many Indian Muslims say they face in an increasingly polarised environment. As the city remains under heavy security and the mosque's minaret stands partially removed, the underlying tensions showed little sign of abating.
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